I think you could also use dynamic quests (quests is where we get our exp, monsters will be little to none in ARR).

So if the quest sees you haven't explored an area it will choose a new area or may choose a less populated area if such thing happens.

Exploring you dont have a choice not to do :P lol

More or less what WoW did, it was quite effective (after finishing a zones quests you had almost if not all of the zone discovered).