Sigh... I still remember my first time walking out of the gates of Felwithe (the high elf city) into the dark and forbidding forest of Greater Faydark armed only with a little dagger and my level 1 offensive magician spell. My first thought was, "wow... it looks like I could get lost really easy out there", then i saw my first bat up close and wondered how I was supposed to kill something that big. (Of course, that first orc pawn look like it was 8 ft tall with 4 inch fangs after it chewed me up lickety-split.) It took me a level or 3 before I'd willing get far enough away that I couldn't just turn around and see the guards.

Still, there's so much of EQ that lies just beneath the surface of the hack-n-slash mentality. Probably the biggest few components are quests that force you to travel and learn about the back story, dealing with other players and becoming known in the community, and dealing with the added dimension of guilds.