Oh, yeah. LDoN, my favorite. I called it "Fuck off, soloers."
I actually liked LDoN. It gave me the illusion that I was actually doing something constructive or at the very least immersive rather than just getting a pickup group for Hate or PoN or whatever. It had objectives and a time limit to the missions so that it felt more like a game and not just a pointless time sink for gold or loot or whatever. I just wish I could muster up the courage to play regularly again. EQ just feels sooooooo slooooooow and cumbersome compared to anything else out there now. I purchased Serpents Spine and about 20 minutes into it found myself wondering 'Why in the hell did I let myself get suckered in again?!'. If you haven't played it yet, you're a wise person. The main draw for me was the new race and area. I rolled up a Drakken (or whatever the hell their called) shadownight and went to town. Got some newbie quests to kill spiders, collect venom sacs, etc. Went to the newbie area to commence the beatings and lo and behold....the newbie area is about the equivalent of a small suburban back yard (at least the area that had things I could kill). And the monster spawns were incredibly few and far between. Hardly any players (I guess they're all still spooging on the regression...er...progression servers). Not my idea of a fun time. I sort've wish SOE would just take Ol' Paint out behind the barn and shoot him. It's sort've sad to see EQ hanging on like this. Somebody call Kevorkian.
I was drinking when I wrote this, so sue me if it goes astray.
I would be incredibly surprised if you found new characters in EQ1, even with a new expansion. I am sure the rest of the expansion is getting player attention but there is no reason for a new MMO gamer to pick EQ1. Even for EQ2, I expect current players will rollup Fae characters but quickly return to their mains.