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Although I didn't play Vanilla, as I said above. I've experienced this with the end of Wotlk and beginning of Cata. The introduction to group finder and the ability queue from anywhere for anything really ruined that experience. This caused the game's world to feel empty at least for me anyways.

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Yep. That’s definitely when I stopped being interested in playing as much. I wasn’t even that social a player (I was never in a guild), but I loved the feeling that I was in a virtual world full of people.

That crowd in the city, coupled with the worse trace options- back when mounts were for higher level players and were very expensive - made the actual quests feel a lot more remote.

Special mention to the griffins/hippogirffs. One of the greatest moments of joy I felt when I got on one the first time and could still look around as it flew.

I agree, late WotLK and Cata took a game that felt like a living breathing world and downgraded it to feeing like a game. The one click cross server dungeon queues and the Disneyland style on rails no detours questing are likely the primary culprits.

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