WoW actually made their way into the market on the warcraft name bringing people in AND the strong point was also that it is "casual friendly" while still rewarding the hardcore. I played both styles and quit mid-way into AQ as being in a top 3 guild on the server, being the main hunter blah blah. I was hardcore when I quit, came back casual... quit came back with BC played around a little and quit.
It is definitely the most solo-friendly game out there as far as risk vs rewards goes IMO. I loved EQ1 though, it was my first MMO and it brought a challenge like no other. Traveling was harder, there was an actual penalty for death besides time lost running back, and you had to fight your way back or get a res (and as a cleric, the ressurection business was good). It was definitely not for the faint of heart and didn't really offer much in the way of casuals. But as a necro/bard and later on in the game mage or shaman, you could solo efficiently to earn money to buy the items you wanted since you could aquire very nice items that could be traded.
Actually I just started playing Vanguard, and although its rep isn't that great from the early release and all the bugs, I like it. Due to Mcquaid being the project leader(Director whatever you want to call it) on both, it has the same feel, but with better graphics, better quests, nicer interface etc. It took some of the better things from newer MMOs and brought them into the EQ feel. There is still that death penalty but you won't lose a level, you will aquire exp debt, there is a couple new ways to go about a CR as far as exp return is concerned. The PvP isn't as great as WoW or DAoC and shadowbane WERE(not are), but what I do like about it over WoW is that the person just doesn't have to do a CR, they actually lose 15% of the coin they have on PvP servers... so the person actually suffers a loss if they lose in battle against another player. They also have a FFA PvP server which is great to keep people in check and not acting like assholes, I went with the Team PvP because I prefer the Realm vs Realm feel, but I like the FFA server idea as well.
The only bad thing towards the PvP in terms of it evolving is the game is like EQ1, 80% PvE subs and probably 20% PvP if that. The game's focus is also mainly PvE like EQ1, so they are going to concentrate on fixing and adding PvE content before PvP. I don't believe they are alloted to funds to have the proper size team to devote a good group to strictly PvP content from what I can understand, but thats just hearsay.
The good thing for the carebears is they claim that they will balance the PvP combat outside of PvE, so if they decide a class is too powerful solely in PvP and not PvE as well they might scale an ability against other players but not against mobs.
So if you like EQ1 maybe you should give vanguard a try, the gameplay is very similiar with a few things added in. It will require a decent machine to play it on though. So far I have no problems with my aging Athlon 3700+, 1gb ram, x850xt... on what I'd call the lower end of medium settings and the graphics are still a delight. I do plan on upgrading within a couple of months though so I can play these newer games on higher settings, but If you have something near the RECOMMENDED (not required) hardware you should be just fine. Just make sure to get all the latest drivers/ dx etc.