On the other hand i wouldn’t say that Classic wow quests were ideal. Blizzard since then has much improved on the quest objectives themself, even though those are just a variation on kill stuff/collect stuff. My biggest gripe (noticed it recently when leveling various alts) is that there are gaps in certain level ranges! I’m forced to go to areas i don’t enjoy that much, only because there’s not enough quests in the one i like (it’s especially noticable when you don’t use any heirloom items and level up only via quests). When i was playing in vanilla WoW, the leveling up process was much more lengthy (IMO, much more enjoyable), cause you didn’t only rush for last level… well, you did, but you did pretty much every instance you could come by, change leveling areas more frequently, it all fit the slower XP gain perfectly. Now, when you can’t moderate your leveling progress you blaze through areas, and those XP “gaps” are far more noticable. I usually ended up in Wetlands or Redridge Mountains after being done with all quests and being unable to do anything else then… grind mobs or switch areas, since i was too low leveled to do “higher tier” quests in that areas.

It’s not a big issue, since blizzard’s goal seems to be making leveling up new characters a completely new expirience in cataclysm, so we can expect better planned out Quests, XP progress, Hopefully Quest rewards (lets face it, in vanilla most of quest rewards were crap. Maybe items lost most of personality when you got lots too choose from, but at least you don’t end up doing a quest as a mage which only grants you plate boots as a reward) and many more. Also, put some life back into barren areas like Silverpine forest, which has scarce quests, so rarely people go there, since Barrens got so much more to offer!

If they make things more organised, put in some involving stories, who knows? Leveling might be even more enjoyable then ever – especially on 1-60 range.

Well, 2 more things for my wall of text.
1. I wish they added some low level instances! It seems that Blizzard has completely forgotten about those. I know, real fun starts after lvl 80, but i had lots of fun doing lower level dungeons too. Maybe they not fit in the current formula (well, hopefully not, i don’t want more AoE fests again), but it’s still an enjoyable expirience. As i said, give some drops that everyone can use, Make bosses more then Elites with different names and we got ourselves a lovely treat. And new low level places would be even more fun. On the other hand, random instance tool makes going to low level place so mechanic that it’s defying the purpose. Attunements for low-level dungeons? I dunno, going to those instances now is completely different then how those were done in the past. I blame the massive nerfing for scrubs…

2. Well, another gripe i’ll have with reachable higher levels is the uneven gear progress… It feels wierd each time, when you reach Outlands that you get so awesome items, after the crap you had in 1-58 range, and same when you hit northrend. And now, when ppl were raiding ICC for sooooo long, working for their epics, bam! New expansion comes out, Green is new Purple. Don’t get me wrong, i don’t care if my gear gets dated, and i go back to wearing greens, but still, we’re getting 3rd expansion and we got the same thing, no smooth flow, it all feels chopped up. At least i don’t get the feeling of smooth progression, i always think in terms “ok, now to outlands, 10 levels there, and northrend time for 12 more levels”. Not like it’s the smooth progress of storyline or anything, just more like a chore. I know that blizzard doesn’t have in their interest to make all smooth again, with all raids up to level 85, each instance having heroic mode for lvl 85, so you just enjoy the flow, and at the end get lots to choose from to gear up and get raiding. But it’s annoying when you feel the cracks in the WoW entirety.

/exhale
Uff, sorry for really really big wall of badly written text, but had to give my 2 cents on that matter
Cheers,
Boz.