I suppose that my addage the world is what you make it still applies. At least for me it does. I have a mage I'm trying to get up to speed and she doesn't power train. She goes out and uses the skills she wants to raise by killing one creature at a time, and when her pack is full she goes to the bank to make a deposit. It's taken her months (of only playing on part of each weekend) to get to 60.5 mysticism. I have a miner that is trying to raise her mining skills so she takes 3 pack mules and mines ore, fills the pack mules up, and goes back home to smelt the ore. Yes, I could get a fire beetle and smelt as I go but being a miner riding a large bright orange roach just doesn't fit into my image of what mining is. I have 6 characters, 4 which are on regularly who have skills they are trying to raise by doing their respective profession. We're in no hurry. When I hit those skill milestones, I will feel the same way I did in 1999 when my mage finally, after 2 years of scribing one scroll at a time, filling spellbooks and selling them, hit GM in inscription. I was by myself and grinning like a cheeshire cat.
I understand what people are saying. There are things I miss from a decade or more ago. There are things I DON'T miss from those days, some of those things listed by people above. I suppose my unsolicited advice is to take what we have with this unique game world and have fun with it.
*heads off to redo the roof garden with a new pond before heading out to Shame to gather armor for her sister to unravel - unless of course one of our friends drags us off to some dungeon to kill something that could potentially kill us first*
