I remember the days when 2001 was totally empty save for the fishing house and a couple of those inns and stuff. You used to fish, meet a lot of new people that way, and money really wasn't as important as it is now. You could spend the entire day just walking around the map, and have FUN doing it. Nowadays, you can't even walk around the map without running into idiots and getting PMed to hell. Laggy and stupid useless NPCs like the railroad bog the server's funness down. Farming is retarded, and all other jobs you possibly want to do cost either lots of money or apples to make any true profit.
As far as Graal as a whole, the days were good when Kharlia and CrimeGraal were both up, and you could spend your day on Graal doing quests if you were a newbie, or go hang out in one of the playerworlds if you already finished all the stuff to do on classic. Hanging out in Scorpion's house was a favorite past-time. So was roleplaying on Kharlia. *sigh*
I miss the good ol' days.