Article from yesterday: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/pantheon_rise_of_the_fallen/b/pc/archive/2016/03/17/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen-brings-new-twists-to-the-classic-mmorpg.aspx
Really does sound like they're trying to go back to an EQish style of gameplay with a focus more on exploration instead of following exclamation marks. A couple quotes from the article:
Combat includes classic concepts – pulling packs of monsters to your group, hoping they don't alert allies, and taking on big bosses with classic core classes like clerics and warriors.
But there's also a heavy focus on exploring the world around you, and not with any guidance from quests, but more of that "if you see it you can go there" style of discovery. Something looming in the distance like a tower or a castle may provide a point of interest for you to wander and investigate, and while questing is certainly in the game, it's handled in a fashion that's far from the "pick up quest from NPC. Go to this marked location on the minimap.
So while you'll still probably be getting clues about where to go and what to do from the local taverns that inhabit the world, don't expect to see any exclamation points, shimmering trails, or blinking minimap lights, as you're more meant to be guided by your own intuition toward new strands of story.
Not sure about this bit: Dry deserts, cursed ruins, and many other backdrops can kill you if you lack the proper artifacts to enter, but they may also spur players to come up with interesting solutions to these potentially dangerous points of interest.