One of the biggest things about DragonRealms and Gemstone was the system of central gathering points. You wanted to have people socialize, so certain draws existed to prod people into a certain sort of area.
So yeah, hunting. There is field experience in both DragonRealms and Gemstone, and when you fill up you really ought to go back to town and rest, because if you overfill you lose learning efficiency. Also, you have encumberence. If you skin a few dozen cougars and pick up trapped and disarmed treasure chests from humanoids and pick up coins and gems that are dropped, the weight starts to add up and makes it harder for you to fight, so you have to go back to town.
After a bit of hunting you have to clean and sell your skins, you have to find a Trader to sell your gems for you, you have to find a quiet spot to open your boxes (or find someone to do it for you) and you have to go to the bank and deposit your earnings. And of course, any wounds you picked up while hunting you have to tend to. If you're bleeding you can use herbs and first aid to stop it, but you'll still need basic cleaning at Empaths because it will make it harder to fight, hide, move, etc if you're all banged up, even though you aren't slowly bleeding to death anymore.
Players have different skills and abilities, and each different ability has usefulness that drives players of different types to find each other. Rangers, for example (and their Urban brothers too *winks*) are the folks to go to if you need herbs foraged, or boxes popped, assuming you aren't skilled in that yourself. Empaths are the healers, huge demand from everyone, and they can do Shifting to alter your physical appearance. Clerics are the favor savors, and they make death a lot less annoying. Traders have the cool stuff, so head on down to the bazaar. Moonies can moongate you, and can enchant well. Barbs tend to be good smiths, go find yourself some nice weapons or armoring. War Magi are a bit less in demand, but they've got water balloons and snowballs (fun!) and some enchanting and can fight like anything. Bards are just damn fine company, and lots of fun and drinks. And Paladins are just kinda there. *grins evilly* Sorry Pallies.
Anywho, it's this kind of interactive service trading that helps keep people together and socializing. I love going to the bazaar, or the Empath's guild, or the Bard's guild, or the bank, and stumbling across good friends and good times. You also make new friends when you go to these gathering places. You meet a new Trader who specializes in neat pants, or some Bard you don't know makes you laugh yourself silly with a song, or a Moonie locates someone for you, or whatever, and viola, you've become an acquaintance. Then you come back to them and you remember each other from before and perhaps chat and introduce friends and maybe your friends already know the person and it all snowballs.
~Dune~