Indeed. Not many new players will be attracted by these changes - partly because they will never hear about them, but also because if they weren't interested in playing before I see no reason why these changes would make them more interested.
What it will do is make some (many?) of the old hands leave, and getting them back will be hard. The guild leaders, the raid leaders, the people who create and maintain third-party sites (not that there are many of those left), too many of them will leave. In a popular, actively developed game this would be less of a problem - new people would soon replace those who left. In an old game like AoC that many people don't even know exists, each player leaving will be hard to replace, and the veteran players even more so.
It is a well-recognized fact in most businesses that it takes more effort and resources to attract new customers than it does to keep the old ones. Therefore it would be wise to not do things which are likely to drive off old customers unless one is really sure it will bring in enough new ones.