Actually later expansions still use factions, but they are not nearly as interesting as they used to be. First of all, they are usually dichotomous factions: 2 opposing tribes, if you kill one, the other goes up and vice versa. Not only that but often these 2 groups are found in the very same zone, making it even less interesting. You will usually find little evidence of the existence of such a faction even as close as the next zone.
Compared to old world factions, where like 3 factions would go up and 2 would go down, and these factions were part of an entangled web that would span the entire continent. Killing Orcs in Crushbone would alter your faction with the Indigo Brotherhood, a Dark Elf faction all the way in Neriak (Warriors?). Halflings, Ogres, Dark Elves, Goblins, Necromancers, Shadowknights, Bards all part of a web of factions. Rogue factions all over the world. I guess stuff like that is too much work to put in nowadays, probably because not enough people care. I think it is still one of the fun things in EQ though, one of the reasons I keep coming back, doing silly stuff like trying to get my Corrupt Guards Faction up for my Troll Beastlord.
They very recently made it so that you now actually can see how much a certain faction is going up or down, after killing an NPC or during a quest completion. Unfortunately it still does not say how far into that faction your character actually is. Has to do with the fact that faction in EQ is dependable on so many factors that apply to your character and its specific relation to the target.
Your Race(obviously), but also your class (SK), Religion, Buffs (Alliance from Enc) and off course also the race, class and religion of the faction-target. Stats even come into play: Heroic Cha gives a faction multiplier, if you have a lot of it.
