Loot and New Content

Back in the Olden Days, when we had to walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways, the only way to get awesome loot in WoW was to run Molten Core. If you didn't have 36+ friends that were all well-geared, attentive, and competent, your only chance at purples was world drops and auction housing. You could run UBRS or Strat or Scholo if you wanted to, but there wasn't really much reason; there were some nice pieces in there but gear in MC was far better. Yet you couldn't progress in MC but once a week, and you needed to be well-geared, attentive, and competent yourself.

Nowadays, loot is cake. All you need in 9 friends, and there's no trash to fight through so you don't even need a multi-hour commitment.

Better

Is the current system better? Well, what does 'better' mean? It's easier to get loot. You don't need the social structure now that was needed then. 10-mans are easier to organize than 40-mans, it's harder for a player to go AFK, it's easier to get into a guild that has 10 people that can raid on the same night at the same time, and more. The barrier to loot is lower, in that more people will be able to get this group together. Is that better?

You don't need to progress through MC then BWL then AQ20 to get to AQ40; now, run some heroics, build up some purples, then jump into a 10-man ToC group. Or, heck, some heroic 5-mans drop competitive purples. A new 10-man guild can move on to 10-man ToC fairly quickly, and then find a 25-man PUG. The time between hitting end-level and raiding the final dungeon is much lower. Is that better?

One of the reasons that initiation rituals remain in fraternities is that it makes admission to the group that much harder and stressful. We value that which was difficult to obtain. Downing Ragnaros was a serious effin task, especially before BWL was released. It was a badge of honor.

Where is that badge now? Is that relevant? Compared to 2005, nowadays many more people are seeing more content and improving their gear, without getting frustrated by organizational hurdles. Because more people get there, it's less exclusive.

Who Cares?

It doesn't seem to matter. If more people are getting more phat lewt, they're happier and having more fun. I might complain about more people reaching the "elite" end-game ranks -- but there's still a time factor. What distinguishes the top elite from the next group is when they achieved the rank, not if they got to that final boss.

I've talked to players doing 10-man normal ToC and they consider themselves up in the elite. They're very happy with their progression. They know they're not doing hard-mode, much less the 25-man version, but that doesn't seem to be a big deal. At least they're not stuck!

There were tons of players back in the first year of WoW that wanted to do MC, but couldn't, because they weren't in "the right guild." Even in that guild some players got left on the sidelines because their gear wasn't good enough. Now, those guys have somewhere to go. They're not stuck pugging MC and wiping on the first giant; they can do 5-man and 10-man content that continues to give them better loot.

Bias

I want to sit and bitch about how easy kids have it these days, but that just biases me against the current model. What makes a game fun is perceived mastery, and WoW has that.

The WoW end-game is loot acquisition, and as long as players are getting better loot, they are mastering the game.

Lessons

Progression is important. Really, that's it. Players like challenge but not because of the cost of failure. They want to succeed, and look back, and say "I overcame that." As long as players continue to progress, they'll have fun, be happy, and continue to pay.