This is kind of a misnomer. Classic started with everything optimized to the last patch, which made all the previous raids much easier. Players also knew exactly what gear they needed for the next tier from the get-go, allowing them to target not only BiS for current raids but future ones as well.
Not disagreeing with the experience thing, just pointing out there were several other factors.
No, people were just bad at the game in 2004. Even during Classic launch, I was doing MC in a group of people from 58 - 60, and we were still able to clear it in about an hour (this was in the first month of launch), which was basically unheard of in Vanilla. I believe Naxx was even cleared by people using exclusively green gear as a form of "challenge mode". Normal Naxx runs did did a burn strat, taking advantage of all classes being able to output significantly higher DPS than was done during Vanilla and requiring fewer tanks, but most guilds not using the burn strat would use an 8 tank rotation (4 in, 4 waiting for tank stacks). Essentially, the problem isn't #somechanges, it's that people didn't understand the game back then.
Sylvanas didn't even win the popular vote, she was elected by an indirect election of representatives. #NotMyWarchief
You must not have played the game during the original Classic era. You would have to sit and eat after every single mob. You would get attacked by anything and everything that was hostile towards you from a great distance. It was very much harder then. They have made this game so much easier over the years due to a majority of the player base being casuals rather than hard-core raiders.
when all else fails, read the STICKIES.
Mythic players are way more than 0.1% of the player base. Today its more likely that you can swap the numbers and remove the dot, 10%.
In SoO 9000 guilds killed at least one boss on mythic. 22k on normal. We are closing in on half of the amount of normal players(41%ish). Which wasn't the case just a few years ago. In Tomb of Sargeras it was 9k vs 31k. Less than 30%. Going back in time, the raiders were even at even lower percentages simply because it had more players and more players are likely to have a bigger spread on what content they are playing.
If anything, blizzard should cater more to those who already play the game and has done for years, the raiders.
https://www.youtube.com/@DoffenGG
Gaming and WoW stuff
Everyone uses the word as they see fit, taking it too seriously only damages your braincells, for him, casual means low skilled content, without any actual logic behind it.
So someone playing only daily HC dungeons on 8 alts for 40 hours a week, is a casual, and the guy playing 5 hours clearing Mythic raid + his weekly Mythic Plus is a hardcore no-lifer.
Lovely logic eh?
Not sure why this is still even a debate.
Ion confirmed via interview that they focused on the top for too long and ignored casuals. He acknowledged it.
Now if he meant anything by it has yet to be seen but there's no point of even arguing when the lead GD says they ignored the vast majority of their players for competitive players.
I'm starting to wonder if it is because they have fragmented the game into too many micro versions. You have your normal raiders that will do Normal and Heroic, and that's about it. Then the top raiders representing a smaller subset doing Mythic. Now you have those that use to just run dungeons for Valor and to initially gear up by leveling and now stepping away from Raiding, because they can play with 4 of their friends and run Mythic +15 or higher for a challenge without the struggles of having people miss raid. You of course have the PvP crowd, and they have added a ton of world content to keep anyone busy. For any that like to play all aspects of the game, it is overwhelming. For myself not having a PC the first 3 weeks put me behind the rest of the people I would play with, add to that many being home working from Covid with hours more to play, I was never able to keep up. There wasn't a significant reward, or currency for doing Dungeons unless you were pushing High keys, and I always felt I was slowing done any groups from the first Mythic dungeons added to the game. If you cannot devote enough time in the week to do maintenance content to advance the story, devote time to doing the tower, the maw, etc. You just could not keep up. That's why I ended up where I am at. Wearing Green Quest gear I bought from the AH better than what I had from playing the expansion to date, upgrading from what ever the current flavor of the month expansion feature was added, only to find out when the next patch was dropped it all changed again. So here I am, logged into the game for less than an hour a week, sitting AFK in Sinfall. I have not gotten past the gate in the new zone, honestly have no desire to beat my head on the desk any longer.
TLDR; I think you are partially right in the added difficulty hurting the game, but I think it may be more of a problem that you can never complete it unless you are at the top level, There is not "WE beat it on Heroic" Awesome, high 5 great job everyone. Beating Heroic just means you now have to move on to Mythic, and I don't think the majority of those that raid have it in them any more. We are all getting older, and have careers, family, and the thoughts of spending 40 hours working a job, to come home to work 40 hours at a job that is supposed to give us enjoyment, just doesn't work any more.
This game is not designed for the top .01%. It's designed for the bottom 98%.
Everyone on the internet is a dishonest actor.