I find it a success in that it made the end-game content accessable to a wider audience than the hardcore raiders, but it's also a failure in the way that it didn't have as much to the endgame that the Burning Crusade did.

In TBC, I remember being a level 70 and thinking that the level 70 five-player instances were tough (Arcatraz, Shadow Labyrinth, Shattered Halls, Steamvault), and I thought that only insane players would do them on Heroic mode.  Even then, you had to grind different reputations to Revered to even get the keys to try anything on Heroic mode.

Nowadays, it seems you can just step off the boat and into any Heroic of your choice.

The success of the OS easy and hard modes being put into Ulduar will be nice, but I think there should be more to strive for than just defeating the same boss in a harder fight.  It seems that we've hit the ceiling of the game too early.  I'm hoping Ulduar will keep us busy enough until patch 3.2 (?) and 3.3 (Icecrown) come out, and I hope they will offer some more depth to the game.

For that matter, I'd like to see attunement quest chains come back.

Skel, I think you are blinded by the fact that you are now in a very successful "social raiding guild". The fact is, there are mediocre guilds everywhere that are still at the same level they were on karazan. In fact I was in a run the other day with such guild, and I wanted to cry my way out of the run. I agree that the progression of each individual is easier now (and that all tanks are required to AoE pull everything) and that might be the only reason why all heroics are farmable nowadays, cause people are geared better. (Arc, SLabs, SH, SV were not that difficult with a group in full tier gear either)

Ama

Hail Gypsies!

So far i think LK has been a success, but also hard to compare completely as LK is still expanding content and BC is done.

Naxx is a great introduction as it's the Kara of LK and will allow peeps to plow there way through (much like Kara) getting gear while more difficult raids get introduced. The level 80 heroics are easy so that peeps can get gear and into Naxx where they will spend some time before progressing. It will keep them busy so to speak.

Ulduar will challenge not just gear, but the way you strategize and opens the door for a wide variety of strategies that may work. I love the way you can add difficulty in raids/instances now and makes you think more than you had to. I'm sure Blizz also doesn't want to create a "sunwell" too early to leave out most of the players. I remember when Sunwell came out and thinking: "who cares about gear as I know I'll most likely never see it"