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One of WoW's biggest problems is, IMO, the great difference in gameplay and advancement between playing levels 1-59 and being level 60. A player of any class could get to 60 with little difficulty without ever grouping with another player. Priests can spec shadow, druids feral, pallies retribution, etc. Everyone has a viable advancement path that lets them play HOWEVER they want. Wanna run instances nonstop with a group of 5? Go ahead. Wanna build a duo and quest together with your significant other? Have at it! WoW pre-60 has many character advancement paths available, and thats what makes it so accessable. Until you hit 60.

Then its raid, grind reputation, or grind pvp. In other words, catass or you're excluded. What really makes this whole situation ridiculous is that none of these advancement paths are valid pre-60. The game changes completely. There are 0 instances pre-60 that require a raid force to complete, its nearly impossible to get any decent gear out of PVP til you're in the 50s, and the only faction that you encounter and COULD grind rep with before the endgame is the un-itemized, rogue only one in Hillsbrad.

Compare this to EQ2, which also has a fairly raid-heavy endgame. But a) this is what people expect, from a seque to Everquest, the originator of catass raiding, and b) this playstyle is supported THROUGHOUT ALL LEVELS! There are level 25 raid mobs in both Commonlands and Antonica, a raid instance in each of them (Bloodskull Valley and Firemist Gulley), and those are just the two 10-20 zones. The amount of mid level raid content makes it clear that there's going to be some raiding at the endgame.

But in WoW, this is a surprise sprung on 5 million unsuspecting players, and I imagine they'll start talking with their wallets instead of just mouthing off on the forums if something isn't done relatively soon.