Amathal

I agree with some of what you said, but I think I disagree in how you have the "easy" and "hard" modes laid out.

Hard mode I envision as simply being what the game was at release. Gruul pre nerfs, Magtheridon pre nerfs, SSC pre nefts, ect. This is the "difficulty" that progressing guild would want to go for to get the best loot and the reputation as being one of the best guilds around.

Easy mode would be, well, easier. The loot would have to be a much lower level, as I see easy mode (ha, funny to say that) being just a way for the "masses" to see the content. Tune easy T5 and T6 content to drop slightly higher than Karazhan gear, and be just above Karazhan difficulty. This form would have to come out much later, for example, after x number of guilds have killed Vashj (worldwide?), easy difficulty SSC opens up with some sort of small attunement (Kill Warlord Kalithresh on Heroic for SSC, kill Harbringer Skyriss on Heroic for TK, something like that). This would prevent guilds from just doing it on easy from the start to see the content and quiting. You could go as far to say push this difficulty until near the release of an expansion. For example, before WotLK comes out, make easy difficulties so people can at least experience the content before everyone rushes to 80 and nobody ever goes back.

The reason I would suggest this is because you still get the competition to be best, but those that cannot be in a hardcore guild (also known as good guilds) can still see the content. Much like killing Shade of Aran today is no big deal, neither would killing Shade of Akama on easy difficulty. This is appealing to me because I know that I will never be able to kill Illidan as the game is set up right now. My play time is simply too erratic from school and other outside obligations, so I end up playing multiple characters. None of the guilds in Black Temple on my server want a warrior in almost all blues, as surprising as that sounds :P