Originally Posted by Jaxtrasi
Let me put it this way. If in 2.4, rather than adding Sunwell Plateau, they went back and upgraded the loot in SSC and TK to Tier 6.5, and the loot in BT and Hyjal to Tier 7, would that be grand? That's what they're doing for 5-man, on the whole.
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This is what Jaxtrasi is getting at and what I think a lot of people are missing. Imagine if there was no SW25 in 2.4, just better drops in BT/HYJ. That is, you will get gear upgrades, but no new content to use it on. That is what the situation is like for non raiders at the moment - they are getting plenty of gear upgrades, but nothing new to use it on. I consider this will be a factor that will eventually push me away from the game; I don't want to raid next expansion as it's simply too time consuming. I do however still want to play the game, albeit as a game rather then a second job in terms of hours required. That leaves me with solo/5 man PvE and PvP.
New 5 man dungeons are basically non existant once you clear those offered with release so PvE will offer no new content. PvP is much the same - while it is not scripted to the extent PvE is the fact remains that you are still fighting against the same classes with the same abilities in the same battlegrounds/arenas you have had access to for the last 12 months. Nothing new. Under the current model PvP will offer the best progression path in terms of cutting edge loot but at the end of the day the content will not change from patch to patch. If Blizzard do release an expansion after WotLK I will probably have left the game before it's release due to lack of new content unless things are changed.
That said though, what incentive do Blizzard have for improving the game for non raiders (10 or 25 man)? Subscriptions are going up, not down. Either non raiders are generally happy enough with the game to keep playing it, or (more likely) the game is attractive enough to draw more new subscribers then the amount of people leaving the game. In either case profits are increasing which means they are doing well enough from a business perspective to keep going as is.