Quote Originally Posted by Velhart View Post
Like someone said, WoW caught lightning in a bottle. They found the balance of casual play and hardcore play. Making it so you can gather your Valor Points anytime of the week, you just had a weekly cap instead of the old way of getting 120 a day if you were on everyday. It catered to casuals because instead of feeling forced to be on everyday, you could get whatever you wanted done on the weekend and still make the same progress as a hardcore. Of course, ultimately hardcores succeeded over casuals with hard mode raids.
Let's not forget class balance as well. Being able to do the content as any class/job you want and still being useful was a huge boost for raiding. Players are happier when they can play the role and spec they want over being forced into what used to be known as a "raiding spec" back in TBC.