i think that's true now, but now always. it took more than time to be successful in EQ back in the day. gear was not always a substitute for truly knowing your class. blizz has taken a lot of the uncertainty out of the process through clear and class homogenization (i.e. virtually every class in a related archetype has similar CC, AoE, rezzing, etc.) and the result, as you mention, is a much broader player base. i'm still playing for the time being, but mostly because i have good friends in-game that keep things fun...

...but i've already re-upped on my WAR subscription and am fairly excited to see Mythic roll out the first wave of major content patches (a.k.a. "live expansion" whatever that means). i've already had more epic fun in Tor Anroc and other scenarios in the last couple of days than i can remember having in WoW for the past several months.