[SirAlvarex]

Although I haven't played WoW/Cataclysm, I played EQ2 through the Shadow Odyssey expansion pack. Shadow Odyssey did the same thing to EQ2, give new dungeons that could *not* just be tanked & spanked out of the gate, therefore catering to the hardcore crowd.

After awhile, lots of the casual players left the less populated servers. But, on some servers, the population was more than adequate.

Then with the latest expansion, EQ2 went back to the Casual play, with each dungeon being pretty much doable with quested gear. The game is pretty much dead now.

My point? Going from a casual -> hardcore is fine. As is, but less so, going hardcore -> casual. However, going casual -> hardcore -> casual -> who the fuck knows will kill the player base and eventually the game..