Warcraft has a generally sensible difficulty curve. It starts out easy and slowly grows tougher, albeit its maximum difficulty is not particularly great except in a few very specific areas. For the most part Blizzard does not want an overly difficult game; players who quit in frustration represent lost revenue. Content that proves difficult is almost invariably made easier, such as the original walled version of "Andorhol" which was quickly removed due to complaints as well as the original versions of both Stratholme and Scholomance, both of which were heavily nerfed. For the most part "WoW classic" gets the easymode versions from the start, further increasing the perception of Warcraft as an easy game overall. Forgotten is that Warcraft does actually have a minimum "floor" and it is difficult for outright terrible or AFK players to get very far.
EQ's difficulty is certainly there--but it's all out of whack, with the high-end being generally the easiest and safest part of the game. The lack of instancing makes difficulty hard to enforce. Some newbie trying to brave the depths of Blackburrow risks all of what little he has with a high chance of meeting a quick and bad end. At the other end of the game, legions of lazy coattail-riders AFK their way to victory whilst tabbed out watching YouTube because the game allows guilds to "zerg" down content with many times the number of players the content is designed for. Difficulty is there even at the "end" of EQ--but players have to actively seek it. Many don't. EQ allows for a lot of space for player growth and for pushing the limit but most of the best players will hang out solo or duo/trio and not really be seen all that much for anyone to notice them unless they like making videos.
I don't necessarily call EQ a hard game, but I call it a game that has a much less consistent difficulty level than what Warcraft offers. EQ can be either harder or easier than Warcraft depending on the motivation or timidity of the player in question.
Danth
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