Bird droppings

The "once you hit (max level), you min/max for raids and shit" is something that Blizzard has been slowly working to get away from. They realized that they were creating 95% of the content for 5% of the player base, and in Burning Crusade they started to get away from that, eventually getting to the Heroic/badge system they have in Wrath. Now the most casual players are only one or two patches behind the hardcore players on "endgame" content (You'll see Naxx and Ulduar pick-up groups now) and the 5-man dungeons are finally starting to have a truly epic feel. You are just now mid-way through Burning Crusade. Once you get to Northrend, you'll find the entire gameplay revamped, including events where you interact and fight against or alongside major lore characters. Once you hit 80, you just have to get a full group together to go through all 3 Icecrown instances in one go. This in particular -- but really all of Northrend -- is a non-stop thrill ride and really feels like you're affecting the world of Warcraft.