A new precedent? Not so sure about that. RPGs have had obvious quest givers for a long time. It's not like Blizzard invented the concept of someone saying "Hey, I have this thing for you to do!"
Also, "dumbing it down" is not exactly the best way to describe it. I think it's kind of neat how Blizzard has made WoW accessible to everyone. There are still both "casual" and "hardcore" ways to play.
Want story? Luckily there is plenty of quest text, in-game story moments and cutscenes. Don't care about story? Skip the quest text, don't bother sticking around to see dialogue and story scenes and skip the extra cutscenes.
Want some quick dungeons with bosses that aren't terribly hard, but still fun? They got it! Looking for a challenge? Talk to the NPC in the dungeon or switch to Hard Mode.
I just like that WoW gives the player so much control over exactly what kind of experience they want to have. There are people who level solo, in groups, with pve, with pvp, or even without killing a single mob or player. FFXIV seems to be heading in a more open direction as well. I think people may be upset about it being more like WoW but as long as Square lets the player make a choice on how they want to play, everyone wins.
