I'm looking forward to Star Wars: The Old Republic the mmo from bioware, but I've been trolling the forums today and getting in nerd rage fights about all sorts of things, the idea of raiding and the divide between casuals an hardcore gamers.
With regards to SWTOR
It drives me nuts that people have so many misconceptions about raiding and the people who do it, as if we're some elite cadre of arrogant pricks, which is a pretty big stereotype within reason. When I was raiding in WoW I'm sure I snapped at a few new players but being asked where I got my gear or what lvl I was or some fairly general question, it gets old. I on the otherhand look at most casuals as needy and generally very self centered, wanting all the perks that end game has to offer without any of the "work" that goes into it.
Raiding is one of the main draws mmos and pc's have over consoles, you can form larger groups and do things, instead of the 2 or 4 player options usuaully found in consoles. So to throw it out seems exceptionally stupid.
Solo content is important sure enough, but the thing I keep coming back to is, is solo content more important than group content? I mean technically anyone could do solo content but if we're talking level cap, by the time you hit level cap you have a flavor for the game and will want to go out and do pvp or pve group content. While I know people who wouldn't go out of their way to do group content, they'd usually come along if asked, I was never in 2 years of playing WoW ever turned down by someone because they really wanted to finish their daily quests, though with the more story driven nature of SWTOR this may change.
For non-raiders, I don't feel they should be left behind but again, its also not fair to me that I'd spend like 20 hours a week raiding and acquiring gear only to have it given to someone who'd never set foot in a raid a week later. I remember I was in tier 5 content, they released badge gear and half of the gear I'd worked hard for became obsolete and I lost my raid spot to a guy who'd just happened to have ran enough heroics to get all of the new and better badge gear. To explain my 25 man gear and experience was pushed aside for a guy who just happened to have enough 5 man badges to afford gear because he didn't raid. It sucked.
I feel that raid content should always yield higher rewards than solo content because you at the least have to get more people to do it, not counting having to do coordination. I'm bored so I'll stop here.
