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1. MMORPG doesn't necessarily mean groups & raids. Countless people like to solo some, most, or all of the time in such games. Why they like to solo in an MMOG is irrelevant; they do, and they're willing to pay a subscription to do it. Formal groups and raids are not the only way people socialize in these games, nor is it the only way to be a contributing member of the community. Why talk us out of paying for and supporting the very genre you like to play? Why not, instead, find a way of accomodating us instead of alienating us?
2. Solo and casual does not mean "easy" content. Spending long hours at a sitting, several times a week, doesn't define "hard content" in a game; one can be facing a solo instance and it take several times to figure out how to beat it. There could even be a time limit that makes it even harder to accomplish. If someone wants to equal "time" with "how hard something is", then if it takes 10 hours at a sitting for a powergamer to accomplish a task, then make it so it takes a sequence of 15 1-hr events for the soloer. If it takes a group of five two hours to get reward X, make it so that the soloer has to spend at least 10 hrs (5x2) or more to get the same or an equivalent reward.
3. Most soloers and casuals are not asking that there be no raid or group areas of the game where soloers cannot survive; they're asking that equivalent "higher demand" solo (and small-increment time sequence) areas or instances be put into the game (like advanced solo instances) where investments of time can eventually bring in equivalent rewards, even though it will take much, much longer in real time for the casual player or the soloer.
4. The casuals are not asking for an easy game, nor are they asking that the get equal rewards for the same time that ONE player in a group or a raid invests to get ONE item, but rather that if the soloer or casual puts in MORE accumulated time as the ENTIRE raid, then they should **eventually** have access to getting the same gear. If time is effort, that's a LOT of effort. If time = "hard game", that's a hard game, even for a soloer or a casual. The problem is **NOT** that we don't get items as fast, or easy ...it's that we can't get them at all.
For whatever reason, when you **know** you cannot get to the best content (or equivalent "best content) and get the best rewards (or equivalent "best rewards", it takes the steam out of your desire to play the game. When you at least have access, the even if you don't ever actually acquire those items, it still exists as a goal in the game you **could** achieve, and that adds to the desire to keep playing. Also, you don't feel like the red-headed stepchild because the developers keep coding you out of the best content/rewards of all expansions.
There is only one reason, IMO, to not want to provide alternative advancement and reward scenarios to soloers and casuals based on longer overall commitments of time than entire group action or entire raids; and that is because some people need to be able to have exclusively superior rewards compared to others in order to enjoy a game.