Yep, I joined the game because of it's non-hardcore stance, and I am more interested in investing time in the side activities like the aforementioned chocobo racing or things like gathering and crafting than I am in cooperative high end combat content, which, IMO, is never truly compatible with MMORPG trappings... I'm surprised hardcore raiding hasn't moved to its own genre at this point, where you just have raid design, parses, skill rating, etc., and not much else.
