I think this is getting away from the original thought that entered my mind. The question is why raid if you can aquire gear of equal item level as raid gear doing 30 minute dungeon a day? I only want the MMO genre to retain some of what made it unique to players who enjoyed that element while the genre is changing to new standards in its attempt to become more main stream form of gaming.

Even if people complain that they should be able to obtain raid level gear though other means then raiding it does not fit the mold that the theme park gear grind that ff 14 follows. The entire mold will have to be drastically restructured if we are going to go a different path. The perverbial carrot on a stick running you on the gear treadmill is core bread and butter of the game and people who do not want to raid and care about being on par with raiders in gear normally unsub after a while. You cannot say that raids cater to a hardcore few because raiding right now is very casual. If you can put in a few hours every week and advance in progression with Alexander HM bosses then you can raid.

It is the mentality of finding a raid team that fits your mold that is the real hard point over raiding itself. The required social interaction to meld together in cooperation with a team is the fundamental core of an MMO and the more people can stay in their own little non social world the more it affects the health and longivity of the MMO.