Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Orophin]

I've played MMOs in my free time for many years and for me the biggest amount of pleasure has come from hanging with a really small group, like 2~4 people (close friends, husband etc) and just knocking out content where we could.

I was in a static group in FFXI with a full party's worth of people I knew in either RL or through extension of my RL friends. It was some of the most fun I ever had, even though we only played about 2 hours a day.

Casuals are 100% required in MMO's to have a functioning economy. Casuals should just stop trying to dumb down content so the game can be completed by them (I am not refering to the story line, all should complete that).

A Casual is usually someone that has little time to play, not someone unskilled at the game.

FF11 the content lasted years and people loved it, as in 10yrs of planning to keep gear relevant and to keep these people who never stop playing always busy, the content never ended because it was well designed for everyone.

The content lasted years because it took a minimum of three days to gather enough crap together to fight Kirin only for it to take you three years to totally gear every person's main job in your LS thanks to the RNG lottery. Don't confuse by-design time sink with great game design.

[Jeronlmo]

A Casual is usually someone that has little time to play, not someone unskilled at the game.

Some, sure, usually, your dead wrong. Ive seen/known many people who play 2hrs or so a day and are easily better than someone who plays 12hrs a day. Ive been playing other MMO's again while the game has been down, there are far more idiots that barely play games who think they are good and do nothing but play the blame game when they screw up.

The content lasted years because it took a minimum of three days to gather enough crap together to fight Kirin only for it to take you three years to totally gear every person's main job in your LS thanks to the RNG lottery. Don't confuse by-design time sink with great game design.

All of the bold there... all your personal experience. I lead my own sky ls soon after it came out, we had atleast 40 members, it took at a max of 6months to clear the entire ls out, (we used a bidding system with a 3point minimum bid) our last haidate went for 3 points because not a single person needed it, our last w.legs/k.osode we sold. After sky, we moved to Sea, took a bit longer... but it was Sea.

You being inefficient/sucking and/or refusing to start your own LS and do a better job is your problem/fault, not game design.

The reason content lasted for years is because HNMLS's in general, atleast the big/good ones actually tried to gear every member, decking 1 character out takes almost no effort/time, years went into repeating the same content to gear out many many people. I was doing dynamis sense the day it was released til the day I quit, yet i stopped needing it after a few years of release, it wasnt for me I can promise you that.