A request for some tough content.

[Murugan]

No, losing the casual group is clearly the worst scenario, as that's what pays the bills and the bulk of your development costs. While the hardcore group certainly gives the casual players something to aim for and keeps the high-end content relevant, you can't sustain a game that caters to such a small subset of the population. See: any successful MMO.

XI was a successful MMO yet to many modern "casual players" it is extremely prohibitive to that kind of playstyle, more-so than any other MMO. In fact among "casuals" XI is often heralded as the great example of evil hardcore-ness.

You know what though I don't really care for this part of the discussion because any MMO that can't hold my attention I won't be playing. People have different definition of what it means to be casual or hardcore, unfortunately some people are under the unfortunate impression that it is "hardcore" to want a game which challenges you. I'd rather have a "failed game" than one catering exclusively to people who simply want to escape reality with a mindless distraction, they are implementing jump after all I personally think that should be enough to keep that whole demographic busy.