Quote Originally Posted by Alahra View Post
The "common wisdom" that MMOs should cater to the hardcore players first doesn't seem to be rooted in anything concrete; it's more of an ideological preference than a demonstrably superior business model.
Indeed. The only people I've ever seen claiming that it's common sense/wisdom that a game should cater to hardcore players first are people who want the game to cater to hardcore players first.

It also does a nice trick of shifting the burden of proof away from the person making the claim. If something's common sense, why do they need to prove it? Everyone must already know it to be true, right?