Quote Originally Posted by Auteur View Post
Precisely one of my primary points. It does not make sense for a sub-based MMO to attempt to cater to hardcore players because there's no financial upside; sub is all about quantity of people paying for the same sub.
I'm not sure that it makes financial sense to cut out the hardcore content, really - not if it's optional content. A LOT of gamers are going to be turned away when it becomes well-known that a game has no teeth at all; nothing that qualifies as a challenge. While only 1% of players have managed the clear, I'd guess the percentage who tried - or dreams of trying - is much, much larger.

Folks come to this game with the expectation that stuff will be easy at first, and work up to tougher stuff. I'd say that the folks who would prefer that the game stay easy from start to finish are actually a pretty small percentage of the population. Of course, the people expecting challenge come in with the expectation that they'll be able to improve and improve, and eventually get good enough to do any of the content - which isn't necessarily true, due to the fact that you need a party of eight capable people. One individual can't carry a party.

I agree completely that it can be monstrously aggravating to be pixel-perfect in your own Savage dance, only to be held back time and again from even PRACTICING later phases of the fight due to someone else screwing up. In endgame content in this game, it's simply not enough to be good; you also need to find seven other people who are good. And "good" doesn't just mean skillful and attentive - the fact that latency can cause an otherwise decent player to be effectively useless in a raid is another aggravating thing. So, skillful, attentive, and be lucky enough to live in an area with a stable, reliable Internet connection.