(all the follwoing like ANY post on the internet is almost entirely opinion!)

I'm not sure really where to start here. But let me start with a real sad trend in MMO terminology. Hardcore and casuals. I don't me to be offensive to anyone but i may "type" heatedly. Casual, hardcore really? As if theres is just so much hard core in many MMOs these days to see so many people decide they are hardcore. Its really lost its meaning.

Hardcore should not be concidered time spent! Its almost sad that people think that spending lots of hours doing any sort of grind/group yelling or finding/repetative action is hardcore. Whats hardcore? Risk. Risk is hard core. Perma death, is hardcore. The loss of an expensive item apon failure is hardcore.

Getting beaten in an instance untill you can dance to a bosses tune is practice, its dance lessons, its not hardcore. Now if your armor got torn to shreds when you lost with no way to recover it, welcome to hardcore. Hardcore is not 30000 gil/gold/credits for repairs per item, "please come again".

(eve-online reference) Hardcore is watching your buddy place months of time based skill gain on the line (Cause he already soent every cent he had to buy ships to defend) to try and save a base (station) your guild (Corporation) put months of work into claiming, supplying, harvesting and protecting because all that play, could be gone. And watching him do it in a ship hes carefully outfitted for a year of special modules. because he, balls to the wall gives a damn. If it goes boom, its gone for good. That is hardcore.

And casual, casual is what to some folks, that they have 2 hours after the kids go to bed to play? means they dont want a challenge? want it easy? I've known plenty of people who under the definition in the paragraph above qualify as hardcore despite the little time they can play, cause they were willing to put everything they played for on the line. Was it as much totale "Value" as someone who played 8 hours? If its everything they have in a game, its everything, no matter the total count.

The whole arguement of Casual/hardcore as a time sink counter just disgusts me to no end. Feel free to check my posting history, you'll see i'm not any sort of rage poster, but this topic deserves a little anger.

My opinion on group and solo is its in the hands and the imagination of the developer and those giving suggestions. Interesting mechanics make the difficulty, not head count. Theres been posts in this thread about if its solo you stand there and mash buttons. Or it can't be hard alone.

Bullocks. If you put no imagination. no mechanics that take advantage of class, enviroment or skill in place to make it a challenge, then it won't be a challenge of course. You can have 8 people or 100. If its tank and spank its tank and spank, the difference between solo TnS and group TnS? Raw damage output and someone else besides you yourself does the healing/tanking/damage. Folks complain they don't want tank and spank Instance/boss/raid content they want interesting mechanics for raid fights, yet they will claim its written in stone that any solo content can be nothing but tank and spank(stand in one place and push buttons).

Don't stand in the fire can apply to 1 person or 1000. Would be nice to maybe teach that valuable lesson to those just starting out in a game so you can maybe not call them "Noob" when they group with you?

Or would you prefer the chance to call them a "Noob" when they are level 2 asking for a 4 man to do the first storyline quest. This ins't the first, second, tenth of fifteenth MMO i've played, Nor am i old (but getting there ) Keep in mind for those of you whom may not know. Many of the "Hardcore" players that "Don't seem to exsist anymore" are the Fathers and Mothers who you now refer to as "Casuals" whom "Are lazy and want everything handed to them".

As far as Party and Solo goes i like both. I do both. I enjoy both. Think of many storylines in games you've played, heck the Final fantasy series itself. Party members, characters who were in your group sometimes left, and then you found them again, discovered what they did, what they learned and how they improved and then came back to join you again.

I don't really want to touch on what should be done as far as Solo and Party play. Its a plague ridden topic that poisons discussion on any game forum. What i will say is everyone is different and you will never have a subscriber number in the count that SE, or any big title company wants if you force one segemnt's style of playing on the entire population.