I don't know any game designers in RL, but someone that does should dig up personality traits of raiders and see if it matches the personality traits of people who go into game design. Maybe the problem is that people who are attracted to the design field are also the type who enjoy raiding.
 

I advice anyone to read the old LoS archives, mainly the really old stuff, Tigole wrote. I think he quit writing in mid 2002:

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/

You will find such gems as what mistakes you can make, shaving you middle body areas. I kid you not. I think this entry ecspecially, buffed up his resume for the WoW job. Besides that, he is a very valuable ressource, just not the kinda guy to lead design for a 6 million player base.
 

If you read the paladin forums, you will find a lot of dirt on Kaplan. He has an insane hatred for the paladin class, because skilled paladins in EQ would out-tank him. The rise of Tigole at Blizzard is directly related to the fall of the paladin class, and every paladin knows this. He even admits in his interview to playing a shaman and hating paladins, he just doesn't give the real reason.

I think Kaplan's interview marks a turning point in Blizzrd internal politics and design management. I have a hunch he may be increasing his influence and his responsibilities there, and realizing that if his raid-friendly and paladin-hating attitudes start costing Blizzard accounts and revenue, he could be /Bkicked in an instant.

I suspect you will be seeing a series of major changes to paladins in the coming months, and you have already seen the amount of casual content being added in the expansion.

My guild is now able to clear all but Majordomo/Ragnaros in about 3 hours (we did it on Tuesday), so I'm not even going to bother with the rest of the Tier 0.5 quests. Furthermore, I compared my current DM/Scholo?Strath/LBRS/UBRS gear to the 0.5 set, and my current gear is much, much better in terms of spell damage.

If you really want to optimize your pre-Tier 1 gear, try http://69.41.171.43/ (Kaliban's Loot Lists). It is a great site for building a wish list of item drops from all instances, which also gives you the flexibility of going to any instance with a group forming, and not being forced into Stratholme.

I also suggest trying some of the Silithus content. Those Duke spawns can drop some really nice gear, and you can probably 3-man them.
 

brian has a good point. And when the level cap is raised to 70, MC, Onyxia and some other content won't be raid content anymore. It will just be group content, and pick-up groups can attempt them. The 50-59 instances will be soloable, and the entry level 60 instances (Scholo, Strath, LBRS) will probably be easily runnable with 2 or 3 if you want to grind cash. So existing content will open up to those who don't raid with the expansion.

Now tobald, lately you seem to be railing against all group content as well, because you have not been able to successfully run instances with pick up groups. If you don't like groups and you don't like raids, what's left? Solo content only. But frankly, I'm right there with you. For example, getting a group isn't too bad is you're a priest, but who do the poor rogues have to blow to get in a Strath-live run? Games shouldn't be work, and once you bunch at the max level, you shouldn't dread logging on and taking 2 hours to get a group that falls apart halfway through the run.

So what do you do instead? Solo content. But if I have to solo Uld one more time, I'll go crazy. Being able to solo Maraudon, Zul'Far, BRD etc. at 70 will be nice, but you can only run those instances for cash.

You would hope 50%+ of the content they are adding in the expansion will be for 70s who want to solo, with items useable at 70. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

One of the great things about Warcraft compared to EQ was items will drop when you are solo that you can actually use, instead of having to sell items to get cash for useable items. Sadly, that model seems to be falling away for solo content in the recent and future expansions.

Sammy
 

Brian, point taken on the data being too old. You are totally right there. Anyone got newer data?

Sammy, if you think I dislike groups, you must have misunderstood something I said. Small groups are my favorite occupation. If I talk about the superiority of solo content, that is not a personal preference of me, but an observation of what is driving sales numbers. I think a game must have both solo and group content. You don't get subscription numbers up if you don't offer solo content (see my just published news on DDO adding this missing feature), and you don't really have a massively multiplayer game if your players have no way to play together.

If Blizzard added a new 5-man dungeon in one patch, and a new raid dungeon in the next, plus soloable quests in all content patches, I think the customers would be lot happier. It is the impression of "the raiders get all the goodies", with only raid dungeons being added to the game since many months, which causes the unrest.
 

Heck, I'll bet more players have seen Lucifron die than have completed the Fallen Hero quest line, yet I've never heard any complaints about how much time was spent putting that quest together.

One of my close friends who played EQ for over 5 years, plays wow and totally does not like the idea of joining a guild or raiding. He has several lvl 60s, several diff servers but enjoys PVP more than anything. So I wonder how many players out there are like him?

I do remember him joining like a PUG MC run, killing luci, but then it fell apart after that. But I doubt he has seen Rag, although he play a TON and is very SKILLED. He just doesn't want to get back on the "hamster wheel" gear-grind. For him, and many others the fun is in PVP.
 

Brian -

Tigole (Jeff Kaplan) played a Rogue in EQ. So your baseless comment about "Insane Paladin HATRED" is completely unfounded. Please remove your foot from your mouth next time before speaking, thanks.