Matt:

Nobody disputes that the logistics involved in forming a 25-man raid are more complex. In fact, you're making the point for the people in favor of this change. Skill and dedication should dictate how far you get, not whether you can get 24 other people in a raid.

You insist that "casuals" want all the rewards with none of the effort, but here's a question I pose to you; should the thick of the expansion's endgame content -after all, it IS named Wrath of the Lich King- be a reward THAT isolated from the majority of the player base? If an expansions deals with a central heroic figure, does endgame really need to be as exclusive as it has been so far? Should players be content to leave their storyline unresolved because of reasons external to the game?

Look at current state of affairs... TBC is "ending", and a new layer of content is being stacked on top. Yet, look at the overall progression. How many guilds have reached Karazhan? How many have killed Illidan?

I don't think anyone is advocating for rewards without effort; but 25-man raids are logistically complex for a plethora of reasons, the majority of which lie outside of the game. When we talk about democratizing content, it doesn't mean removing skill or complexity from the equation; it's reducing the amount of factors that could keep a competent, driven player from seeing the content. I think this initiative from Blizzard is a great way to do just that.

And finally, as an aside: I don't mind that you're against this idea; but stop generalizing and assuming that everyone who's in favor of it is a "noob", a "scrub" or somehow "undeserving" of the content (and that last term is a problematic one, but that's antoher discussion for another time). There are very valid reasons on both sides of this argument.

Casual players don't want things to be less difficult, they want them to be more accessible. And, I can guarantee you that most casual players aren't interested in your precious rewards -- their interest is purely in the content and lore.

I think it could easily be argued that raid size has nothing to do with skill, and if your argument is that most of the challenge in 25-man raids comes from organizing 25 people and getting them to follow directions, then it's not even the raid itself which is difficult.

Blizzard could easily develop content that is both a challenging and rewarding experience for 10 players, without artificially inflating the difficulty with large groups and time commitments.