1) The % of players who have or have not raided matters little because most of the numbers are drummed up by people who have no idea who to back up claims with evidence. Saying 96% of the playerbase dont raid when 50% of them quit after finishing the campaign has aboslutely no bearing on whether raids should continue to exist, these people would quit regardless. That is called a casual gamer. They buy the game, play the campaign maybe a strike and then quit, thats all they want and care to do, then they move on. That is the MAJORITY of players who play this game, that is a statistical fact, not some BS number like 96% of people dont raid, thats a complete and utter lie when you consider the number of active players. 2) Team based experiences get ruined because when you add matchmaking to activities you have to inherently make them easier, such is the nature of allowing a bunch of blueberries into a game. We have countless evidence to show raid matchmaking doesnt and will never work, heck you can see by half of the complaints on the forums that most of the time people cant even complete a tier 3 reckoning 50% of the time with a bunch of randoms and I dont blame them because the general population of this game has no clue what their buttons do. 3) Just like other MMOs or looter games, whether it be ESO, WoW, Borderlands or Division, you often use outside tools to matchmake or find like-minded players. You know what an mmo-like IS right? Its a team based game from the very beginning. That said you dont HAVE to use outside tools, you can find a good clan and just run end-game stuff whenever you feel like it, but using lfg or other tools is a great, fast and easy way to connect with others in the social game called Destiny. The people who dont want to "dick around with tools" probably dont have any interest in raids in the first place, probably because they are too dumb or casual to do them, if you WANT to raid, you can, it really isnt hard. The only one limiting yourself is you. 4) Lazy and half assed? Are you aware that Bungie has created some of if not THE BEST API in gaming history, they pour tons of money and effort into external resources SO THAT you can have an amazing experience using apps or tools outside of the game. These gods that work for the bungie api team should be cheered at every occasion they are fantastic. Lazy only describes your research and lack of fundamental game design understanding. 5) Detriment to the new player experience? The game is freaking easy on the most part this is not dark souls or mythic plus heroic raids in WoW, this game is not very hard, at all. New players are perfectly fine and are able to do whatever they want relatively quickly, heck we even have surge bounties now for those to catch up in hours. 6) Clearly it isnt a losing strategy, you have absolutely no clue how marketing works else you'd quickly realise why so many games have raids, do you think every company is stupid because they have raids? Do they not know somthing that you do? No. Get out you dont have any IDEA how game design works or the strategies they use when making content. Raids are a substantial part of games success, thats why they all fuking have them. 7) Im not saying solo's have to quit the game, they can literally do everything in this game already bar raids im not even sure what youre talking about half the time when you say the game isnt made for them? What can't you do? Raids? Thats it. Everything else can be solo'd by a half competent players. Unless youre saying youre not good enough to solo a nightfall, shattered throne or zero hour and so on. If thats the case, that brings me to the classic point which always circles around eventually. 8) you dont want solo content, you want EASY content which ill meet with a big fat no thank you. This game is so easy already, gamers are actual dribble these days. Gone are the days of doom where you actually have to maybe aim your mouse and use your higher brain function, all we have now are millions of kids looking for instant gratification on fortnite. This game is not hard, look at yourself before looking at the games design. 9) How is it unrewarding, how is it shitty? You never give logical examples with evidence you just claim this and that and scream from the rooftop saying nothing about the game, but everything about you. Why WOULD a designer make content for people who dont play video games? That is completely backwards thinking. There are 1000000 other games for you to play, pick the one you like, if you have 21 wives, 16 kids and have to work 9 jobs that isnt my problem, thats yours. Thats YOUR lifestyle that you chose to live and if that means you cant put 40 minutes in to do a raid then thats on you, go find another game to play if aparently the only thing holding you back from enoying is the raid, because again that is basically the only thing you REQUIRE a team for. 10) Im not saying we should kick solo's to the curb if there are things that can be done which appease both groups at the same time. At this point, nightfall matchmaking would not be a problem, this is one small example which yes, just give it to them at this point. Nightfall difficulty is lost so the initial challenge and reward cycle is gone, which means its perfectly fine to have matchmaking, there is no reason not to. Raids on the other hand, again no it simply does not work and trying to redesign raids so that they COULD be easy enough to matchmake with a group of randoms completely eliminates the purpose of them, they are supposed to be challenging content. The only two examples Sol has brought up the last 3 discussions ive attempted to make with him is "hurr durr shattered throne was amazing since it could be done in teams and solo why do they not make more of those hurr durr" .... like is he HIGH? They ARE making more of those, do you think they sit on their ass doing nothing at work? No they are making a dungeon AS WE SPEAK, of course they are, they take time to make and we got Zero Hour as the replacement for this season which takes all the lessons learned from shattered throne and whisper, its soloable but provides a challenge, has a great reward, has more secrets for those looking to upgrade the gun and a time trial for those veteran players to show off (even though again its not that hard since the game is pretty easy). If your reponse is well Zero Hour is unrealistic for the average player to solo, well youve fallen right back into the circle of you dont want solo content, you want EASY content, which as we've discussed, ruins the game to the core.