Misconception regarding Players that like Raids is that Raid players like Raids for the Difficulty

Ancient_Exile

Brainy said:

I think many people raid for the sense of accomplishment.  The greater the difficulty the greater the sense of accomplishment which makes it more fun. Some mmo's give loot, others exclusive skills/abilities, others levels/xp, other get skins/special decorate items for completing difficult tasks.  All these allow people to distinguish themselves.  The easier it is to get an item, the less rewarding it feels, which makes the game boring.  There can be a profound sense of pride accomplishing something very few can.

Someone mentioned competitive sports.  In a sense I think its similar to the Olympics.  Sure you can say people are competing for medals "loot".  But what do those medals represent.  Status, fame, pride, sense of accomplishment and some cases later rewards.  However if they dumb the sport down and everyone gets a gold medal that participates.  Then soon it wouldn't provide any of those things.  Sure at first the gold medals would still have status, but it wouldn't take long until people realize it doesn't mean anything and would lose its status, fame, pride, accomplishment...

Yes sure you are going to find some people who want to short cut the system to get instant status, without doing the work.  But if the item has no status then its not worth doing at all.  So that is the conundrum giving easy loot represents.  The easier it is to accomplish, the less status it has.

This is why difficulty is a key component.  Loot is just a means to give a sense of status for a given difficulty.

Maybe people also raid because there's not much else to do after reaching max level in 90%+ of MMORPGs.  It's not like they have a lot of options.