Raiding - 10 vs 25

Here we go again, my brain had its fiber and it's time for another dump.

For some reason, there's been a lot more talk about the state of 25 man raiding than usual.  The topic has been around for a while, but lately it seems to be popping up more frequently in blogs and podcasts.  The timing is not coincidence.  We're closing in on a new expansion and they want their concern addressed.  I figured I'd throw my two cents in on the debate.

What do all of the people talking about it seem to want? They want Blizz to 'incentivize' 25 man raiding.  This is dangerous, and in some sense horribly self centered of those wanting it.

To all you 25 man raiders who want Blizz to heed your call: be very careful what you ask for, and how you ask.  Blizz has admitted to listening to a vocal minority when developing Cata and cited that as a reason subscription numbers have declined.  It seem that's what you are if you are a 25 man raider: a minority.  If there were as many people who wanted to run 25s that all of those blogs would make it seem, it wouldn't be difficult for you to fill your raid.  If you weren't the minority, your preferred style of raiding wouldn't be fading away, and you wouldn't be asking for 25s to be incentivized.

Recruiting and attendance is the biggest challenge of 25 man raiding, after all.  It's not usually because of anything in game, but because of real life scheduling.  So it would seem this vocal minority want an in-game reward for the out-of-game effort of scheduling a large group of people.  That is the mindset that leads to cash shops.  My out-of-game effort gets me some cash, I should be able use it to get a reward in-game, right?  No, I don't believe that, nor want that, I'm just making a point (in the extreme, I know).

If it's not obvious, I don't think incentivizing 25s is the right answer.  It will just bring back the 10-vs-25 division we had before.  If 25s really are 'better', as you all claim, it wouldn't need incentivized.  Being a better gaming experience would be all the incentive that was needed and it would draw those raiders to your raids and recruiting wouldn't be problematic.  The fact is that it does not draw those raiders and it seems you all want Blizz to change things so you don't have to work so hard out-of-game for your in-game fun.

To me, the cries to save 25s reek of old timer's syndrome.  Most of the 25 man raiders are seasoned players who talk fondly of 40 mans and remembering the shift from 40 to 25.  They don't want to let go of their preferred play style (again).  I don't want those folks to have to let go of their preferred play style, but I also don't want a vocal minority to kill off my own  preferred play style.

I've done 25s and really enjoyed it, but as a raid leader I prefer 10.  It was a really cool feeling to be part of a small army running into ICC25.  However, it wasn't cool enough for me to want the headache of dealing with 15 more people's schedules than I do right now.

I don't want 25s to die, but I'd rather see 25s die for the overall sake of WoW than WoW die for the sake of 25s.  I hope all you 25 man raiders would agree, because if 25s get incentivized like many are wanting, many 10 man guilds will take a major hit.  So you're asking for a majority to suffer in order to benefit the minority.  I can't think of another way to describe that mindset than selfish.  Please keep that in mind while you're sounding your 'save 25s' trumpet from your soap box.