[Malar]

Ok, i like the tone of your spiel, and i think its fairly well argued... but i gotta spit my bit...

you start with casual vs. hardcore, and IMMEDIATELY equate that with raiding vs grouping... I feel that this is a bad trend in mmo's and it makes no sense to me. I would equate casual vs hardcore as being a matter of time invested, and the focus of that time.
You go on to say that raiding is more difficult and should result in better rewards... well i agree, the potential for error of something involving 56 ppl is much greater then that of one with 6 ppl but thats just one way of looking at "difficulty" .

What i'm getting at is that i believe loot should be based on difficulty, and that group encounters can be made just as difficult as raid encounters. Your little "math" bit about how the larger the group the harder it is not true imo. I think that a grp encounter requiring good reflexes/anticipation and discipline from all 6 ppl with no room for error and little leeway in delay of actions deserves the same quality as one that requires that much from 56, because the effort/skill is the same from the individuals in both cases.

Now, one counter to this is saying that the overall effort/skill is higher iwith 56 ppl, based on sheer numbers having to do it, but i dont quantify skill that way, so i guess we can disagree... the other counter i see is taking the logic to soloing, and asking "well then you are saying a necro or w/e should get to kill some solo spawned boss and get same quality gear from that!?!?".. NO, not at all, because that once u get below at least 1 of each class type the level of teamwork is not there.

Anyways, i really hope Vanguard makes it so that when u see phat loot on someone you know they killed something tough, in a grp or raid, and that even the largest guilds find it in their interest to work 6 man dungeons as well as raiding.

As to PvP vs. PvE... only reason worth arguing this is as to if VSOH would have to neglect one for the other... well i see pvp as the same game witha extra dimension to it, so just make it all great!, it CAN be balanced so that classes work properly in pve AND are balanced in pvp, just takes some hard work ^_^

EDIT: i DO think that MORE gear from raids is in order to align with the higher numbers of ppl , but otherwise just make it different gear, same quality, but different designs procs, and slightly tweaked stat focuses etc.