That's where I believe difficulty scaling could come in. All modes [i]allow optional matchmaking [/i][b]but players would have to start at base difficulty 1st[/b] Easy modes allow matchmaking. To get into hard mode matchmaking you have to have completed easy. And most players that would play hard or heroic would do so with pre made teams so as to not be negatively effected. To prevent the AFK players and "ones that don't follow your strategies" from going into hard the game would drop basically the same gear/weapons on easy mode as hard mode so all the Casuals and quick matchmaking folks would just play easy and get those items and probably call it a night. That could then leave hard and heroic to the other pre made teams. [b]Of course if you are always making pre made teams then any optional matchmaking should not even effect or bother you and your games...but I digress [/b] The benefit for the hardcore and heroic would be shaders (think gloohoo envy) and ships, emblems. So if you really want that cosmetic stuff you can make a pre made team or complete easy 1st and then cross your fingers and try a matchmade hard raid. This would IMO help many players get their feet wet and try the game. Just a idea.

[quote]pre made teams so as to not be negatively effected. [/quote] Less difficulty pre requisite does not solve the issue competitive players do not get pulled into matchmaking with other competitive players. Someone will always drag them down, troll, go AFC, ect. at the higher stages knowing one player is doing better then them. Optional matchmaking is not a solution to that. It's the same problem. Quality is what is wanted. Matchmaking anything should require more checks and balances then what you have suggested. [quote]To prevent the AFK players and "ones that don't follow your strategies" from going into hard the game would drop basically the same gear/weapons on easy mode as hard mode so all the Casuals and quick matchmaking folks would just play easy and get those items and probably call it a night. [/quote] Strategies are dozens on dozens for each encounter. Each encounter breeds more strategies and so on and so forth. Bungie just sets the difficulty bar and expects you to find the players you want to challenge with. Matchmaking pulls random players from a random pool together. I've seen this over nine different FPS games and the tenth being the Halo series. It's not a solution. To be fair? I think it's setup like that on the Xbox and PS networking elements. They don't allow for more strict conditioning OR developers simply can't implement it safely without negative effect elsewhere. People always go AFC. I just had two of them in my lvl 28 dragon strike. What would they do in PoE? Maybe they don't like ToO setup and purposely let another team get a win? The final issue for matchmaking anything is statistics padding. I've had to call out a lot of people in crucible for this when I see 1 kill per 10+ deaths and 0 assists. It's literally a no brainer. Even if you did do that terribly because it was a team of thorn users... or TLW... or shotgun guys on a CQC map... you dying? Means more super energy for them. You dying? Means you are giving them free kills to show for it. I'm sorry OP. But I've had too many bad experiences with matchmaking to say it is worth it's weight in anything. At this point? I'd rather all matchmaking got removed and people were forced to use LFG subscripts in-game to find teams for anything. At least then all players would have to take/have an invested interest in the activity they wish to play. One lasd thing: Not everyone is supposed to finish a raid. Certain people simply can't get it down no matter how many times they try.