Your quoted "great" article was pretty bad. All credibility was lost with this article when the author argued that raids weren't for players who can't find 5 other friends to play with and then equates that to "I want to be the world’s top-ranked Call of Duty player, and I can’t. We all have our different crosses to bear." Determining that raids are or aren't for someone based on the number of friends online at that particular time is inconsistent and has nothing to do with skill level, though the author seems to think it does. Raids are an access issue, meeting a requirement like carpool lanes (must have 2 or 3 in the car to use this lane), except in this scenario you can still get to your destination without taking the carpool lane. Even Bungie has said that Raids on normal difficulty are not a thumbskill challenge but rather investment (time) and cooperative challenge. Saying that raids aren't for the following people is a copout: 1) Clans that only have 5 people on because the 6th wasn't available (network issues, life, etc.) 2) Clans with 10 people on - 4 of which can't play the raid. 3) Players with max friend lists but no one is into Destiny or is on at the same time 4) Top skilled players who have always focused on pve and never had a requirement to have friends to play these modes. That does not prevent them from building out their friends lists or joining a clan, but see previous points that would still impact them. Putting up an access barrier that requires you to be level 20 is one thing because it is finite and measurable, but leaving access up to random uncontrollable scenarios only reflects poorly on the design and decisions and not on the abilities, planning, and coordination set out by players. I have yet to hear a good argument as to why matchmaking should not be included. Nerfing? This is purely speculative and Bungie has already put controls in to prevent this - they introduced tier level difficulty. Regardless of what is done, there will be people complaining about how hard it is, because all of those "randoms" are going to join a random clan just so they can play the raid. They aren't going to invest in being friends with the clan; it is only to get access. Hard to achieve? Beating the raid should be hard to achieve, not accessing it. If the most difficult part about raids is accessing the content then raids are set for failure. Teamwork is required? Randoms playing in a clan won't be much different, and unless the fireteam members are consistent you will always have randoms playing with each other. Puzzle for the math guru's, how many different combination of players can you have when making a team of 6 out of 75? I would actually argue that Matchmaking will improve teamwork and success rates for those who have the potential to beat the raid. This is because they will have more opportunities to play the raid and learn the encounters even if they know that there won't be a chance for them to finish it or get any good gear on that particular run. Lastly, matchmaking does not prevent clans or friends from running Raids the same way as Bungie has already described so for people who do not want matchmaking, you actually wouldn't know the difference!