Curious on your thoughts

That number is much to high. It should be worth an experiment to see what would happen but it is hardly enforcible. Without boxing, the players would have to build multiplayer groups like in the old days but many players would also just focus on the most powerfull solo classes, which would mean that about half of the classes would be played less than today.

I think that the combination of boxing and mercs is the downfall of the "good old" multiplayer group. Not boxing alone, not mercs alone. While boxing cannot be really restricted, the usage of mercs can be restricted. One merc inside a box group is not a problem, while two mercs can already prevent multiplayer groups. At least with three mercs there is rarely a reason (motivation) to team up with other players.

Loot is definitely a strong motivation factor to prefer boxing over multiplayer groups but there are many other factors like limited time, different goals, huge player power and level gaps, progression status, too many low populated servers, etc. There are definitely serious structural game design issues that do make multiplayer groups unlikely to happen. It is pretty complex and does require a social behaviour study and a structural system analyse which Daybreak never seem to had done, even that it would be so important and insightful. Know your customers and know your system !

I often do have the impression that the forums are their main source of informations, and that there is a lack of professionality combined with stinginess/greed and wrong priorities which is a management problem.

If mercs would suck, they would not be used, and about everyone is using them. And it is much easier to box two or three toons with two or three mercs than to box four or six toons.

Rhetorical question: What is a PUG ? My last one was many years ago, but I do invite other players sometimes, especially if they are newbies as those are nearly the only players that are thankfull for having a group. Having other players around in the group is often annoying and unpopular. There is only a very low demand for other players and players never do use the lfg functions anymore. Instead they prefer to muddle along.

What long-time players would consider a PUG...5 or 6 random players grouping up to grind for a few hours or camp a named for a drop...just doesn't exist anymore on Live servers. What we have now are groups of 4 or 5 players from the same guild grouping up to refill their AA after a raid, or run a mission for currency or a specific drop (evolvers)...and they will sometimes fill that spot or two with random people (or sell a spot when it comes to missions).

As a cleric there is almost no chance I could play this game solo without boxing. So no, I would have quit about 15 years ago. The modern game is designed to penalize groupers. Maybe not intentionally but that's the way it is. They've built a check-box mentality and it's almost impossible for multiple people to have their goals align long enough to successfully join forces in the later game.

Nobody is at fault, it's like entropy.

I have one account, I molo 95% of the time, I've built my toon strong enough that I can take on any content, including T2 nameds, except for missions, it's entirely possible to play at the high levels with one toon but you have to take the time and effort to make that toon capable, I've played around 8 years now and have never boxed, I personally think that so many rely on boxing that they wouldn't stand a chance solo which is why so many say they'd quit if they couldn't box

I would not play if i couldn't box