I've seen conflicting reports, and I honestly can't recall which were from Devs and which were wild speculation.

Also, given that this has changed at least once, apparently, I'm looking for the most current knowledge.

When you down a boss in an Operation, what happens in terms of loot? Is it the same as FPs, where you are set to FFA, Need/Greed, or Loot Management, or is there the rumored "Loot Bag" for everyone? Or both, with the bag containing the standard commendation/cash, and the real loot being treated as a standard drop?

Loot bag is on the easy "normal" mode only.

Drops work like all other standard MMOs in the hard and nightmare modes.

...interesting.

Why is that? I mean, even if they want to change how loot works, usually hardmodes drop MORE, not less?

That's a very odd design choice (at least, it is if you don't know the intent--perhaps there is a good reason).

Normal mode is intended for casuals who don't want to worry about loot drama. People who just want to go in, have some fun and get rewards.

For the more serious gamers who wish to raid hard/nightmare modes they will be rewarded with better loot but not necessarily get a drop every time.

The hard/nightmare modes also share a better commendation that rewards better gear then the commendations from normal operation/heroic flashpoint bosses.

Normal mode is intended for casuals who don't want to worry about loot drama. People who just want to go in, have some fun and get rewards.

 

For the more serious gamers who wish to raid hard/nightmare modes they will be rewarded with better loot but not necessarily get a drop every time.

 

The hard/nightmare modes also share a better commendation that rewards better gear then the commendations from normal operation/heroic flashpoint bosses.

Or to put it another way, normal mode is intended to be PUGgable and loot bags are one way to make ninjaing of loot impossible.

For the harder modes they expect people to need a serious raiding guild and those tend to have strict rules about loot and how it gets divided among the participating members resulting in far less drama (except when loot gets assigned to the wrong person by accident I guess).

I've raided high-end content before, and I see the value of making ninja'ing a thing of the past---but why is the old style of loot drops at all preferable?

It's the old standard, but I don't see why they would apply a newer system to Normal and not apply the same new system to Hardmodes. Even regardless of drama, it's the essence of the grind that several dev posts decry.

Not that I think running a given instance more than once is bad, but in terms of actual time spent, if you have to run an instance five or six times to get all your own gear, fine---but if you have to run it 5 or 6 times, multiplied by the number of people in the group (well, halving that if a boss drops 2 pieces of gear), then it starts to wear on you...

Actually, I do think I understand why it works this way...to give those who like to guild-raid something to do over, and over, and over....but I'm feeling the pull of RL. I raided in college, and now being done with that, I fail to see the appeal anymore.

(Having answered my own question from earlier this post)

I do think the split, then, is a good idea. I just think that rolling the loot-bags into Hard/Nightmare mode would make a better change than going the other way. PUGable content is preferable, in my book, and I'd be happy to try PUGging Hard/Nightmare if I get good enough at Normal, but I have no interest in repeating it as many times as I did Mount Hyjal.

There are some people who like to raid every week. If you can be full BiS within a few runs, there is no lasting appeal to the content. It just equates to a lot of sitting around the capitol city waiting for the devs to add new content.

Personally I would prefer them just make the content take months to down for the first time so there is always something to do. However I believe its not what most of the player base would prefer, especially with the introductory tier of raiding. Therefore, the only option to keep hardcore raiders interested is to make it take a while to farm a full set of gear.

Also i have to say that i prefer not knowing if I'm going to get loot on any given encounter. Token systems just feel too dull to me.