Contested content: yea or nay?

This is another topic that is near and dear to my heart as a previous EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and WoW player.

Every fond memory I have of raiding always ends up in a discussion of one of three groups of mobs:

The EverQuest Dragons, Vox and Nagafen

The original Planes of EverQuest (Plane of Hate, Plane of Sky, etc)

Or the Emerald Dragons of World of Warcraft

What do these all have in common, aside from their raid-level epicness?  They are all contested monsters/zones.  They would spawn, and we (the players) would rally our guilds and come charging in to test our metal and gather up some uber loot.

With SoE's poll, they gave us a few options, the important ones are listed below with my thoughts!

"The hardest content/most valuable reward content should be contested."

This option appeals to me, but I know it isn't practical.  To have the hardest and most valuable reward content as contested allows key groups or guilds the opportunity to monopolize the contested mobs.  This leads to a select few guilds increasing in strength while the rest of the server lags behind.  This model benefits a select few, and encourages extreme competition between high end guilds.

As a player that typical jumps into those select high end guilds, I can tell you I'd enjoy a "contested content only" game.  But like I mentioned earlier, it's not practical.

"There should be a good mix of both contested and non-contested content."

This is the obvious choice.  Contested content will allow for generally lower risk, higher reward loot.  It may not be the best in the game, but you won't have to complete a large dungeon to access it.  Contested content is like a $20 bill fluttering across the field at your son's soccer game, it's a near zero risk reward to whoever can get to it first and grab it.

Non-contested content is where guilds can cut their teeth.  They can train, practice, and obtain the majority amount of loot and experience.  The model within EQ2 worked well, where if I had to guess the loot was split approximately 50/50 between contested and non-contested.  Contested and non-contested had similar quality loots, but the contested encounters almost always had a better chance of dropping higher end loot.

"Everything should always be available, not contested.  Players should never have to wait or compete for content."

I don't agree with the way this is worded.  Players shouldn't have to wait for content in a properly built game.  EverQuest Next will have so much going on no one HAS to wait, but they can choose to if they want to remain inefficient or ineffective as a player.  Even in a mix of contested and uncontested content there should be enough going on in the world to keep players busy, they shouldn't rely on contested content to keep them entertained.  Contested content is for the elite or the lucky to grab some extra loot and bragging rights.