Well now there definitely cant be any more blaming low levels for failed alerts. Still curious of where the blame will go now for failed alerts.
Teaming- that is up to the players. There is no system in CO that prevents teaming. Just like in COX, one can form a team to do missions, lairs, alerts, well just about anything. On the flip side, teaming is really not forced in many cases and thus allows people to pick their play style nearly unhindered. Apparently many people actually like to solo.
Sometimes, not having to deal with other's playstyle, especially ones that are not compatible is more enjoyable than 5 different people with 5 different ways of playing and gripes. One say we are killing stuff too fast another we are killing to slow, another say there is not enough AOES, one say too much AOEs. Some want to do this mish, others want to do that mish, one hates Lemeria another loves it, one wants to go to Monster Island, some need help with Megaterak, another already di Megaterak thousand times. Sometimes it's a hassle that sucks the fun out of playing. On the other hand get a good team, it's very enjoyable.
Me personally I like having that choice. When a game feels that it must force teaming and lock content missions out for teams, then it usually mean they are not confident that many players actually want to play that way but want to give false appearance of everyone teaming.
In CO, it's mostly allows natural playstyle. There are many people that team. Usually at least once an hour at the least on a slow day in times of the day like now, in the early morning there is someone running a Nem con, Lemuria lair, a few Thek. lair, people forming alert team, people looking for team (lot in zone chat but it do sometimes get buried by the WTS/WTB postings.) and even just random mission teams.
Alerts can be more social if players want it to be. the timed ones, yeah they don't leave much time for chatter. But the others, with no time limit, there is nothing that is stopping socialization besides the player themselves. If no one is talking ,speak. Many times team play silent, then one person go on the chat channels talking about how no one speaks and stuff when they didn't make a single effort one single bit to start any sort of conversation with anyone themselves. It's like everyone is standing on the wall wanting someone else to get the party started but refuse to do so themselves.