To clarify on my last post, I think solo content should be in MMORPGs. I believe the more options players have, the better. What I don't think is right is that solo players get rewarded the same as people that group. It's easy to hop on when your time permits to solo in a MMORPG. What's difficult is actually getting a group of people together, with conflicting personalities, getting them all moving towards the same objective, and the ability to keep these players together. All of that in the amount of time you have which may be a very small window. The difference between pulling off these two activities is pretty apparent, the rewards should be as well. Grouping will always be a more difficult activity to pull off. If the rewards are the same, a majority of players will play solo and this can be seen in most current MMORPGs.
TLDR;
I believe MMORPGs should have solo content, just not as an emphasis. I don't believe grouping should be forced, but the rewards for grouping should far outweigh going solo.
This is exactly how many mmos play currently. Often times the only true solo part is getting to level cap, and after that point you NEED a group to progress. During the leveling process, if there's dungeons to be done with better than average gear, those have to be done in a group.
Originally posted by bcbully Your #1 is completely wrong in the case of Age of Wushu. You essentially will not progress solo. The game does not apologize for this either.
The implication isn't that ALL games are solo-able, just that most are. I'm sure AoW is a peach.
That may be true, however that isn't what the article is about.The title has the word "soloers" however the article is about being social.Playing with others and being social aren't the same thing.The article says that you don't have to talk to other people to join a group but can just click a button.For an article that's suppose to be about soloers it talks a lot about people playing with other people.You can be social without playing you can just sit in a hub and chat.So why should you have to be social when you play.
That is because, in my opinion, this article is a thinly veiled troll post replete with the Trollface graphic. The tone is one of starting a flamewar and poorly labeling solo play.
Well, actually, I didn't use a Troll Face at all. I am sad that there was such a misunderstanding.
This is one of the saddest parts about current MMOs.
They stopped being mMo, leaving out the multiplayer part. To archive this target they usually go the "we need to make sure noone can screw up, so make everything fool proof and make it even easier, just to make sure"-route.
Wake me up if a new and real MMO shows up again, ill be playing games from the 90s untill then.
It's sickening really. The genre is just a dumpfest at the moment.
To clarify on my last post, I think solo content should be in MMORPGs. I believe the more options players have, the better. What I don't think is right is that solo players get rewarded the same as people that group. It's easy to hop on when your time permits to solo in a MMORPG. What's difficult is actually getting a group of people together, with conflicting personalities, getting them all moving towards the same objective, and the ability to keep these players together. All of that in the amount of time you have which may be a very small window. The difference between pulling off these two activities is pretty apparent, the rewards should be as well. Grouping will always be a more difficult activity to pull off. If the rewards are the same, a majority of players will play solo and this can be seen in most current MMORPGs.
TLDR;
I believe MMORPGs should have solo content, just not as an emphasis. I don't believe grouping should be forced, but the rewards for grouping should far outweigh going solo.
You are saying, that people do not like to group, if it would not be sufficiently rewarded, right? Even considering, that grouping rewards you with easier an faster progression etc. by itself.
So, people generally are not interested in grouping just for sake of it., right?
But you somehow think that people should group despite of their lack of altruistic interest in grouping, right?
Is it because you are interested in grouping, but you have nobody to group with, or you just think that game will not be right, if people would do what they want without game leading them in specific direction?
From what I've observed, recent MMO's seem designed to ISOLATE players from one another and give them reasons to NOT interact with each other. Case in point....in the last expansion I played before I quit LOTRO..... I tried to spend an evening playing DUO with a freind and we realized that there was litteraly NOTHING out in the environment that wasn't so mind numbingly easy to do with 2 players that it held any interest.....that's aside even from issues like being in different places on long quest chains....or FORCED solo instances in quest chains that take you out of the environment and break your group.
I mean c'mon.....it was not only designed to make solo play easy.....it was designed to actively discourage group play.
This is an issue on which there is an enormous culture gap between players in the genre. To me, MMOs are primarily about a shared world, not formal grouping. In fact, formal grouping is the antithesis of what an MMO means to me becasue it reduces the fluid crossing of paths to isolated pockets of forced dependancy.
Any argument that solo play is like a single-player game can be replaced with the argument that formal grouping is just a LAN party.
But in general, if I ever I find myself judging how other people are playing a game, I remind myself that it's my problem, not theirs.
Originally posted by Nadia this needs a companion article of Best MMOs for gamers who enjoy teamwork
It would be the same list, as each individual decides *how* they want to play their games, socially or not, you can play Rift, WoW, SWTOR, GW2 excusively with your guild if you want to.
i don't agree
yes - any mmo can be played solo or grouped but some mmos have more group content
example: WOW is not a group intensive mmo
almost all the outdoor content was nerfed to be soloed w patch 4.3, 2 years ago
Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.
WOW is largely a solo game until endgame w exception of dungeon instances
The thing is though, WoW (and pretty much all themeparks) are about the endgame, for better or for worse. There is that old saying, where WoW only starts once you hit max level. Now, if the game itself is designed in such away, and the vast majority of endgame is group content, wouldnt you say that is the opposite of not being group intensive?
If the discussion is "which MMO is easies to level up solo", then you are absolutly correct.
If the discussion is whcih MMO is most soloable overall", WoW has the most current (totally not bringing up old raids that nobody does anymore) group content of any MMO on the market.
Every memorable moment I have had in any MMO has been an experience shared with others; guild mates, random guys met out in the world, entertainingly bad PUGs. Without some degree of human interaction, I find MMOs repetitive and unsatisfactory.
That said, I have had enjoyable group experiences in every game I've played. TOR is frequently derided as a story-focused 'solo MMO', but I loved sharing those stories and being a supporting actor in another player's story. Equally, I loved the conversation mode in groups. So I don't think it's as much a problem with game design as it is one of player attitude. Fun shared is fun doubled. The question is why don't more players want to group more often, and what can be done to encourage (rather than force) them to do so?
The last MMO game that I was in a "guild" in was Shadowbane. And was only in a "guild" in two other games, UO and AC. With Shadowbane there was really no point in playing alone. I never could find the same type of commitment in other games as I did with these three. Guilds are always about end game bullcrap these days. Tried one in MWO (I know very loose definition of MMO if you include that) and it was all about "winning" to the point of making it job like. You can solo all MMO's these days and I think thats OK, because some of us arent as social as others but still want the occasional interaction with a real person.
Originally posted by DMKano Raid content - not soloable
Perhaps you missed Suzie's ending line: "Sure there are places that might never be seen because of the shunning of joining up with others, but that's generally small and easily overlooked by those who simply prefer to play alone."What percentage of an MMO is raiding? Is it significant enough to warrant your post?
I see what you're saying and I'm not speaking for DMKano, but I would ask, "How much satisfying and interesting progression is there outside of raiding in an mmo?"
There really is nothing for a "soloer" at end game, maybe some crafting, exploring, or some such. Most MMOs offer raids, gear grinds through raiding, PvP, and... ?
Originally posted by Torvaldr Do you get a second hand progression, second rate equipment, and a mediocre gameplay experience outside of raiding? How did memorizing zone scripts with 24 other people somehow become the pinnacle, and only rewarding method, of mmo gaming?I wonder how much more interesting mmo gaming would be if we have fewer lines and divisions between content. I'll still refer back to Lineage, for all its faults, got this one thing so right. There was content and you could do it any way you wanted and see the same rewards if you were successful. Going at it alone or in a smaller group was more dangerous, but also potentially more rewarding since you didn't have to split those rewards. Grouping was faster, safer, and also kept you less susceptible to attack from the random PK.In trying to solve some of the early complaints about extensive grind and harsh death penalties we've somehow come to this place where content is all disconnected and disjointed, not to mention "end game". I see that as a real design problem with current games.
I agree, somewhat, with the rest of what you said. It is a sticky wicket to try to navigate.
You have gregarious players that enjoy forced grouping. You have shy players that avoid contact with strangers. You have players in between that swing either way, depending on various circumstances. Who do the devs placate?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
Originally posted by bcbully Your #1 is completely wrong in the case of Age of Wushu. You essentially will not progress solo. The game does not apologize for this either.
The implication isn't that ALL games are solo-able, just that most are. I'm sure AoW is a peach.
That may be true, however that isn't what the article is about.The title has the word "soloers" however the article is about being social.Playing with others and being social aren't the same thing.The article says that you don't have to talk to other people to join a group but can just click a button.For an article that's suppose to be about soloers it talks a lot about people playing with other people.You can be social without playing you can just sit in a hub and chat.So why should you have to be social when you play.
That is because, in my opinion, this article is a thinly veiled troll post replete with the Trollface graphic. The tone is one of starting a flamewar and poorly labeling solo play.
Well, actually, I didn't use a Troll Face at all. I am sad that there was such a misunderstanding.
TROLL FACE:
FOREVER ALONE:
The forever alone face doesn't fit this article either.The article isn't about playing alone, it has several examples of people getting in groups and playing with others.These people may not have to talk to get in a group or talk when in the group but they're not playing alone.
Before WoW was even out you could solo any of them. In good gear and right class and skills some of the hardest content was soloable. In fact there was really not a segregation like todays content which divides the online communities.
UO, DAoC, AO, AC2 all could be soloed ( I did most of my leveling solo in these games) it was the fact you made better progress with a group (I still did a fair amount of grouping too). Secondly, the communities in those games were close. Being a total ass almost guaranteed you would be ignored by everyone. Game masters were on most times to help keep order.
Todays games segregate the players and tend to make it appear artificial when it comes to group content. Each 'zone' is specifically tuned to assure some content will require a group if one wants to progress through it.
There is no down time to socialize now either. From the moment you log in on you mainly focus on levels or gear where as in the older games many of the players didn't make leveling and gear number one reason to play. The journey was the game not the end game. I remember sitting and chatting while the health bar regenerated many times. The levels came slower and had impact on the players perception of progress. Getting to level cap was a major accomplishment and the entire server would be congratulating you.
Todays MMOs are no more solo then the past. it's just a perception that they are because of the way their designed.
First MMO with Graphics? NWNO 1991, you could solo the entire game.
Meridian 59 came out in 1995, you could solo the entire game if you wanted.
If it wasn't for the open world pvp, you could have soloed most content in Ultima Online at release.
Asherons Call came out in 1999, you could solo all but the boss content...and do it in mass taking on 20+ mobs at a time on top of it.
Anarchy Online, you could solo to max level with only a few places requiring grouping.
SWG, did not HAVE TO GROUP for anything but Krayt dragons and only if you weren't a master level pet handler...well, until they removed the ability to have out 3 pets at a time.
The idea that MMOs were all about group content is pure BS created by players of EQ1 and DaoC.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
First MMO with Graphics? NWNO 1991, you could solo the entire game.
Meridian 59 came out in 1995, you could solo the entire game if you wanted.
If it wasn't for the open world pvp, you could have soloed most content in Ultima Online at release.
Asherons Call came out in 1999, you could solo all but the boss content...and do it in mass taking on 20+ mobs at a time on top of it.
Anarchy Online, you could solo to max level with only a few places requiring grouping.
SWG, did not HAVE TO GROUP for anything but Krayt dragons and only if you weren't a master level pet handler...well, until they removed the ability to have out 3 pets at a time.
The idea that MMOs were all about group content is pure BS created by players of EQ1 and DaoC.
SWG was the only game I've played where you could be in a group and still play solo.
This is one of the saddest parts about current MMOs.
They stopped being mMo, leaving out the multiplayer part. To archive this target they usually go the "we need to make sure noone can screw up, so make everything fool proof and make it even easier, just to make sure"-route.
Wake me up if a new and real MMO shows up again, ill be playing games from the 90s untill then.
There is, however, a distinction between making an MMO "easy" and making it so frustrating that you quit playing because it is a pain in the butt to find a group of people that are willing and able to do multiplayer content with you. I have been in countless groups where someone gives up, ragequits, or simply doesn't have the time to finish the content. PUGs and LFG tools are convenient, but risky. So I tend to avoid dungeons and raids, even though I love MMOs. In fact, the games listed in this article are my top favorite MMOs and I am currently playing GW2 and loving it.
Memorable moments are the thing. The only game I can remember having truly memorable moments are in EQ1 and this was mostly due to the difficulty and enforced grouping. Also this is the only game where I am still in contract with the people I have played with, everyone else has been forgotten as I moved from game to game. Why? Simply because the enforced grouping actually made it so I had to communicate and talk to other players. I had to interact to advance in the game. Additionally because I had to interact I had a reputation to worry about. I couldn't be a joe blow arsehat and ever expect to get groups or be a ninja looter and just walk on my merry way. Basically the entire community was better for it.
The new, soloable games just don't have any of this. Nothing is hard to accomplish. Nothing requires me to maintain my reputation or really interact to do anything. Sure the world is massive and there are other players but what the point if you never have to work together to accomplish anything?
Don't get me wrong, you should be able to solo but it shouldn't be close to as rewarding as grouping. XP should come slower and it should be more difficult, I mean you are solo after all however, people seem to forget that even Heroes require support to accomplish anything. Even Frodo's quest would have been for naught if might armies hadn't come together to prevent Sauron's armies from talking over the world, hell he even need Golem to complete his quest. Basically nothing great in both fact or fiction has even been accomplished solo so why do we insist on it in our Epic MMOs.
To clarify on my last post, I think solo content should be in MMORPGs. I believe the more options players have, the better. What I don't think is right is that solo players get rewarded the same as people that group. It's easy to hop on when your time permits to solo in a MMORPG. What's difficult is actually getting a group of people together, with conflicting personalities, getting them all moving towards the same objective, and the ability to keep these players together. All of that in the amount of time you have which may be a very small window. The difference between pulling off these two activities is pretty apparent, the rewards should be as well. Grouping will always be a more difficult activity to pull off. If the rewards are the same, a majority of players will play solo and this can be seen in most current MMORPGs.
TLDR;
I believe MMORPGs should have solo content, just not as an emphasis. I don't believe grouping should be forced, but the rewards for grouping should far outweigh going solo.
You are saying, that people do not like to group, if it would not be sufficiently rewarded, right? Even considering, that grouping rewards you with easier an faster progression etc. by itself.
So, people generally are not interested in grouping just for sake of it., right?
But you somehow think that people should group despite of their lack of altruistic interest in grouping, right?
Is it because you are interested in grouping, but you have nobody to group with, or you just think that game will not be right, if people would do what they want without game leading them in specific direction?
No, I am saying people will usually take the path of least resistance. In this case it's that playing solo is much easier than playing in a group.
No, of course there are people out there that group simply because they want to. There are also people out there that lick windows for fun. Using a small set of the population to say that this isn't a issue doesn't make it so.
No, I think people should group because the genre is based on MULTIPLAYER. If you don't want to actually play with other players, that's fine. We already have a ton of those games, they are single player RPGs. Grouping should be encouraged because it's the difference between these two genres, among other things.
It's because I am interested in MMORPGs. When I want to play alone I boot up something like "The Witcher".
Hey I am all for grouping, as long as it is no more than 5. Anything more than that and nothing gets done. And 5 is pushing it I think. Sure all you guys will tell me about your great 40 man raids. Thanks but no thanks. Waiting. More waiting. Then getting lost in a crowd and trying not to screw up and cause the whole group to come down hard on you. I don't think so.
I play MMO's with my significant other and we have developed our style over the years so that we work well together. Plus we share the same style of gaming. We aren't win at all costs type of gamers. We generally like to take things slow, with lots of breaks to just mess around or even sit and enjoy the scenery. I like to work with others sometimes, to clear a difficult dungeon or instance. But generally I find that less fun and I am happy to get it over with.
I enjoy seeing others in the world though and I particularly like the thought of having a good economy and other players to trade things with. This type of grouping means more to me than the raid type of grouping.
And just having friends in a game whether you group with them or not, I enjoy also. Listening to others chat ingame is something I enjoy.
But at the end of the day, I realy like to enjoy the world with a very select few, or even by myself. A good MMO, IMO, lets all types of players enjoy a varied style of gaming. And its why I keep playing them! With my best friend!
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
While some of the MMO's on this list are quality games , putting swtor on any list is really mildly insulting , the only thing that game is good for is to make you feel like an idiot for signing up to play it. The postmortun on why that game went wrong is well established, all its doing now is putting up gated content on a bad F2P system so they can squeeze every penny out of that game because its biggest screw up in MMO history. Also, like it said in the article every MMO these days is solo friendly so this entire article is just fluff. Why not just say hey these are some MMO's that are really worth playing and leave SWTOR out of the list entirely.
Originally posted by Tuchaka While some of the MMO's on this list are quality games , putting swtor on any list is really mildly insulting , the only thing that game is good for is to make you feel like an idiot for signing up to play it. The postmortun on why that game went wrong is well established, all its doing now is putting up gated content on a bad F2P system so they can squeeze every penny out of that game because its biggest screw up in MMO history. Also, like it said in the article every MMO these days is solo friendly so this entire article is just fluff. Why not just say hey these are some MMO's that are really worth playing and leave SWTOR out of the list entirely.
Hmmm?
Maybe because there are many, many, many people who would disagree with that opinion?
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
The EVERY game number 1 spot is so true and that is the sad reality of a MMO now a days.
FFFXI once the bad boy of grouping,often called forced grouping now is as solo friendly at least until the newest content as any game out there.
SWTOR posted as 3 has content you absolutely cannot solo,there is not enough versatility in any class to pull it off.Until recent xpac,i could solo pretty much anything in FFXi 99% which at one time was impossible to do.
I really liked the way vanilla FFXI was done,you could attempt to solo if you wanted an extreme challenge and yes it was doable but grouping still offered the best solution.I don't like when certain games make soloing 100% impossible and that is because the combat structure has no versatility,very one dimensional game play.
Once again FFXi did it right,they slowly added in more xp via more players until you hit the full group of 6,then adding more actually started to lower it again.Now a days it is the opposite,the more the merrier with book burns,it really dumbs down combat badly to worse than noob proportions.
I don't see any signs of developers getting it right,the current designs are too easy to make and easy on budget,no time or effort needed.The next phase i bet is to make quests last a lot longer so they can make less quests as well,everything in game design is getting cheaper instead of better.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
"Forced grouping".....no thanks. I have played almost every MMO since SWG. NONE have particularly "forced" grouping. Instead, almost all (including most today) allow for voluntary grouping. Why not? Why should I be forced into grouping with people that I either don't know or don't wish to play with in the first place. If I want "help" I will ask. If I want to help, I will offer. But if none wish it then so be it. Any game that forces me to do something just to complete or advance is just not worth my time.
Comments
This is exactly how many mmos play currently. Often times the only true solo part is getting to level cap, and after that point you NEED a group to progress. During the leveling process, if there's dungeons to be done with better than average gear, those have to be done in a group.
Not very many mmos are 100% soloable.
Well, actually, I didn't use a Troll Face at all.
I am sad that there was such a misunderstanding. 
TROLL FACE:
FOREVER ALONE:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's sickening really. The genre is just a dumpfest at the moment.
You are saying, that people do not like to group, if it would not be sufficiently rewarded, right? Even considering, that grouping rewards you with easier an faster progression etc. by itself.
So, people generally are not interested in grouping just for sake of it., right?
But you somehow think that people should group despite of their lack of altruistic interest in grouping, right?
Is it because you are interested in grouping, but you have nobody to group with, or you just think that game will not be right, if people would do what they want without game leading them in specific direction?
How can this list not have EQ2 on it?
Its possibly the best MMO for soloers due to mercs + solo content at high levels as well.
From what I've observed, recent MMO's seem designed to ISOLATE players from one another and give them reasons to NOT interact with each other. Case in point....in the last expansion I played before I quit LOTRO..... I tried to spend an evening playing DUO with a freind and we realized that there was litteraly NOTHING out in the environment that wasn't so mind numbingly easy to do with 2 players that it held any interest.....that's aside even from issues like being in different places on long quest chains....or FORCED solo instances in quest chains that take you out of the environment and break your group.
I mean c'mon.....it was not only designed to make solo play easy.....it was designed to actively discourage group play.
Well put; my opinion exactly.
The thing is though, WoW (and pretty much all themeparks) are about the endgame, for better or for worse. There is that old saying, where WoW only starts once you hit max level. Now, if the game itself is designed in such away, and the vast majority of endgame is group content, wouldnt you say that is the opposite of not being group intensive?
If the discussion is "which MMO is easies to level up solo", then you are absolutly correct.
If the discussion is whcih MMO is most soloable overall", WoW has the most current (totally not bringing up old raids that nobody does anymore) group content of any MMO on the market.
Every memorable moment I have had in any MMO has been an experience shared with others; guild mates, random guys met out in the world, entertainingly bad PUGs. Without some degree of human interaction, I find MMOs repetitive and unsatisfactory.
That said, I have had enjoyable group experiences in every game I've played. TOR is frequently derided as a story-focused 'solo MMO', but I loved sharing those stories and being a supporting actor in another player's story. Equally, I loved the conversation mode in groups. So I don't think it's as much a problem with game design as it is one of player attitude. Fun shared is fun doubled. The question is why don't more players want to group more often, and what can be done to encourage (rather than force) them to do so?
You have gregarious players that enjoy forced grouping. You have shy players that avoid contact with strangers. You have players in between that swing either way, depending on various circumstances. Who do the devs placate?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
The forever alone face doesn't fit this article either.The article isn't about playing alone, it has several examples of people getting in groups and playing with others.These people may not have to talk to get in a group or talk when in the group but they're not playing alone.
Before WoW was even out you could solo any of them. In good gear and right class and skills some of the hardest content was soloable. In fact there was really not a segregation like todays content which divides the online communities.
UO, DAoC, AO, AC2 all could be soloed ( I did most of my leveling solo in these games) it was the fact you made better progress with a group (I still did a fair amount of grouping too). Secondly, the communities in those games were close. Being a total ass almost guaranteed you would be ignored by everyone. Game masters were on most times to help keep order.
Todays games segregate the players and tend to make it appear artificial when it comes to group content. Each 'zone' is specifically tuned to assure some content will require a group if one wants to progress through it.
There is no down time to socialize now either. From the moment you log in on you mainly focus on levels or gear where as in the older games many of the players didn't make leveling and gear number one reason to play. The journey was the game not the end game. I remember sitting and chatting while the health bar regenerated many times. The levels came slower and had impact on the players perception of progress. Getting to level cap was a major accomplishment and the entire server would be congratulating you.
Todays MMOs are no more solo then the past. it's just a perception that they are because of the way their designed.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
Blah Blah Blah.
First MMO with Graphics? NWNO 1991, you could solo the entire game.
Meridian 59 came out in 1995, you could solo the entire game if you wanted.
If it wasn't for the open world pvp, you could have soloed most content in Ultima Online at release.
Asherons Call came out in 1999, you could solo all but the boss content...and do it in mass taking on 20+ mobs at a time on top of it.
Anarchy Online, you could solo to max level with only a few places requiring grouping.
SWG, did not HAVE TO GROUP for anything but Krayt dragons and only if you weren't a master level pet handler...well, until they removed the ability to have out 3 pets at a time.
The idea that MMOs were all about group content is pure BS created by players of EQ1 and DaoC.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
SWG was the only game I've played where you could be in a group and still play solo.
Memorable moments are the thing. The only game I can remember having truly memorable moments are in EQ1 and this was mostly due to the difficulty and enforced grouping. Also this is the only game where I am still in contract with the people I have played with, everyone else has been forgotten as I moved from game to game. Why? Simply because the enforced grouping actually made it so I had to communicate and talk to other players. I had to interact to advance in the game. Additionally because I had to interact I had a reputation to worry about. I couldn't be a joe blow arsehat and ever expect to get groups or be a ninja looter and just walk on my merry way. Basically the entire community was better for it.
The new, soloable games just don't have any of this. Nothing is hard to accomplish. Nothing requires me to maintain my reputation or really interact to do anything. Sure the world is massive and there are other players but what the point if you never have to work together to accomplish anything?
Don't get me wrong, you should be able to solo but it shouldn't be close to as rewarding as grouping. XP should come slower and it should be more difficult, I mean you are solo after all however, people seem to forget that even Heroes require support to accomplish anything. Even Frodo's quest would have been for naught if might armies hadn't come together to prevent Sauron's armies from talking over the world, hell he even need Golem to complete his quest. Basically nothing great in both fact or fiction has even been accomplished solo so why do we insist on it in our Epic MMOs.
No, I am saying people will usually take the path of least resistance. In this case it's that playing solo is much easier than playing in a group.
No, of course there are people out there that group simply because they want to. There are also people out there that lick windows for fun. Using a small set of the population to say that this isn't a issue doesn't make it so.
No, I think people should group because the genre is based on MULTIPLAYER. If you don't want to actually play with other players, that's fine. We already have a ton of those games, they are single player RPGs. Grouping should be encouraged because it's the difference between these two genres, among other things.
It's because I am interested in MMORPGs. When I want to play alone I boot up something like "The Witcher".
Hey I am all for grouping, as long as it is no more than 5. Anything more than that and nothing gets done. And 5 is pushing it I think. Sure all you guys will tell me about your great 40 man raids. Thanks but no thanks. Waiting. More waiting. Then getting lost in a crowd and trying not to screw up and cause the whole group to come down hard on you. I don't think so.
I play MMO's with my significant other and we have developed our style over the years so that we work well together. Plus we share the same style of gaming. We aren't win at all costs type of gamers. We generally like to take things slow, with lots of breaks to just mess around or even sit and enjoy the scenery. I like to work with others sometimes, to clear a difficult dungeon or instance. But generally I find that less fun and I am happy to get it over with.
I enjoy seeing others in the world though and I particularly like the thought of having a good economy and other players to trade things with. This type of grouping means more to me than the raid type of grouping.
And just having friends in a game whether you group with them or not, I enjoy also. Listening to others chat ingame is something I enjoy.
But at the end of the day, I realy like to enjoy the world with a very select few, or even by myself. A good MMO, IMO, lets all types of players enjoy a varied style of gaming. And its why I keep playing them! With my best friend!
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Hmmm?
Maybe because there are many, many, many people who would disagree with that opinion?
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
The EVERY game number 1 spot is so true and that is the sad reality of a MMO now a days.
FFFXI once the bad boy of grouping,often called forced grouping now is as solo friendly at least until the newest content as any game out there.
SWTOR posted as 3 has content you absolutely cannot solo,there is not enough versatility in any class to pull it off.Until recent xpac,i could solo pretty much anything in FFXi 99% which at one time was impossible to do.
I really liked the way vanilla FFXI was done,you could attempt to solo if you wanted an extreme challenge and yes it was doable but grouping still offered the best solution.I don't like when certain games make soloing 100% impossible and that is because the combat structure has no versatility,very one dimensional game play.
Once again FFXi did it right,they slowly added in more xp via more players until you hit the full group of 6,then adding more actually started to lower it again.Now a days it is the opposite,the more the merrier with book burns,it really dumbs down combat badly to worse than noob proportions.
I don't see any signs of developers getting it right,the current designs are too easy to make and easy on budget,no time or effort needed.The next phase i bet is to make quests last a lot longer so they can make less quests as well,everything in game design is getting cheaper instead of better.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Let's party like it is 1863!