Another option for soloing players could be an button in charaktercreation, there u have to decide, wether that char is for soloing or grouping/guild, that could take influence on the Items/coins/XP while playing. For example the Items(armour/weapon) are resticted with a no sell tag (exept sell to NPC). Most replys here are describe that most players have only a part of time to play and dont want search a long time for groups.Another thing is that in a persistent world the players change by hour arround the worldtime, some of the player i meet only on the weekend, if i have time to play maybe at my local nighttime , so its not possible to have allways the same players at the sametime on the same server. I have meet a lot of nice gamers from many different countries, and talking in chat beween a dungeon/ quest , was very nice , so thats a point to play a mmorpg, to meet people from foreign countries as well, however i solo or not.
I am anti-social as well, I usually feel very uncomfortable in social situation and it doesn't really change just because I'm in game. I mean don't get me wrong I love playing with friends/family, but random grouping is just not something I enjoy doing. I really don't like the raids, I am just not that into team work.
I have been happy about how the MMO's that I have played seem to make it less complicated to solo, now I can play my characters solo instead of playing my solo characters. When I first started out, not that long ago really, I remember haveing to pick a solo character, now I feel like I have more options, I can pick a character, and then choice to play it solo.
I still sometimes feel like the games are designed to give more rewards to people who have a great community of friends (even if it's just a great guild, with people they only know online). I feel like since I'm not in one of those "uber" guilds/groups/raids, and never plan to be, that there are things I will never be able to accomplish. It almost feels like, just because I don't interact well with other characters, I will never be a great game player. Then again, I guess there is a reason they call them MMO's, and I'm still playing them, so the rewards must out weigh any problems that I see, and if I get too frustrated, there are always normal RPG's.
what i don't get is why don't they make MMorpgs life real life, by which i mean if u have a task to do u can either a get some mates to help or just do it on ur own but its obviously easier with the help of mates, what im getting at is why do they have to have RAIDS and all that crap when they could make normal game content everyone could play but u'd have to be pretty good at soloing to do it, infact it would then exstend the solo game longer than the group content then
answered my own question there really didnt i? it would make the game soling orientated at the end game and hardcore grouping fans would complian, poor games companys no way they can win
heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs
I think a smart idea for any mmo for soloers is to maybe have certain classes that are better at soloing and/or have quest for everyone that can be done solo.
I do see the soloers view, though i perfer grouping. I usually dont play an mmo without about 5-6 friends playing with me so we're always grouping and getting good teamwork down to level fast and eventually PvP well. I think if it's a pvp game that it's important to kinda force grouping because when you pvp you're never going to be able to solo unless your somewhat of a stealther.
i found this post by chance and i have to say i am sick of having to group to do anything these days i like grouping but sometime i like to just wander off and solo but i find you are dead in seconds or anything you can kill is total pointless
it would be nice to find a nice game that allows an even mix of both.
Ok there is a difference between a hold and a root spell (or whatever). In City of Heroe/Villains, I can immoblize you (root) but you can still attack, just cannot move or jump. However, if I land a hold on you not only can't you move but you cannot take any action. In WoW terms entangling roots is a "root" while pally/rogue stun would be a "hold".
While I very much appreciate discussions and debates on this very issue, I have very low hopes that developing companies will ever take them seriously. Even though soloing seems like a very popular game play style, it simply requires too much effort on the developer's part to program for, they might actually have to earn those millions of dollars each month from subscription fees. The industry as a whole is lazy and money hungry. They look for the mechanics that allow for the greatest amount of income for the least amount of effort. Raiding and forced grouping fall smack in the middle of that business model. Maybe someday, when people start cancelling games that follow this kind of business model, they will change the way they make these games, till then, we'll be stuck with these tired old paradigms for a long time yet.
As things are right now, the majority of developers and publishers are only interested in income rather than making a fun game. Pavlov's experiments are very much alive and healthy and implemented in every MMO to date.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
Well I have a mixed opinion on this. First, I love to solo. Second, I love to group. When I solo, it's because I have some odd ended quests to grind out (kill or FedEx styled) or I want to test some equipment/skill load outs without interruption. Or I may simply want to explore and raise hell on some mobs. When I group, it's because I like using the abilities of my character and my skills in general in ways most players in my similar class/archtype can even match. In essence, I'm often indispensible to a group when everyone knows their part, or even when they don't. It's nice to to take on nearly impossible odds in an MMO with a bunch of other crazy groupies, even if the group is terribly unbalanced (most mages or mostly tanks or whatever), that just makes the success all the more rewarding. The problem I see is that most MMOs only tell one 'story', usually a group story, where you get forced into one experience and can never find another (whether it's a solo story or maybe an alternate story-line). And that kills the fun aspect of solo-ing and even grouping in MMOs.
Bottom line is, the developers need to appease "everyone", no matter what style of play be it solo or grouping and with equal rewards, if they don't they will lose business.
Soloing also doesn't mean that the soloer does that all the time. Sometimes I simply don't have enough time to invest in a search for a group and a dungeon crawl. I just want to pop on a bit before work and get a little gameplay in. City of Heroes/Villains is good like this since I can pop on and do a mission in about 15-20mins by myself if I want to.
Not to say I don't like grouping, far from it. I do enjoy dungeon crawls when I have more time to spend. MMOG's are more fun when you are playing with other people after all. In my City Of example, I try to do a strike/task force once a week on my day off.
Older games like EQ1 were very anti-soloing, which is probably one reason the subs began declining after a couple years. Up until the LDoN expansion, each previous expansion essentially created more hurdles and made it even harder to do things by yourself or in small groups. By the time SOE realized subs were going down and tried damage control it was too late, people had left. Now they aren't even trying to appease soloists or new players, just trying to keep what they have.
WoW's success has shown that small group or solo play can be viable and very profitable.
This article was spot on for me. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who actually liked to solo. And my reasons for soloing focuses on time management issues and being highly selective with whom I group with. But just because you solo doesn't mean that you are not social.
Having raided, I loved the interaction with other raid members via guild chat and vent. I also liked to just hang around town "listening" to people, interacting in general chat. Or just sending tells to a friend while you quest.
There are all types of social interaction in these games aside from grouping up for instances. If instances was the be all and end all of socialization in these types of games I would have left a long time ago. Thats why i enjoy MMORPGs.
Very good article that sums up my feelings on the matter. I solo most of the time because my playing hours are usually "off peak" and my grouping options are pretty limited. My favorite games have always been those that let ME choose whether I want to group or not. It's my game time, I paid for it, let me decide whether or not to go at it alone.
Nothing worse than hearing some developer talking about how the game "should" be played. Your job, Mr Developer, is to make sure the game works and giving me enough to do so that I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. That's it.
Comments
Another option for soloing players could be an button in charaktercreation, there u have to decide, wether that char is for soloing or grouping/guild, that could take influence on the Items/coins/XP while playing. For example the Items(armour/weapon) are resticted with a no sell tag (exept sell to NPC). Most replys here are describe that most players have only a part of time to play and dont want search a long time for groups.Another thing is that in a persistent world the players change by hour arround the worldtime, some of the player i meet only on the weekend, if i have time to play maybe at my local nighttime
, so its not possible to have allways the same players at the sametime on the same server. I have meet a lot of nice gamers from many different countries, and talking in chat beween a dungeon/ quest , was very nice , so thats a point to play a mmorpg, to meet people from foreign countries as well, however i solo or not.
greetings
I am anti-social as well, I usually feel very uncomfortable in social situation and it doesn't really change just because I'm in game. I mean don't get me wrong I love playing with friends/family, but random grouping is just not something I enjoy doing. I really don't like the raids, I am just not that into team work.
I have been happy about how the MMO's that I have played seem to make it less complicated to solo, now I can play my characters solo instead of playing my solo characters. When I first started out, not that long ago really, I remember haveing to pick a solo character, now I feel like I have more options, I can pick a character, and then choice to play it solo.
I still sometimes feel like the games are designed to give more rewards to people who have a great community of friends (even if it's just a great guild, with people they only know online). I feel like since I'm not in one of those "uber" guilds/groups/raids, and never plan to be, that there are things I will never be able to accomplish. It almost feels like, just because I don't interact well with other characters, I will never be a great game player. Then again, I guess there is a reason they call them MMO's, and I'm still playing them, so the rewards must out weigh any problems that I see, and if I get too frustrated, there are always normal RPG's.
Dee Dee Dee!
what i don't get is why don't they make MMorpgs life real life, by which i mean if u have a task to do u can either a get some mates to help or just do it on ur own but its obviously easier with the help of mates, what im getting at is why do they have to have RAIDS and all that crap when they could make normal game content everyone could play but u'd have to be pretty good at soloing to do it, infact it would then exstend the solo game longer than the group content then
answered my own question there really didnt i? it would make the game soling orientated at the end game and hardcore grouping fans would complian, poor games companys no way they can win
heaven and earth are ruthless,
and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs
I think a smart idea for any mmo for soloers is to maybe have certain classes that are better at soloing and/or have quest for everyone that can be done solo.
I do see the soloers view, though i perfer grouping. I usually dont play an mmo without about 5-6 friends playing with me so we're always grouping and getting good teamwork down to level fast and eventually PvP well. I think if it's a pvp game that it's important to kinda force grouping because when you pvp you're never going to be able to solo unless your somewhat of a stealther.
it would be nice to find a nice game that allows an even mix of both.
Ok there is a difference between a hold and a root spell (or whatever). In City of Heroe/Villains, I can immoblize you (root) but you can still attack, just cannot move or jump. However, if I land a hold on you not only can't you move but you cannot take any action. In WoW terms entangling roots is a "root" while pally/rogue stun would be a "hold".
While I very much appreciate discussions and debates on this very issue, I have very low hopes that developing companies will ever take them seriously. Even though soloing seems like a very popular game play style, it simply requires too much effort on the developer's part to program for, they might actually have to earn those millions of dollars each month from subscription fees. The industry as a whole is lazy and money hungry. They look for the mechanics that allow for the greatest amount of income for the least amount of effort. Raiding and forced grouping fall smack in the middle of that business model. Maybe someday, when people start cancelling games that follow this kind of business model, they will change the way they make these games, till then, we'll be stuck with these tired old paradigms for a long time yet.
As things are right now, the majority of developers and publishers are only interested in income rather than making a fun game. Pavlov's experiments are very much alive and healthy and implemented in every MMO to date.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
Best soloers should be soloers.
Best groupers have to be groupers.
No debate, no discussion, a blind truth.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Well I have a mixed opinion on this. First, I love to solo. Second, I love to group. When I solo, it's because I have some odd ended quests to grind out (kill or FedEx styled) or I want to test some equipment/skill load outs without interruption. Or I may simply want to explore and raise hell on some mobs. When I group, it's because I like using the abilities of my character and my skills in general in ways most players in my similar class/archtype can even match. In essence, I'm often indispensible to a group when everyone knows their part, or even when they don't. It's nice to to take on nearly impossible odds in an MMO with a bunch of other crazy groupies, even if the group is terribly unbalanced (most mages or mostly tanks or whatever), that just makes the success all the more rewarding. The problem I see is that most MMOs only tell one 'story', usually a group story, where you get forced into one experience and can never find another (whether it's a solo story or maybe an alternate story-line). And that kills the fun aspect of solo-ing and even grouping in MMOs.
-- Brede
Soloing also doesn't mean that the soloer does that all the time. Sometimes I simply don't have enough time to invest in a search for a group and a dungeon crawl. I just want to pop on a bit before work and get a little gameplay in. City of Heroes/Villains is good like this since I can pop on and do a mission in about 15-20mins by myself if I want to.
Not to say I don't like grouping, far from it. I do enjoy dungeon crawls when I have more time to spend. MMOG's are more fun when you are playing with other people after all. In my City Of example, I try to do a strike/task force once a week on my day off.
Older games like EQ1 were very anti-soloing, which is probably one reason the subs began declining after a couple years. Up until the LDoN expansion, each previous expansion essentially created more hurdles and made it even harder to do things by yourself or in small groups. By the time SOE realized subs were going down and tried damage control it was too late, people had left. Now they aren't even trying to appease soloists or new players, just trying to keep what they have.
WoW's success has shown that small group or solo play can be viable and very profitable.
Having raided, I loved the interaction with other raid members via guild chat and vent. I also liked to just hang around town "listening" to people, interacting in general chat. Or just sending tells to a friend while you quest.
There are all types of social interaction in these games aside from grouping up for instances. If instances was the be all and end all of socialization in these types of games I would have left a long time ago. Thats why i enjoy MMORPGs.
Nothing worse than hearing some developer talking about how the game "should" be played. Your job, Mr Developer, is to make sure the game works and giving me enough to do so that I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. That's it.
"I still count the times me and a small group of friends spent murdering helpless players as some of the best times I've ever had in a game."
And how sad is that when we can only gain excitement out of "killing" a 3d representation of someone who doesnt exsist.
I'll tell you why people solo they do it so they dont have to put up with other peoples BS.
People play "games" for diffrent reasons but the main reason is to get away from there everyday real life.
More and more you find these people who want to know all about you and cant shut up trying to sound cool or funny.
Mean while they cant even play there class half way decent and you wonder why they are there in the first place.
You try to give them some advice and it goes in one ear and out the other.
So if someone asks "Hey want to come on this instance run with me ?"
here are your options
-do the instance run spend a few hours (probably helping someone finish a quest or find some item)
-dont do it and instead to whatever you want.
The choice is yours but it's not hard to see why the latter becomes more and more appealing