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There has to be a mmorpg that encourages nothing but grouping.
Zoodoo
Member Posts: 67
First with all these solo mmorpgs were you can solo all the way from 1 to max level i think there now needs to be a mmorpg where you need to group to level and achieve anything. Im so tired of having to play mmorpgs these days where im all by myself and no one wants to group because the game encourages soloing and theres no need to group besides the random dungeon runs for phat loot.
1. There should be no grouping exp penalty,
2. Soloing should be extremely extremely hard like EQ was, either you played a certain class that was good at solo or you had to be really skilled to solo.
3. Solo rewards need to be lame but not lame enough but still lame in some mmorpgs i was getting quest rewards much better then items you have to get in dungeons
4. Stop with the YOU NEED a certain ammount of players to group, we need to start encouraging duoing trioing instead of the YOU NEED 5 people or max people to run a dungeon this also discourages people in making a group.
5. Vanguard could have done this and done this very well yet they still encouraged soloing for the solo player and you can run 1 - 50 with out every intereacting with another person. I wish i could group with people for exp and fun rather then getting phat loots.
Yes people time is precious and people like soloing but theres many mmorpgs out there that cater their soloing needs, we dont have any mmorpgs that encourage grouping the only one i can really think of is FF11.
Only thing that will kill World of warcraft is World of warcraft 2
Comments
Well, you're right about FFXI, but Vanguard is also a tough game to play all by your lonesome. Sure, you can do it, and you can do it in FFXI as well if you want to, but you'd be making it much harder on yourself if you didn't group. Aside from FFXI, VG is about the only game I can think of where grouping is more of a neccessity than a choice.
Even though you now can solo a bunch of the low level instances it sounds like you would love DDO. Most people just group till level 14. You don't need six people per instance run for normal mode instances. For the endgame you don't need a 40 man raid that takes eight hours to finish you can just get a 10 man group and go do the raid.
The original EverQuest is exactly what you're looking for.
Forced grouping doesn't make nearly as much money as solo friendly games. Good luck.
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
I agree 100%.
I would actually like something like the OP is talking about except for one little thing. How big are the groups going to be? Personally I don't want groups any larger than six.
The thing that would kill it for me is that if a new game was based on grouping the way old EQ was the dumbass devs would go overboard and push us into raiding again for sure. I like SMALL groups. I absolutely refuse to raid. So any game that reserves the best stuff for raiders just pisses me off.
I was once in a groupe of just under 2,000 verses another groupe of 3,000.......We lost but it did take 3 hours. Now thats grouping!
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
Why do forced grouping proponents continue to labor under the false assumption that solo play and group play are in conflict.
This isn't a theory. Its fact. Your assumptions are wrong and have been proven wrong by CoX. You can solo 95% of the content and achieve all major power milestones via solo play and people still group regularly and often.
Please address your ire to poorly designed group mechanics and stop misplacing your ire on solo play. This is hard for forced groupers to understand because it is the opposite of their intution and assumptions, but here goes one more time.
It is the simplistic get all roles or do nothing mechanic and the lack of differentiation that is causing your problem. The problems you are seeing with solo play area SYMPTOM, they are no the disease.
Grouping in CoX offers different and interesting spawns. Getting a grouping is quicker and easier and more interesting because of more flexibilty in "role" and the necessity of these "roles". You do not need to sit around and go "LF healer PST". In other words it does not compete with the advatnages of solo play and offers other things like different gameplay.
5 scrappers or 5 defenders or 2 tanks and 3 blasters. All are viable groups in their own way. They also offere different group gameplay rather than the same crap ovre and over. Further you can easily recruit a 6th guy of any AT even if he is soloing because you get a bit more xp in a group but you also get to switch up your gameplay with almost no extra burden.
Let us be very clear. CoX is possibly the MOST solo friendly MMORPG to ever exist and is also one of the games it is easiest to find a group in. In fact many CoX players run in groups exclusively.
The assumed negative correlation between solo play and group play is a LIE. Your assumptions are wrong.
Your fourth point is the line you need to concentrate on. Its not a new concept. Its already implemented in CoX. Its the crux of the issue. Your other stuff is actually wrong. This is again shown in CoX.
Your fourth point shows that on some level you understand that EQ style grouping mechanics are broken. Keep folowing a long those lines and you will come to see that blaming solo play is a canard. Its the Devs design of group play not solo play that is wrong.
The issue is that Devs use a stick to force people into grouping. They either design content to force a certain configuration or the neuter classes to the point they must be supplemented. However the reason CoX works is they offer carrots instead. They do have the roles but they do not force you to need a tank the role exists and is useful but is not necessary. In EQ you get a tank and a healer because you have to. You group because you have to not because its fun.
In CoX everyone groups for mutual benefit and mutual fun. And they do not need to worry about the stupid barriers force role demand causes. They just get some people together and have some fun. It is true that some configuration really want a Tank. Like say 3 blasters. But in general most configuration of any sort can work fine and therefore you can easily add who ever you want. Most people who are not on a tight schedule or taking care of a baby or something have no problem accpeting a group invite because why shouldn't they? It doesn't interfere with anything the way a WoW or EQ instance run would. Instances are pretty quick and you can easily bale out after a couple with no real problem from the group as they can often find and another person and you can run things with any number of people.
The flexibility means that:
1) Groups are easier to put together due to the lack of role or size restrictions
2) Groups are much less likely to fall apart when some one leave for the same reason
3) Groups are more interesting since their make up has much more variation
4) Larger groups do more than have larger spawns, they also spawn more bosses. Therefore Group play has different aspects to solo play.
5) the fundamental content is the same so that running a group instance or running a solo instance does not cause a disparity in desireability. The only advantage solo has is not having to wait for people to there if they are in another zone. With the prevalence of summoning abilities this is very minor.
All of these combine to make the disadvantages between solo and group play to be virtually Nil. In addition Group play offers a change of pace versus solo and is therefore desireable even to hardcore soloers.
None of this is a theoretical guarantee that people will group. But since CoX has implemented all these, it is a very solid long running real world example that providing equality in grouping and solo play will create a game with plenty of grouping when implemented well.
In CoX you essentially have groups of size 1-8 and you get slightly different gameplay for each different number in addition to the added gameplay diversity for additional people. Rather than EQ style of either groups of size 1 or groups of size 6 and always exactly the same content either way.
The irony is that the forced grouping mechanics actually make groups LESS common and LESS enjoyable.
I could not have agreed more! One of the biggest things I despised about FFXI was that getting into a group, or even starting a group was long, tiresome and plain simply too much work for a GAME! Don't get me wrong, I like Group Play, in fact whenever I actually managed to get a group together to do a quest, it was a lot of fun. But the mechanics that the system required you to get before even getting started where ridiculous! I played CoX too and you're right, I was very glad they got rid of that ridiculous system of "You NEED a healer to do this" as opposed to simply saying " Well, you don't NEED one, but it would be helpful" and even when you didn't have a healer, it was always easy enough to find the green healing boxes from mobs (Aspirations)
This whole war on solo v. group play is ridiculous and I think the OP better think his concepts a little better because I would hardly consider FFXI ENCOURAGING grouping, I would say it's more a kin to FORCED grouping. I don't want to be FORCED to group. I want to be able to solo when I want to, and group when I want to. If more devs saw how CoX fixed this problem, MMO's would be a step closer to becoming actual fun games instead of second jobs.
To OP:
Did you start this thread by yourself or did you get a group together before you wrote it?
Grouping is great, but as you see some things were just meant to be soloable.
I have been searching for a game the complete opposite of what the OP mentioned. I am still searching.
1. There should be a group exp penalty (well not this one) BTW most mmos give a grouping exp bonus.
2. Soloing should be extremely easy.
3. Solo rewards should be great.
4. You need a certain amount of players to group.
5. Vanguard didn't do this.
I should be able to group if I want, or play solo if I want. I won't play any game that forces me to play one style or the other, exclusively.
Zoodoo I have to agree with you. I play MMORPG for the social aspect and getting things accomplished with others. I can play single player rpgs offline without a fee every month. MMORPG creators need to realize they need to have different versions of their games for different people. Microsoft and Apple has realized this with OS's, when will game MMORPG makers realize this? MS XP Home and Professional ..etc etc. Everyone has different needs so there needs different servers.
PvP servers, PvE servers, Group play, Solo, Hardcore, Casual etc etc .. people have different needs to have fun.
Correction: The original Everquest is exactly what you are looking for but too bad it no longer exist.
The game you are looking for is D&D Online. The game is entirely instanced and you are required to be in a group to have a remote chance of surviving. I did speak to a friend who said that they implemented the ability to solo, but in order to get the best gear and most experience points, you need to be in a party.