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[Preview] World of Warcraft: The Solo Scenario System
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
With the latest World of Warcraft game update, players now have the opportunity to advance the Thunder Isle story line through a variety of solo mini games. We've take a good look at the solo scenario system and have a great analysis to share. Read on before heading to the comments to leave your thoughts.
The single player scenarios that were introduced in patch 5.2 come in two varieties. The first scenario is the Troves of the Thunder King which is a time-based mission in which you try to grab as much loot as you can before a five minute timer expires. The other type of solo scenarios are linked to the Isle of Thunder progression. As each stage of the Isle is unlocked, a one-time scenario becomes available that furthers the story of the assault. These allow players to see the story unfold in the event they’re not logged in when a stage is completed.
Read more of Reza Lackey's The WoW Factor: The Solo Scenario System.
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Comments
yeah... um...
lets take a lesson from every singe failed mmo since 2005, and create more solo scripted content.... because that has worked so well in the past
*blows the sarcasm horn*
The way mmo's were: Community, Exploration, Character Development, Conquest.
The way mmo's are now : Cut-Scenes,Cut-Scenes, solo Questing, Cut-Scenes...
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Can't these 'solo' scenarios actually be done with other people? I'm pretty sure they can. They are one time only though but if you and your friends start it together... you can do it all.. together. (not the troves one.
You will also see other players in the... “Pharios”.. that are on the same stage as you. They are not solo instances.
It always amuses me to see people equate "solo" with "easy". I figure people must just not play very many games to make such statements.
Group content can be both easy and difficult, as can solo content.
If your gripe is having solo content in an MMO, then that's something else again. But the "solo = easy" statement is just ... ill-informed.
I dont mean to be so negative about this subject, its just that im losing patiance with it.
Solo scripted content has become such a cancer to the mmo genre... games like Defiance, Secret world, swtor, gw2.. they have such a rediculis amount of bs solo scripted content that the game is just so shallow and bad.
Mmos dont need all this scripted crap.. it is expensive and tedius, or at the very best, lack luster.
Depth of systems and game world > linear solo content
It needs to go away.
The way mmo's were: Community, Exploration, Character Development, Conquest.
The way mmo's are now : Cut-Scenes,Cut-Scenes, solo Questing, Cut-Scenes...
www.CeaselessGuild.com
This article, blog..whatever it is, is misleading. It is not all solo scripted content. Most of it is phased public content. Other players will be there with you if they at the same stage as you. It's more like public phasing.
Honestly more solo end game content, is the only thing that would bring me back to WoW. I like the world and lore, but the majority of the community is composed of a**hats and neckbeards.
Blizzard is far more crafty than people give them credit for. If solo content was causing games to fail as some are claiming, then Blizzard would never adopt it.
I hate solo scenarios, it's totaly against the whole idea of MMO. Try to do the new ones in WoW as a healer or as a tank...
At least in GW2 you can group with friends, even for the personal story !
IMHO it's even a regression from 5.1: during the shieldwall dailies you had special quest to move on with the story, and you had choice: solo or in group.
Sunsong ranch has shown a different approach to housing - instead of the traditional MMO home that sucks in decorative content from across the game, the ranch is little private corner of infrastructure relevent the current continent. I'm curious what Blizzard will do with the farm at the end of the expansion ... will they assume players are ok just abandoning the farms like any other zone, will they make it a permanent minigame with new tiers of crops or will they add a token farewell quest to provide a sense of closure?
I'm not a big fan of scripted-stories, but short solo story instances are prefered to cutscenes that take full control of my character.
The Troves of the Thunderking is an interesting challenge, although I have to admit I don't function well at all under time pressure. I really like the basic key mechanic though - essentially a more-or-less weekly quest for a run at high-value content. Although I prefer open-world resources in theory, there are definite advantages of hiding goodies and challenges behind a small instance. A version of the farm/vault that was a private mine would probably go over well.
I was concerned about the effect of solo instances/phases on socialization and the sense of being in a populated world, however sunsong ranch turned out better than I expected for this because there was usually a comfortable fraction of the players milling about in the public market nearby.
Great, let's make MMO's even more solo-centric, because my ideal MMO is the one where I never have to see or interact with another person ever.
I can appreciate this post.
Yup, hating WoW is the thing to do on these forums. Sad really.
FMD, i would imagine the people crying over this are the same ones that think you are forced to do dailies.
Blizzard work off trends. They are constantly going over the stats of how and what people are doing in game.
The fact that they are adding more solo content tells you there is a huge portion of the population that like to log on and progress on their terms without sitting the city for 30 mins and waiting for that tank to go for his 3rd bio run.
Does it matter that the game is a world full of other players? NO!!!
If you want to progress by yourself that's great. Nobody is forcing you to do it if you don't like it.
If any company want to make serious money, must appeal to broader audience. Sometimes this just can not work. But I think Blizzard did great work with Wow that has a lot of SOLO content and GROUP content.
Again, MMO does not mean and should not mean FORCED group play. Oh, it can. They will just have much less players.
There's a thin line between love and hate.
In this case, it's the width of WotLK.
I love solo content, it let me choose when I whant to play, and also, I could chalange my self on different dificulties.
Solo is good.
Trying to get my Shaman to 90, seems like there is SO much "new" content at the cap now when compared to old expansions.
Before, it was always assumed once I leveled up to max I could grind dungeons for gear and rep and badges and buy my way up to being able to join Raid Finder.
The progression was clear. Level, dungeons, heroics, raids - mix in dailies.
Now, with Scenarios and Challenge Dungeons and all the dailies and farming etc. for the first time in 8+ years I really don't "know" World of Warcraft anymore.
It's kind of cool.
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