[Column] General: Five of the Best MMOs for Soloers

SBFord

MMORPGs, just by virtue of the name, seem to require other players to enjoy the game. Yet that's not always the case. In The List today, we take a look at five MMOs that are eminently solo-able. See what you think before heading to the comments to include your favorite game.

The acronym, "MMO", means Massive MULTIPLAYER Online, the operative word being multiplayer. Yet even in today's crowded MMO market, there are many games that never necessitate any human interaction, that allow players to be Forever Alone should they choose to be so.

Read more of Suzie Ford's The List: Forever Alone in These Five MMOs.

Rattenmann

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.

apocoluster

*waves bye bye @Zaradoom*.

Gonna be playin them games for a while

Nadia

this needs a companion article of   Best MMOs for gamers who enjoy teamwork

Avarix

Originally posted by DMKano

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 remember having friends over for solo games on C64, Amiga 500, Nintendo etc... 

Its up to you to be social, or not.

 

Getting tired of reading this excuse for a lack of multi-player in MMORPGs, emphasis on the MM part. There is an entire genre for players that don't want to socialize, they're single-player games. I can be extremely social, doesn't mean anyone else is going to be. You need other people to actually care about grouping, and in these games they don't. WoW player-base is especially viscous, in my experience, with players that are not already experts in all the dungeons and simply want to enjoy the experience.

 

Grouping will always be a lot more work than soloing, if there is no incentive then these players will never do it. All we have left are dungeons and raids to actually interact with other players. The sad part of that is that in most of these games we can exclude the dungeons part for socializing. Being able to run through an entire dungeon without anyone ever saying ANYTHING is pretty common. Guild Wars 2 is especially bad for this. Other players may as well be NPC. If you don't want the MMO part in your game, that's fine. There are a TON of games, and an entire genre called "Single player role-playing games". Why are they trying to change the defining characteristic of this genre? Frankly, it sucks.

Nadia

Originally posted by DMKano

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

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/27/patch-4-3-ptr-official-patch-notes/

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

IridescentOrk

Skyrim is betta

maplestone

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.

SBFord

Originally posted by maplestone

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.

Very nicely stated. Thank you for that.

NetSage

This is why EVE online is the best MMO :P.  It's honestly a pretty boring game alone. And, would be even more boring if you if you could do anything of meaning alone.

Silverthorn8

Originally posted by NetSage
This is why EVE online is the best MMO :P.  It's honestly a pretty boring game alone. And, would be even more boring if you if you could do anything of meaning alone.

In a similar vein, this is why I am watching Pathfinder Online with some interest. I found back in the early days (pre wow that is), game worlds were harsh enough that players needed to co-operate in order to progress. It makes for a much nicer community, vastly more rewarding than the current crop.

Mardukk

TSW and SWTOR are definitely the best solo, due to the focus on story/cut scenes.  I prefer my MMO's to be virtual worlds, which neither of these focus on.  They were still fun for a couple months though.

Whiskey_Sam

And this is why I've given up on MMOs

rodingo

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by maplestone

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.

Very nicely stated. Thank you for that.

I agree, definitely well said.  To many people seem to want to impose their playstyle on others without taking other people into consideration.  Preferences in playstyle and options are a good thing.  However I think we will have World Peace before all gamers can agree to that.  This whole, "my way or the highway" attitude that is so prevalent on these forums never cease to amaze me.

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.

Shmackpappy

Gaming companies are businesses and will continue to produce games that people WANT to play.  Obviously there is a big market in producing MMOs that are soloable.  As mentioned by others, there is nothing stopping you fron grouping up.  Every game I've been on has active guilds.  Join one and group up with others.  It doesn't mean that it should be at the exclusion of people who don't want to group.

KenFisher

I sort of like the technology assisted impromptu grouping where being in the same area with others adds cooperative group interaction without formal intent of doing so.

 

That is of course assuming I didn't stumble into a hardcore soloer who resents that I'm actually helping.

 

At least it's better than trying to PUG with idiots, or having to kiss-ass some elitist who considers me a second class citizen because I'm not wearing the latest impossible-to-get shiny.

 

In the end, what's nice for me about "soft" grouping is once the objective is complete I can wave and wander off on my own.

 

It may not be old-school multiplayer, but for me it is (or at least can be) a positive event in my gaming experience.

 

KenFisher

Originally posted by Mardukk
TSW and SWTOR are definitely the best solo, due to the focus on story/cut scenes.  I prefer my MMO's to be virtual worlds, which neither of these focus on.  They were still fun for a couple months though.

 

I'd add AOC's Tortage to the best soloable based on storyline play.  I found it very engaging as a SP experience, although not what I'd be looking for in an MMORPG.

 

Novuhz

Sorry but I have to disagree, if you can't progress the game without joining other players, that game is not solo.

I can only talk about Rift and WoW in that list because I haven't played the other ones, and in Rift / WoW if you want really good gear you can't play solo to get it /thread. How about WoW Arenas/Battlegrounds how are you going to get top PvP gear playing solo? It's impossible you need MMR/ELO to even unlock the top pvp weapons and what about WoW PvP arena titles? You will never be able to get them solo. What about the lore? Can you even do all the lore solo? No you can't you need people to accomplish all this stuff.

 

Can you solo instances the same lvl as  your level? Nope (not solo game anymore)

Can you do all quests the same lvl as your lvl alone? Nope (not solo game anymore)

 

Your definition of solo is wrong.

 

What is solo?

for or done by one person alone; unaccompanied.

a thing done by one person unaccompanied, in particular.

KenFisher

Originally posted by Nadia
this needs a companion article of   Best MMOs for gamers who enjoy teamwork

 

+1  That would be an interesting read.

 

... and waves to another from the MMO Faces thread :-)

Burntvet

Originally posted by ZombieKen

Originally posted by Nadia
this needs a companion article of   Best MMOs for gamers who enjoy teamwork

 

+1  That would be an interesting read.

 

... and waves to another from the MMO Faces thread :-)

It would be a short list.

Pretty much every game since WoW can be soloed, some almost completely, with the exception of raiding (although in many, there is no end game BUT raiding).

It is clear that in new games, player interdependency is dead. (Heck some of the "newer" MMORPG players get offended when they have to group or need any kind of player interaction for anything, not PvP. How far is that from the UO/SWG/EQ days?)

SBFord

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.

orbitxo

World of Warcraft-really?

i found it so hard to solo after leveling cap-let alone the dungeons and raids were too dependent on groups and guilds.

all i recall soloing was that 'special' shaman totem quest and the redundent dailies

GW2 was a refreshing soloable mmo- but died after the Orders missions ended. sad times...

i believe TSW yet again did a great job balancing solo play with group play- and now with issue 8 this should be pretty amazing!

RizelStar

Originally posted by rodingo

Originally posted by SBFord

Originally posted by maplestone

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.

Very nicely stated. Thank you for that.

I agree, definitely well said.  To many people seem to want to impose their playstyle on others without taking other people into consideration.  Preferences in playstyle and options are a good thing.  However I think we will have World Peace before all gamers can agree to that.  This whole, "my way or the highway" attitude that is so prevalent on these forums never cease to amaze me.

Very true.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by maplestone

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.

You currently have me wishing for a +1 or upvote feature. Very well said, maplestone.

Tekaelon

Good game design should allow for solid, enjoyable solo game play. Sometimes you just don't have time to coordinate with others to get something done. That being said , the current trend in MMO's is killing the concept of group play. The BEST rewards and adventures in an MMO should ALWAYS require a group! Not only that but MMO's should encourage team work through a dynamic group mechanic that insists on specific rolls. I don't mean JUST the dreaded big 3 of tanking, healing and DPS. We live in a time where developers should be able to discern all types of group encounter types.

 

As much as I enjoyed and respect GW2, I got so tired of every group encounter coming down to 'how fast can we dps'. It got tedious and never required to develop a play style beyond hitting max level and hitting the gear ceiling. There are no memorable moments in GW2, it all just blurs together. It was a design decision Anet made for mass appeal. That's fine, and works, but it eventually loses it color and no amount of armor/weapons skins can change that.