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SOLO?
Squal'Zell
Member Posts: 1,803
ok this is not a bashing or insitement to be flamed
i have seen many times in these forums AND on other forums for MMORPGs that this class is good for solo, this game has solo, this is solo class, you can solo with this skill...etc...
i am just wondering for those who like to play solo out there,
---- what is it about soloing in an MMORPG that makes it be one of the most important things to look for in a MMO ? ----
(my opinion)
i think that if you like playing solo why not just get a single player game? oblivion to name one. why pay 15.00 $USD to play alone?
when i log in an MMORPG game i expect to be able to party with
1. guild mates
2. friends on list
3. random people
4. real life friends who also play
at the limit, have some sort of socialization with other members of the game community.
i remember long ago SWG-PreCu when you needed to talk with some one to do anything in the game, be it your crafter, your clients (if you where a crafter) your entertainers, your doctors, and your guildmates for battle support.. it came to a point where you had to rely on others to be a good player.
(i also add poll for the fun of it)
i have seen many times in these forums AND on other forums for MMORPGs that this class is good for solo, this game has solo, this is solo class, you can solo with this skill...etc...
i am just wondering for those who like to play solo out there,
---- what is it about soloing in an MMORPG that makes it be one of the most important things to look for in a MMO ? ----
(my opinion)
i think that if you like playing solo why not just get a single player game? oblivion to name one. why pay 15.00 $USD to play alone?
when i log in an MMORPG game i expect to be able to party with
1. guild mates
2. friends on list
3. random people
4. real life friends who also play
at the limit, have some sort of socialization with other members of the game community.
i remember long ago SWG-PreCu when you needed to talk with some one to do anything in the game, be it your crafter, your clients (if you where a crafter) your entertainers, your doctors, and your guildmates for battle support.. it came to a point where you had to rely on others to be a good player.
(i also add poll for the fun of it)
Comments
Lets say a knight who can only tank and hardly do damage, if you realy want party 100% of the time thats nice for you but what if nobody is around or if the parties are full? In that case playing him could be a pain in the butt.
In addition to that, soloable classes have tendencies to be more usefull in pvp to. Not always but that's what i have seen often.
Most people want to be able to solo when the mood strikes them, and to group when the mood strikes them. They become impatient at games that force them (whether truly forcing or just by the mechanism of making soloing not be fun or worthwhile) to group up even when they are in the mood to solo.
This isn't really about people wanting to always solo. What they're really asking when they say, "What's the best soloing class?" is, "What class do I play if I want to be able to solo when I feel like it, rather than having the game dictate to me when to be social and when to be solitary?" It's just that there's no reason to say all that when the answer to the question "Which class solos best?" already answers it.
C
nobody around... in an MMO? (probably only because every one is soloing out there)
in any case i want to hear not exuses but the why do you like it so much.
but in most games i feel forced to solo my way to high lvls or rushed by a high lvl... that is what the tendencie is going on MMO
nobody around... in an MMO? (probably only because every one is soloing out there)
in any case i want to hear not exuses but the why do you like it so much. After playing FFXI for 4 years as a tank class, I can outright tell you it's not that easy. Finding a Red Mage or Bard to refresh and allow xp chains is nigh impossible at ANY time unless you personally know one that will drop their party or always be on waiting for you. Also, finding the right balance for your party will never be easy. After playing WoW as well and seeing the same problem, that further lends evidence to the fact that at some point you will need to be able to solo.
Not saying that this is the only reason you would want to solo. It may also be related to wanting to know what class can farm well by itself or just to be able to do *something* by itself from time to time. I've played a tank in every game I've played so far, and I know that I inevitably want to solo at some point or other, so, as Chessak (not sure if it was Chessak or Chessack, so I apologize in advance if I typo'd your name, no offense intended) suggested, it may just be so they can pick a character that can solo when they want to and also find parties when they feel up to it. As already stated, almost nobody wants to party every minute they're online.
In any case, that's my take on the question and current debate. Take it or leave it.
Oddly, I've always used the channels designated for LFG and LFM, but often as much as I post my character's class, level, and quest I would hardly ever get offers, even if my class was in high demand. That's why I usually solo, I have no interest in 'whoring' myself to others. If they want to group and make friends, they need to answer my LFG instead of wondering if I'm on mySpace, Facebook, and etc...
-- Brede
1. I solo alot because I hate to just disappear when I am in a group to take care of my kids when all hell breaks lose.
2. Sometimes I just want to get on for 30mins to an hour and just do my own things.
3. Sometimes I am looking for specific loot and don't want to share or deal with an ass that won't give me that special ingredient or item I need.
4. I don't always solo, just alot do to the above reasons.
5. I have set the nightime aside to group and daytime is for soloing. Heh stay at home dad ya know.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
so i can say the general case is game mechanics
so many people can solo or they dont want to "whore" themselves to others so they dont feel the need to answer LFG shouts.
the other reason is one that i can understand very well is, "sometimes i want to solo and i like a class that can do it."
but then with that class is that it becomes easier to lvl usefull for pvp making it the alpha class making it the 90% of the population class.
here is when game balancing comes in play therefore nerfing or upgrading (generally nerfing) which is practically impossible.
thanks lots for your coments has made me see things clearer,
if you have more opinions keep posting.
and because sometimes I find it more satisfying to accomplish a task solo than as part of a group that can easily blow it away.
And OP...those forced social aspects you mentioned about SWG... when I read about them in a review of the game (CGW btw) it totally turrned me off and I stuck with DAOC.
Like someone else said...I don't need to group with people in game to have fun talking to other folks, trading with them and on some occassions, grouping up . None of this can be done in a game like Oblivian.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Oddly, I like challenging, or unbalanced *gimped* classes. Like Lore-master is right now for LOTRO, it's not uber, it's a little gimped, but what tricks it has make it sometimes totally indispensable in a big fight. I was running around Raith Teig (or how it's spelled... bleh!), just killing random mobs to figure out the best general tactics, and I've pretty much got a good set of tactics to take down even bigger mobs despite being weaker than most of the other classes in that game. That's what I do when I solo, learn how the game mechanics actually work instead of whining in the forums about how X is so gimped.
-- Brede
and because sometimes I find it more satisfying to accomplish a task solo than as part of a group that can easily blow it away.
And OP...those forced social aspects you mentioned about SWG... when I read about them in a review of the game (CGW btw) it totally turrned me off and I stuck with DAOC.
Like someone else said...I don't need to group with people in game to have fun talking to other folks, trading with them and on some occassions, grouping up . None of this can be done in a game like Oblivian.....
you mean GCW (galctic civil war) that was a joke of a system... and no thats not what i talk about...
i talk about the fact that if you wanted a good weapon, you could not loot it. you had to go find a good weaponsmith and tell him what type of weapon you wanted with what specs and upgrades and whatnot...
the weaponsmith will go out and sample the ground on many planets, find the right materials needed with the right properties and the right quality (there where like 12 different types of steel) put down harvestors gather the minerals, buy from another vendor the missing items, make the weapon then sell it to you at the cost + profit. (and that weapon wont last forever since it will degrade.)
or that same weaponsmith can just make standard weapons and sell them bulk for tedius jobs.
and thats just one example
there is also the Doctors and medics
also the entertainers
and the tamers
and the fighters
etc............
I am in a guild in my current (only) MMORPG - Vanguard. It's a fairly large guild. I chat with them a lot in guild chat. But until recently it was hard to meet up (travel times are very long) and even if you meet up you have to be within a few levels of each other to work well together. So, often my guild mates were on but not really "group capable" for me. This leaves me with two options: (1) solo, or (2) the pickup group (PUG). Most of my guild mates choose option 2. I always choose option 1. So the question is why? (One of my oldest friends posed this to me just last week).
The answer is quite simple: I do not play the game the way most PUG players (in my experience) play it.
Now, what do I mean by this? Well there are many things I could say here but I will stick with just one: Stopping to smell the roses -- enjoying scenery, reading the whole text of quests, and so on. PUGs are most often characterized by impatient rushing from point to point. This is not a knock against the people who do them. PUGs exist for a reason: to get thing A done (a quest, a dungeon, etc). The faster and more efficiently you do A, you can move on to B, C, D... before the PUG breaks up. So they have a reason for going fast, but I don't enjoy the rushing. I like to smell the roses. This makes me not the sort of person most PUGs want, and most PUGs are not the experience I want. That's enough reason right there, IMO... though I have others I'm not going to go into here.
I don't like to rush. With a group of known friends from my guild, I can be sure we will take things at a pace I am comfortable with. With a PUG group... not so much. Therefore when guild mates are not available, I solo to give me a chance to enjoy the game, smell the roses, read the quests, take it easy, etc.
I play games to relax... and in my experience, outside of my circle of friends in the guild, the best way to get that is to solo if none of my friends are on.
Now since I play these games to both relax AND be social the ideal case is grouping with guild mates and enjoying the game that way. And frankly more often than not if I find myself soloing too much I just log and go play a solo game. But whether soloing in the MMO or in another game, it's a backup plan... grouping with friends is my main goal. It's just that when nobody from my guild is on, I'd rather solo and wait for friends to log in for a while, than group up with strangers. You don't have to feel the same way but the fact that I play that way, doesn't mean that I am a "soloer."
C
Playing:I can't say
Waiting:Tabula Rasa
Played:M59,UO,EQ,AO,SWG,L2,CoX
SB,EQ2,WoW,VG:SoH,GW,AC,AC2,
DAoC,DDO,DR,EVE,FFXI,PSO,RO,
RFO,RoE,MxO,H:EoI,N2,Imagine
Including the RL obligations aspect as mention earlier, I also often only have a few hours to play. One thing that bugs me in a game is getting in a group only getting halfway to the end and people have to log for RL obligations. If I have little time or am expecting some thing (call from kids to be picked up) I will solo because I will not join a group knowing that I will have to leave before the event is completed. Doing so would be rude IMHO.
Also, I play games for the enjoyment of seeing what I can accomplish not what lvl I can become. In games that have crafting systems, such as WOW, I am more interested in that then hitting the endgame. I started playing at gold but none of my avatars are over lvl48 (I have 25 over 4 servers). I solo not so much for the sake of soloing but because it’s a necessity to what I want to accomplish. Example, when I first start as game that has crafting, I will create one avatar of each type and will play each equally. The point is for each Avatar to supply themselves and the rest with whatever they make. Example, I will create a blacksmith that supplies armor and weapons to all the other Avatars as well as clan mates. Usually the Blacksmith will require items which are provided by another one of my avatars.
See I solo in order to self buff my avatars so that when I have the time I can be a useful part of the groupAn so it begins
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.[/CENTER]
Let's say yyou take an extemely narrow view of what an MMORPG is and say the only thing it provides is {social interaction}. If you look on it as that basis, then a person trying to understand why someone else would want to play solo is confused.
Now if you can open your mind and say an MMORPG is a setof {Social interaction; other things}. Then you might start to think differently about your issue. So solo and Social Interaction still doesn't make sense to you. Ah, but solo and other things do make sense.
So as you can see, the problem, as I suspect you know is it is a matter of how you are looking at it. Expand your mind and you might be able to figure it out without having to have a group of people explain it to you. Although I suspect you knew this and are trying, in a lame way, to slam soloists.
Let's say yyou take an extemely narrow view of what an MMORPG is and say the only thing it provides is {social interaction}. If you look on it as that basis, then a person trying to understand why someone else would want to play solo is confused.
Now if you can open your mind and say an MMORPG is a setof {Social interaction; other things}. Then you might start to think differently about your issue. So solo and Social Interaction still doesn't make sense to you. Ah, but solo and other things do make sense.
So as you can see, the problem, as I suspect you know is it is a matter of how you are looking at it. Expand your mind and you might be able to figure it out without having to have a group of people explain it to you. Although I suspect you knew this and are trying, in a lame way, to slam soloists.
not really not trying to slam soloists. i just have noted that it has become the trend to judge a class for its solo capabilities. and i do understand that people do not have the time to join groups and hate to leave the, others do not like the rush.as for the red part.... WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?
and as i was stating earlier, when i want to play solo most of the time i go and play oblivion/thief/Kotor/TMNT.
i also realized that the game mechanics of the WoW/EQ2/L2 etc generations allow very little chance to socialize with others (but still exists nonetheless) and IMO encourage soloplay. or solo lvling.
so i might have a more open view on MMOGs as you might think.
and ive been playing MMOGs since... well... txt based mmos.
See the problem here? It's all about point of view. The reason people play MMOs is to have a character to build up in a persistent world. If they play MMOs, there's got to be *something* they like about the social aspect.
I solo because sometimes I only have a little time. I love grouping in MMOs. It's my favorite part. However, I don't always have the time to assemble a group and tackle a huge quest. One of my biggest peeves with FFXI was that it took an hour to form a group, and then as soon as you finally had a whole set (because the classes are absolutely and completely interdependent - it is near-impossible to solo in FFXI) people suddenly had to go.
IMHO, classes (if you're gonna go that route with a game) should be able to play independently, or to join up quickly with a group (PLEASE no 'perfect group' like FFXI) do a few quests and go. I believe this is what makes a game fun to play... when you can play however the mood strikes you or whatever you have time for
--------
"Give a man a fire, and he is warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he is warm for the rest of his life."
I still dont get this solo/grouping issue.
Its like this: what kind of person in real life is best to solo?
A medical doctor and top gun actor?
Its just a silly thing to wast time for. I always solo PvP, RP and solo craft in MMO??? WTF?? I think MMO should reflect some of the hard fact of life, one person is strong.....many persons is stronger. I dont like it, but thats the way it is
And if you are skilled, you can do stuff 5 morons couldent do.
A: The guy with the biggest gun.
A2: Top gun actor. Cause they have more fun and it doesn't require 6+ years of grueling education. Not to mention they don't get sued for malpractice when they goose a woman. :P
The reason people like to solo on an mmorpg is this: They like the company of other people playing the game, doing the same thing. Either they want to achieve the same thing in a faster amount of time and they think it'll be faster that way. Maybe they are greedy and want to keep all the look for themselves. Maybe they're a lil anti social. Pick one. They all make sense.
edit: Time restraints and other people slowing you down is also key.
Oddly enough though, what you said in regards to SWG, I greatly enjoyed. I was a weaponsmith, and had a lot of fun making items for people. Taking the order, finding the mats, creating the weapon, selling it to said person, and said person referring me to his friends. That was kind of cool. I guess that type of interaction I enjoy.
"...and with that cryptic comment, I'm off to bed!"
My current favorite is City of Heroes. I can log in and play solo until one of my friends logs in. Then we can duo until we get invited to a group. If we don't like the group, we can leave and go back to duoing. If he has to log off, I can go back to soloing, or find another duoing partner, or find a group of any number. And it's still fun. We don't need to form the perfect five-man group with one of every class, or stand around typing "LFG" over and over again just to play.
When I log into an MMORPG, I expect to be able to party with:
1. Guildmates
2. Friends on my list
3. Random people
4. Real life friends who also play
5. Nobody, if that's what I feel like doing
Never ceases to amaze me how other people see fit to dictate how anyone else plays a game.
Play the way you want to play.