Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
why solo?
ASmith84
Member Posts: 979
mmorpg as everyone knows is massively multiplayer online role playing game. the massively multiplayer meaning you are with other people all the time on a persistant world. you are paying 15 bucks a month or whatever to keep this world persistant with other people and to add new content to have fun with everyone. this isnt including guildwars since its a different genre. if you want to argue about guildwars look on the main website and there is your answer. with all this being said why do people want to solo alot? dont get me wrong i solo sometimes to its fun for awhile but some people its all they want to do. everyone likes to complain about a game not having enough solo stuff in it or whatever. soloing is not the point in these types of games. these games want you to play and cooperate with one another to do stuff not just do it by yourself. it defeats the purpose of the game being massively multiplayer. its like going to a club but all you do is sit at the bar and drink and not talk to anyone else. going to a concert but all you do is sit back and watch the show. wheres the fun in that? if you guys want to solo so much get grand theft auto or whatever and have fun playing with yourself. then at least your not wastin 15 bucks a month.
Comments
Because not all of us fell like hanging out with all the 1337 gangster kiddies.
because nobody will party with you till you max out?
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
MMOs are generally designed and focus around grouping. You are in a world with hundreds of other players. Why not play with some of them? It encourages social skills. That said, yesterday was one of the few times I have ever grouped in an MMO. And it was great. I loved it. I normally just solo, because my friends don't have snazzy intertubes that allow us to play games together. I don't usually make friends on MMOs unless I get bored due to a personality trait. The reason I don't make friends or group is probably 'teh leet kiddies' that fill out a lot of online gaming. It sickens me. Somehow, MMOs draw me. There's something about them that I can't do without. Not quite an addiction, but it's on the same page. I guess I'm just waiting for my ideal MMO, because I know exactly what I want, and people have/are attempting to make that ideal reality. Patience.
And why the heck does it matter to you anyway? Are you trying to be noble and help your fellow man see the wrongness of their soloing ways and to lead these misguided players into solo paradise by telling them to play single player PC games?
Or are you self-centered only thinking of yourself because of the development resources spent to design solo content in a game that all you want to do is group in?
In other words, again, why does it even matter?
Solo content is needed for game flow. Standing around spamming LFG Dungeon X for long periods of time can be boring so there needs to be something you can pursue through solo content while forming groups for group content. If no groups are available, I rather do some solo content whether it be questing or trading then to read someones stupid joke or what they did yesterday.
You make it sound so black and white. Either there is a player that does nothing but solo up to the end game or the player groups for the entire leveling process.Thats bull because everyone who plays solos and groups, its the nature of the game. Every MMORPG i have played ends up being the same thing..I do what i can get done by soloing because it would be unrelistic to put a group together for such mundane tasks and then i group to get past the content that was made for a group. At a certain point all MMORPG's lose that balance and you are stuck with content that forces you to group because there is a lack of any other options. Most people are not lucky enough to have their friends on every time you log on or maybe you just want to play a little and feel like you made progress without having to invest 3+ hours to getting a bunch of people organized. I love to group in these games and that is one of the reasons i play them but i too want more solo content. I would like the content that is soloable in the early to mid game to be meaninful and not just go collect 10 of this and 15 of that and i also want end game content that i can have the option of doing when i dont have alot of time to invest.
It doesn't matter if you group or solo, some of the time or all of the time. If you're having fun, you're not wasting your money.
Between this subject and the gender subject, wouldn't it just be more practical to look up the eleventy one bajillion threads all ready posted from time immemorial on every single gaming board including this one?
Am I the only one who started playing games at young age due to lack of social skill?
While I do enjoy being around people and watching them, sometimes talking and also when possible fighting them (in-game in the last case) I'm not one to go "Hiiiiiii!!! Want to plaaay with meee?! *FLUFF*
I'm a gamer,
I'm asocial,
I'm a nerd,
that's why I play.
MMO's are a good way for me to communicate with people and meet new friends.
Being forced into it isn't the way however as I just ain't gonna do it.
WoW showed this at first,
it took me to level 60 and alot of PvP in BGs (PUGs) before I found friends, started doing PREs instead, it went further into arenas with a few and we became quite close. We then moved on towards other games but still talk, still meet up and so forth, you know, like friends do.
Forced grouping didn't do that.
Enough solo content to make me stick around made that.
I don't mind grouping, I just hate people if you know what I mean.
That's why solo. Because that's how gamers are. And always have been.
Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW...
It all sucked.
I'm too out of it to read the entire thread, but i read the main point, and i'll respond to it.
People want to solo because it's... fun!!!
They like being able to log into the game and go play, go quest, go achieve something. That way they don't have to spend a half hour, a hour, 2 hours, or even all day just trying to get a group to play. To log on and spend a large amount of time just trying to find a group to play. So not only do you have to find time to play, but also more time getting a group.
Whereas i can just go solo, flag myself /lfg and broadcast a few times and when i finally get a group i have made some progress in the meantime.
Unfortunetly, all the games out there make it a pain to group. You waste so much time trying to find a group, then get to the group, then you might be with them for 10 min before someone drops out and you have to wait forever to get a replacement. People get sick of it and realize it's just faster to solo.
I guess it's different if you have close friends to play with regularly, but if you're pugging it groups suck.
I am looking forward to "grouping" in WAR though. The public quests allow you to work with others without the hassle of formal groups. Can't wait to see how it works out.
I have been playing mmorpgs since about late 1993. And I was hardcore, 8-10 hours a day during the week and 15-20 hours on the weekends for a few years.....I worked a graveyard shift, or 3rd shift if you prefer the term, so For years my friends and family in real life were living in a whole other world then I was. I was completely backwards from the average person as far as hours were concerned. So all in all, my frineds in the game were my friends, my real life friends were sleeping when I was ready to go out.
Now I have been working a normal shift for years, and a wife, a daughter, a house, a car, a large fish tank, two dogs, a cat, a rabbit, and a turtle to all take care of. I don;t get much time to play MMOs anymore but still love to. So when I get a chance to log in I will. My time is pretty much limited to an hour or two at a time now, and is far from a daily basis, it's usually like once or twice a week at best.
So keeping all that in mind tell me how I am going to consistantly group. I manage to get a group now and then, but usually by the time I start a group, or join a group and the people all get to the same starting point for the group, my hour or two is up, and I have to go. Do you really want to start a group, get it filled up and an hour later when you are finally ready to get the group rolling one of the members has to log. That makes my brief time highly unproductive, and irritates most groups.
So I choose to solo most of the time, if I know I am going to have a good 4 to 6 hours to play which comes along once every couple of months I will group.
This is why I have cancelled all my mmo accounts lately I don't know anyone in the games anymore. I am looking for a game that has an awesome looking for group client, and one that I can compete with others even with my limited time to play.
Right now I am playing Dungeon Runners, very basic game, but if I want a group it's instant, I can teleport to the group to start right now.
Not so nice guy!
Some days I solo because I just am not in the mood to deal with some numb nut that thinks he's some kind of professional gamer that ruins the entire grouping experience for everyone involved. Some days I group. Some days I don't. Typically the days I group is when I am playing with members of my guild. Having more of my guild tags in the group usually means we are running the show so we don't end up having to worry about logistics, loot and other less important details and can really enjoy playing the game.
I solo mostly because I don't like relying on other people to enjoy my game. If I can jump right in and start playing without worrying about if there are other people on to group with or if we have all the right classes to make a group that'll actually work that's a big bonus to me. If it's helpful for me I wouldn't turn a group down but I will turn down groups if it looks like a failure.
Also, I like to play PvP games. That's why I like having so many other people playing too. I may prefer soloing but I still need enemies to make things exciting.
I think MMOs are more about having other people around then grouping with other people per sey. Sometimes you might want to group or raid and thats okay. You might want to group all the time and thats okay too. A MMO is a world and as such just like in real life you have the choice to be a loner like a Ranger and still be able to interact with others through the auction house or other things of that nature. Just having other people walking bye and seeing other people talking makes the world feel far more alive and real. I think thats why low population games are harder to get into. It's the people who make the game more then anything else. It's like Oblivion you wander around this beautiful world, but it feels so empty and lonely. You wish you saw other real people running around, talking, and adventuring too.
Why do people solo?
simple standing around for hours on end looking for a group is boring.
If i had an endless supply of friends who log on at the exact same time as me i would group, but i dont unthoughtunatly( sp? ). so i have no choice but to solo.
Nothing wrong with a bit of soloing it is after all aplaying style and we all pay the same subscription afterall.
"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
When i played eq2 i grouped all the time mainly because i played the game alot, was in a guild and joined at release so there was alway people around to group with.
Now I don't want to spend as much time lfg and standing around. I just want to play for an hour and leave.
Sorry but i think it's really ignorant of you to not see why people want to solo. It would seem you are very self centered.
So if someone prefers to work alone in real life, does that mean he might as well live in a world full of robots except himself?
But wait, maybe he likes going out and having a drink at the pub, having a chat, or hitting on somebody...
Just the fact that he does not like to team up for work does not mean he does not want to feel life flowing around him.
Same thing applies to MMORPGs, in my opinion.
Actually, when I think about the social aspect of the genre, grouping up for quests or raiding is near the bottom of the list for me. Chatting, crafting and selling, asking for directions, random help-outs with mobs or foe from the opposing faction... There are many ways to get socially interavctive in an MMORPG.
I find I enjoy these games the most when I solo most of the time, interact a lot when I'm soloing, and keep the grouping quite low (maybe like 10% of my in-game time).
Maybe if people whine enough about it, and cry to there senators they will pass a law saying we have to group.
Raven
From s certain perspective MMOs are more similar to single player games, than they are multi play games: Log in whenever you want, do what you want, log out when you want. Now does that sound like a multi-player game or a single-player game?
i assume besides posting you also read posts that aren't your own
how many times does this need to be explained to you
despite the block of text you posted it was intelligible so i will also assume you are not stupid - without reading any responses to the gazillion posts about this subject i think you should be able to figure it out all on your own
just stop and think about it....
dum
dee
dum
dum
dee
dee
dum
done?
ok - what have you come up with as to the reasons a soloer might find MMORPGs more interesting than a stand alone game like Obliviion?
You know, at least once a month this exact same topic, usually with the exact same title, comes up. The answers are always the same. So I ask you back, in response to "why solo?"... "Why keep asking 'why solo'?" -- I direct this to the OP, plus all the other people who keep asking this same question. Hasn't it been hashed through enough times, with the same questions and same answers being given each and every time?
Forum search is your friend.
C
I played in past about 90% of my playing time in groups. Now days, however I'm 90% soloing. There is two reasons for it.
1. Takes too long time to find good group and getting annoyed by some other players in groups.
2. Todays mmorpgs aren't for grouping, they are designed for soloing. Communities have fallen from mmorpgs, they are shadows what they use to be.
Is it what I want? Nope, but mmorpgs designer make's it so.
MMORPG.COM has worst forum editor ever exists
You said it best yourself - we're playing with other people all the time, whether we're solo or in a group.
Forming groups is optional, and is hardly the only social aspect of the game.
Let me ask you a question: If you're already playing the game with thousands of other people, why do you need to form groups, other than to achieve specific goals? Can't you just enjoy playing the game with other people, without having to do everything with them?
Sometimes youc annot find a party, your friends arent online to hunt/raid with, or your just a loner that got kicked out of a guild. Either way, its their 15 bucks they put into it. I'd say if htey want to pay the money then there should be things for everyone to do as longas they put in their $$$ in to have content thats supposed to be in the game in the first place then why not. But i do understand the whole MMO concept and agree to a point, but sometimes it is alot funner soloing (asheron's call had the best IMO)