I am not against solo but I prefer to group. This argument can go both ways. The games after and including WoW "force" you to solo. That is right, they force you to solo to obtain the fastest xp. You are penalized for grouping in today's games and that that should not be so.
Solo is fine but encourage grouping by letting the group get the same xp as you would while solo. This is what needs to change. No more forced solo. I have had people turn down groups in games like WoW because they state "no way, kills the xp" or "you are crazy for grouping all the way, ruining your xp".
Also killing monsters rather than questing should give you a lot of xp. The actual turning in of the quest should provide little extra reward. I don't like "forced" questing. People that like quest still can do quest but those who prefer to make there own adventure should be forced down the fastest xp path.
You say you have a choice. Not really the rest of the playerbase gravitates towards the path of least resistance and you would be left alone. Again questing and solo is okay in my books but I prefer everything to be as equal as possible in XP rewards so we have options. Options are good.
Would you play a forced grouping game? In otherwords, this game would not be like WoW, where you can do almost all the quests by yourself, and you can group if you want to, but it's not necessary because you level just as fast not grouping. (I"m talking about pre-max level, i.e. BEFORE WoW turns into a raiding game). I'm not saying you couldn't do ANYTHING without a group, but leveling (or gaining skill points in a skill based game) would be 4 or 5 times slower solo than in a decent group. You could access all the content, and get all the same gear, but you'd have to level, and come back to lower level zones to do some of the dungeons solo to get the gear, etc.
Depends on the length of the instances I'd be running, and also the population of the game itself.
Well yeah I would play it but it has a huge down side.
First off was a huge ffxi game I loved it back in its peak in like 04-06. The game was so fun but that was when it had good numbers and I could log on and get a group going in a matter of minutes. I have had the urge to play ffxi recently but really if I were to join it today I couldnt get anything done, the game is getting less numbers the world is ruled by high level people I couldn't see myself getting a group too easy so I don't bother going back.
So in the first few years of the game it really works out great but as the game dies you wont have too many newcomers comeing in and getting too far so they quit. In maybe 4 or 5 years when WoW is loseing numbers people will still have ways to get up to 70 and play with the veteran members.
I played EQ1 back in 2000 when it was pretty much forced grouping.....There were some classes that could solo OK but if you wanted to get anywhere you grouped........The problem with forced grouping is its eitehr a good experience or a bad experience..>>There isnt much middle ground.....Also people just have to accept today that the tiems have changed.....Msot players just dont have several hours available to play like they used to......It would really depend on the game and how it handles group issues (ie ease of getting groups, how loot is handled, roles for everyone to play in a group, etc).....Basically the end of my Everquest career came in 2005 when it literally took more than an hour just to find a group (if you found one at all) and then people were constantly leaving.......Also with forced grouping you need a very large community so that there are actually players to group with and you need strong incentive for players to group.
I guess it depends on what you find fun in an MMORPG. I think it's fun to group with other players. If I can't find a group for an hour, then I really don't care if during that hour I could have been making progress solo, because I don't want to play the game solo anyways. I don't want to quest grind, or wack on mobs by myself, so I"m not losing anything by not being able to do that if I can't find a group.
Originally posted by Tater122 Well yeah I would play it but it has a huge down side. First off was a huge ffxi game I loved it back in its peak in like 04-06. The game was so fun but that was when it had good numbers and I could log on and get a group going in a matter of minutes. I have had the urge to play ffxi recently but really if I were to join it today I couldnt get anything done, the game is getting less numbers the world is ruled by high level people I couldn't see myself getting a group too easy so I don't bother going back.
You are mistaken. You might not get a party in a matter of minutes, but you could probably get one in half-an-hour. I'm currently levelling a lvl 11 MNK on Asura and a lvl 32 BLM on Remora, so I know.
Would you play a forced grouping game? In otherwords, this game would not be like WoW, where you can do almost all the quests by yourself, and you can group if you want to, but it's not necessary because you level just as fast not grouping. (I"m talking about pre-max level, i.e. BEFORE WoW turns into a raiding game). I'm not saying you couldn't do ANYTHING without a group, but leveling (or gaining skill points in a skill based game) would be 4 or 5 times slower solo than in a decent group. You could access all the content, and get all the same gear, but you'd have to level, and come back to lower level zones to do some of the dungeons solo to get the gear, etc.
I have no idea what you talk about?
History and common sense will tell anyone that if you are have help, the work will go faster. Thats something you cant change. Lets say you wanna build a house, siege a city, or find a magic sword. Why not be 20 people working??
If some idiot wanna do it all alone...thats his/hers problem.
I can just say this: i would never play a MMO wich is "forced soloing".
Even assuming that you could get groups really quickly so time wasn't an issue I would still say no. The thing is I like to solo, not just for convience but because I like to know that my character can do ample things by himself. If my character has to rely too much on a group then I start to feel he is mostly useless, and I start to lose interest. That and it is fun to take on things by yourself, achievements mean more to me if I can do them all by my lonesome, and I don't want to be penalized for doing it.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
Well yeah I would play it but it has a huge down side.
First off was a huge ffxi game I loved it back in its peak in like 04-06. The game was so fun but that was when it had good numbers and I could log on and get a group going in a matter of minutes. I have had the urge to play ffxi recently but really if I were to join it today I couldnt get anything done, the game is getting less numbers the world is ruled by high level people I couldn't see myself getting a group too easy so I don't bother going back.
You are mistaken. You might not get a party in a matter of minutes, but you could probably get one in half-an-hour. I'm currently levelling a lvl 11 MNK on Asura and a lvl 32 BLM on Remora, so I know.
Yeah but its still true what I am saying it is not as easy as it used to be and I don't like playing the waiting game anymore. Asura is one of the more popular servers if I am correct.
Option 1: Those that want to group can stick to MMORPGs
Option 2: Those that want to solo can stick to RPGs.
Sick and tired of solo'ers coming into the MMO genre. If all you want to do is play a game and chat its called multi-tasking. There's AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc to chat up all night and run alongside a great RPG. See option 2.
Too busy to group up in MMOs because you don't have the time? Then the MMO genre is not for you. See option 2.
I would play a forced grouping game. I played EQ1 for 6 years + which required you to group to get the best exp per hour most of the time, depending on the few classes that could solo reasonably well (necromancer).
I like to play my game with other people, not just a chat room like in WoW while everyone solos, but actually work hard together and feel great with what we have all achieved.
In my opinion there should be a lot more group games.
Warhammer Online Crnobog, The Black God Chaos Chosen <Guildless>
I would play a force group game, but I think the ideal way would be if grouping was just way better than solo. That way people who can only play 30min here or an hour there can solo and get something done, just at a much slower rate.
I was able to solo in EQ no problem really at any level with a variety of classes, but grouping was just much better and allowed a greater range of content to be tackled. Let people be able to solo, but the amount you can will be limited. Of course people will complain, but they could always group to see the harder content for better rewards.
I would play a force group game, but I think the ideal way would be if grouping was just way better than solo. That way people who can only play 30min here or an hour there can solo and get something done, just at a much slower rate.
I sort of agree, however I don't think solo'ers should progress at a slower rate, but rather keep it steady but reward people who group in terms of loot, materials or special benefits.
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
As a constant soloer, I think the big problem is that grouping, in the main, sucks. Us soloers would like to group more often than not. It's just that things conspire against us:
1) "this xp sux bye" -- This is the problem the OP is addressing. For whatever reason the game makes it better game-mechanic-wise (XP rewards, loot drops, whatever) to solo. Even when it's beneficial to team up the game doesn't make this clear, so it seems better to solo. Keep in mind the more people you add to a group, the more chances you'll have "afk brb" pop up, which means that all that XP/gold bonus per minute is shot because you're staring at a bunch of people doing /dance while you wait for Geemlee to get back from the can.
2) "need a heeler" -- Nothing says "subscription fee well spent" than waitin' for a healer. You've got a group and you've got content only a group can do... but your particular group either needs (or the leader thinks you need) a particular class/species/whatever. So you sit and wait and don't get involved in anything because, who knows, St. Jude might suddenly intervene and give you a healer.
3) "brb need to maek dinner" -- Did I mention this? I think I did. Insert all the Herding Cats problems under this header. /dance, everyone, /dance!
4) "how much u pay me 2 run you through BM?" -- This happens when you're a new player on an older game. You'd like to team up for the team content... but you're faced with a server-sized helping of "been there, done that" attitude. If you manage to find someone who'll team with you they think they're doing you a favor and will extort payment.
5) "r u lfg?" -- For whatever reason, the developers created a teaming UI that is slightly less advanced than smoke signals. Ever wonder why someone would ask you "LFG?" if you've, y'know, flagged yourself LFG? Probably crappy search tools. Or maybe point 6...
6) "r u a tard lol" -- Or, to quote George Carlin, "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." You rarely remember the decent, helpful folk you team with, but the mouth-breathing misanthrope who has 12 level 70s and therefore Utters Only The Law... these wastes of flesh choke the game like weeds. By itself, point 6 is really just "welcome to the internet", but if you couple it with the other points and you've got yourself a solo player.
Stupid people you can't fix, but you can minimize most of the other points by tweaking the game design. I point to City of Heroes as a shining example of how to make a team-encouraging game while still allowing die-hard solo players to play most of the content.
A forced grouping MMO causes way too much problems.
People often buy into the hype of an MMO, so when the game releases, theres tons of players. But what happens when they find the flaws and get dissappointed? The players cancel their sub in which case lowers the populations and then goes around and makes finding groups very hard. So then while you're out there trying to find a group and wasting time doing nothing but sit around, it gets boring and frustrating.
Take Vanguard for example. I loved it from release. There were tons of people out there, and finding groups wasnt hard at all. Now I'm just at a crafting station, put up LFG and jsut craft away. I stay LFG for hours, waiting for people to ask me to join a group. There arent many people around my levels anymore (40+) and the players that are around my levels groups with their guildmates. I even have trouble finding a guild. Theres so many guilds in the game that spreads apart all the players, they spam on the chat channel for people to join their guilds, but instead they should all be merging guilds to have a bigger player base. But the only thing they really care about is having more people in their guild with their tag.
A forced grouping MMO causes way too much problems.
Take Vanguard for example. I loved it from release. There were tons of people out there, and finding groups wasnt hard at all. Now I'm just at a crafting station, put up LFG and jsut craft away. I stay LFG for hours, waiting for people to ask me to join a group. There arent many people around my levels anymore (40+) and the players that are around my levels groups with their guildmates. I even have trouble finding a guild. Theres so many guilds in the game that spreads apart all the players, they spam on the chat channel for people to join their guilds, but instead they should all be merging guilds to have a bigger player base. But the only thing they really care about is having more people in their guild with their tag.
Do missives and solo a bit. That's what I used to do, I might try that again.
It was fun... it was having skill, MEETING NEW PEOPLE *COUGH* (People are so scared of actually doing this in new MMORPGs), becoming friends and enjoying each others company...
The problem is that 90% or more of the people you meet are idiots/griefers/scammers/loot thieves.
So most people find a group of friends and stick with it, and won't group with anyone they don't know because:
The risk is not worth the reward from grouping.
In my experiences with games like EQ, EQ2, FF11, CoX, and other group heavy games, I have found most people i've met in groups to usually be nice, sharing, decently skilled people. WoW, on the other hand, has one of the worst MMO communities i've seen, and since soling is so easy, when you do group with people at higher levels, it's a crapshoop to see if they have any skill or not. The previous games I mentioned (among others) are much more community based, and if you are indeed a idiot/griefer/scammer/ninja looter then word spreads around and these people get groups less often. I play WoW and enjoy it, but it's community is not something that should be seen as the regular MMO community.
This.
I voted yes because I love grouping with quality people.
Playing a great game while meeting someone from a country you've only read about is nice, but only a game with a good community can pull off forced grouping IMO.
Like stevestyle said.. "I play WoW and enjoy it, but it's community is not something that should be seen as the regular MMO community. "
Does anyone think a game will ever have something like a Morale Patrol?
One of the best things about CoX is that it really offers a different grouping experience versus solo play.
Grouping in CoX offers the following:
1) slightly better xp. Its not huge but its noticeable
2) Truly makes you "super" since most things stack in CoX
3) Different spawns.
I really think most MMOs would do well to look at 2 & 3 above to really make grouping more popular. The idea of being able to get some crazy buffs and take on 3 bosses at once while the rest of your group takes out the Archvillain whereas outside that group you might be able to tak 2 bosses at once and you would need to be careful.
See in an EQ style game you get in a group for negative reasons. Because roles need to be filled.
In CoX you get a group for positive reasons, you get more interesting spawns and the the stacking and synergy actually makes you stronger than just the additive effect of more people.
A group of 5 priests on WoW can often be sucky because various roles won't be filled. A group of 5 defenders can be a group of tank mages because of synergy of buffs. A solo defender will often have crappy damage but 5 defender together may have similar damage to 5 blasters together. Due to this dynamic many people is CoX are often anxious to group or only group because it fun it makes you better. It is more than a requirement. Its not something you need to do to be efficient or whatever. You do it because you can turn your defender into a killing machine and that is fun and exciting.
Any game that is depending on forced grouping has basically given up on differentiating group play and making group play have a fun incentive. So instead they have opted for a ham fisted "role-based" requirement + carrots way. Which in the end has a rather depressing effect.
In EQ or WoW or LOTRO. The refrain is "We need a healer or we can't do it". For CoX its usually something more along the lines of "Sweet, speed boost, I am gonna tear some stuff up now" or "Sweet , fortitude, now I can flip out and kill stuff."
In EQ/WoW you need your tank and you need your healer but basically those two operate the same in or out of a group and basically those two corner stones of the EQ-style grouping experience basically make the DPS guys not die. The DPS basically operate exactly the same in or out of the group. They simply have to manage their aggro. In CoX you can operate completely different. You could go from squishy DPS to doing good and having good defense. You might be able to recycle powers far far faster, making you more survivable and doing more damage.
This is the critical difference that MMORPGs really need to explore to "fix" the solo versus group problems. Grouping really should be different. Not just some people forced togehter that mostly operate the same solo or in a group.
As long as there is plenty of solo content for when my friends aren't online. This certainly isn't an either or scenario.
I enjoy multiplayer games. I like group activiites.
I have played a few games where you have needed to complete group quests to continue.
I have always found this a good thing, I also like the system of more xps in groups.
The social element is the single greatest attraction to these kinds of games. The gameplay tends to be piss poor in comparison to games of other genre's.
(Can you imagine playing Eve as a single player?)
Activities that encourage social interaction and or progeression systems that do the same are excellent. It's much easier to find groups or to make more friends if people all have common goals. It's faster to find people to play with when they are all llooking too.
Hmmf. I don't like the idea of forced grouping at all. But then again, since having played CoX for 3 years and now looking for another "home" MMO, I've discovered something. In every MMO I've tried (WoW, VG, PoTBS, AoC, TR, etc., etc.) I've found myself soloing more than grouping. In CoX I was never "forced to group". Yet in CoX I hardly ever soloed - in fact, I used to build teams to do my own missions. Playing with others in PUGs is sheer joy in CoX. So I think there's something that CoX is getting fundamentally right that a lot of other games are getting fundamentally wrong. Don't know what it is, but CoX has been a far more social gaming experience for me than any other MMO.
I played CoH, and it does have a lot going for it, however it could use some improvement. The grouping mechanisms are good. Fast travel so you can group up quickly, missions scale up to match the size of the group, and you can sidekick and mentor so that any level can group with any other level player in the game. Also, groups work well together, complementing each other, better IMO, than in WoW in the 1-60 game. In WoW it seems like you don't need to work together much at all, it's like a free for all in a group.
However, the CoH game play is a little fast, to the point that there's almost no downtime for chatting or socializing when you're in a group.
Not much if any downtime required between battles, and travel requires a lot of button mashing, so again not much time for chat during travel. I found a lot of groups were, fight, kill, kill, xp, xp, heal, go left, wait, ok, let's go, where's the boss mob?, this way, kill some more, reward, thanks for group.
Fun, but needs a bit more depth to match the grouping experience of a DAoC or EQ.
The poll shows that there is a segment of MMO players that don't mind the forced grouping design. Might not be as popular as WoW, but it's a viable design.
Comments
No I would not play a game where I was forced to group. I like have the choice of grouping or soloing.
I am not against solo but I prefer to group. This argument can go both ways. The games after and including WoW "force" you to solo. That is right, they force you to solo to obtain the fastest xp. You are penalized for grouping in today's games and that that should not be so.
Solo is fine but encourage grouping by letting the group get the same xp as you would while solo. This is what needs to change. No more forced solo. I have had people turn down groups in games like WoW because they state "no way, kills the xp" or "you are crazy for grouping all the way, ruining your xp".
Also killing monsters rather than questing should give you a lot of xp. The actual turning in of the quest should provide little extra reward. I don't like "forced" questing. People that like quest still can do quest but those who prefer to make there own adventure should be forced down the fastest xp path.
You say you have a choice. Not really the rest of the playerbase gravitates towards the path of least resistance and you would be left alone. Again questing and solo is okay in my books but I prefer everything to be as equal as possible in XP rewards so we have options. Options are good.
Depends on the length of the instances I'd be running, and also the population of the game itself.
FFXI was pretty fun last time I played it.
I'm personally so burned out on the solo-friendly play-style, that I would welcome a group-oriented game.
FFXI had the right idea. You grouped so often, that by the time you hit 75, you probably knew most of the people on the server.
If there's ever a sequel to FFXI, I will definitely play it :-)
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Well yeah I would play it but it has a huge down side.
First off was a huge ffxi game I loved it back in its peak in like 04-06. The game was so fun but that was when it had good numbers and I could log on and get a group going in a matter of minutes. I have had the urge to play ffxi recently but really if I were to join it today I couldnt get anything done, the game is getting less numbers the world is ruled by high level people I couldn't see myself getting a group too easy so I don't bother going back.
So in the first few years of the game it really works out great but as the game dies you wont have too many newcomers comeing in and getting too far so they quit. In maybe 4 or 5 years when WoW is loseing numbers people will still have ways to get up to 70 and play with the veteran members.
I guess it depends on what you find fun in an MMORPG. I think it's fun to group with other players. If I can't find a group for an hour, then I really don't care if during that hour I could have been making progress solo, because I don't want to play the game solo anyways. I don't want to quest grind, or wack on mobs by myself, so I"m not losing anything by not being able to do that if I can't find a group.
You are mistaken. You might not get a party in a matter of minutes, but you could probably get one in half-an-hour. I'm currently levelling a lvl 11 MNK on Asura and a lvl 32 BLM on Remora, so I know.
I have no idea what you talk about?
History and common sense will tell anyone that if you are have help, the work will go faster. Thats something you cant change. Lets say you wanna build a house, siege a city, or find a magic sword. Why not be 20 people working??
If some idiot wanna do it all alone...thats his/hers problem.
I can just say this: i would never play a MMO wich is "forced soloing".
In short no,
Even assuming that you could get groups really quickly so time wasn't an issue I would still say no. The thing is I like to solo, not just for convience but because I like to know that my character can do ample things by himself. If my character has to rely too much on a group then I start to feel he is mostly useless, and I start to lose interest. That and it is fun to take on things by yourself, achievements mean more to me if I can do them all by my lonesome, and I don't want to be penalized for doing it.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
You are mistaken. You might not get a party in a matter of minutes, but you could probably get one in half-an-hour. I'm currently levelling a lvl 11 MNK on Asura and a lvl 32 BLM on Remora, so I know.
Yeah but its still true what I am saying it is not as easy as it used to be and I don't like playing the waiting game anymore. Asura is one of the more popular servers if I am correct.
After waiting hour after hour to form decent groups in some MMORPGs, i defenitly say no, thanks.
Option 1: Those that want to group can stick to MMORPGs
Option 2: Those that want to solo can stick to RPGs.
Sick and tired of solo'ers coming into the MMO genre. If all you want to do is play a game and chat its called multi-tasking. There's AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc to chat up all night and run alongside a great RPG. See option 2.
Too busy to group up in MMOs because you don't have the time? Then the MMO genre is not for you. See option 2.
I would play a forced grouping game. I played EQ1 for 6 years + which required you to group to get the best exp per hour most of the time, depending on the few classes that could solo reasonably well (necromancer).
I like to play my game with other people, not just a chat room like in WoW while everyone solos, but actually work hard together and feel great with what we have all achieved.
In my opinion there should be a lot more group games.
Warhammer Online
Crnobog, The Black God
Chaos Chosen
<Guildless>
I would play a force group game, but I think the ideal way would be if grouping was just way better than solo. That way people who can only play 30min here or an hour there can solo and get something done, just at a much slower rate.
I was able to solo in EQ no problem really at any level with a variety of classes, but grouping was just much better and allowed a greater range of content to be tackled. Let people be able to solo, but the amount you can will be limited. Of course people will complain, but they could always group to see the harder content for better rewards.
I sort of agree, however I don't think solo'ers should progress at a slower rate, but rather keep it steady but reward people who group in terms of loot, materials or special benefits.
"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
As a constant soloer, I think the big problem is that grouping, in the main, sucks. Us soloers would like to group more often than not. It's just that things conspire against us:
1) "this xp sux bye" -- This is the problem the OP is addressing. For whatever reason the game makes it better game-mechanic-wise (XP rewards, loot drops, whatever) to solo. Even when it's beneficial to team up the game doesn't make this clear, so it seems better to solo. Keep in mind the more people you add to a group, the more chances you'll have "afk brb" pop up, which means that all that XP/gold bonus per minute is shot because you're staring at a bunch of people doing /dance while you wait for Geemlee to get back from the can.
2) "need a heeler" -- Nothing says "subscription fee well spent" than waitin' for a healer. You've got a group and you've got content only a group can do... but your particular group either needs (or the leader thinks you need) a particular class/species/whatever. So you sit and wait and don't get involved in anything because, who knows, St. Jude might suddenly intervene and give you a healer.
3) "brb need to maek dinner" -- Did I mention this? I think I did. Insert all the Herding Cats problems under this header. /dance, everyone, /dance!
4) "how much u pay me 2 run you through BM?" -- This happens when you're a new player on an older game. You'd like to team up for the team content... but you're faced with a server-sized helping of "been there, done that" attitude. If you manage to find someone who'll team with you they think they're doing you a favor and will extort payment.
5) "r u lfg?" -- For whatever reason, the developers created a teaming UI that is slightly less advanced than smoke signals. Ever wonder why someone would ask you "LFG?" if you've, y'know, flagged yourself LFG? Probably crappy search tools. Or maybe point 6...
6) "r u a tard lol" -- Or, to quote George Carlin, "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." You rarely remember the decent, helpful folk you team with, but the mouth-breathing misanthrope who has 12 level 70s and therefore Utters Only The Law... these wastes of flesh choke the game like weeds. By itself, point 6 is really just "welcome to the internet", but if you couple it with the other points and you've got yourself a solo player.
Stupid people you can't fix, but you can minimize most of the other points by tweaking the game design. I point to City of Heroes as a shining example of how to make a team-encouraging game while still allowing die-hard solo players to play most of the content.
A forced grouping MMO causes way too much problems.
People often buy into the hype of an MMO, so when the game releases, theres tons of players. But what happens when they find the flaws and get dissappointed? The players cancel their sub in which case lowers the populations and then goes around and makes finding groups very hard. So then while you're out there trying to find a group and wasting time doing nothing but sit around, it gets boring and frustrating.
Take Vanguard for example. I loved it from release. There were tons of people out there, and finding groups wasnt hard at all. Now I'm just at a crafting station, put up LFG and jsut craft away. I stay LFG for hours, waiting for people to ask me to join a group. There arent many people around my levels anymore (40+) and the players that are around my levels groups with their guildmates. I even have trouble finding a guild. Theres so many guilds in the game that spreads apart all the players, they spam on the chat channel for people to join their guilds, but instead they should all be merging guilds to have a bigger player base. But the only thing they really care about is having more people in their guild with their tag.
Do missives and solo a bit. That's what I used to do, I might try that again.
I agree with you though.
Hmmf. I don't like the idea of forced grouping at all.
But then again, since having played CoX for 3 years and now looking for another "home" MMO, I've discovered something.
In every MMO I've tried (WoW, VG, PoTBS, AoC, TR, etc., etc.) I've found myself soloing more than grouping.
In CoX I was never "forced to group".
Yet in CoX I hardly ever soloed - in fact, I used to build teams to do my own missions. Playing with others in PUGs is sheer joy in CoX.
So I think there's something that CoX is getting fundamentally right that a lot of other games are getting fundamentally wrong.
Don't know what it is, but CoX has been a far more social gaming experience for me than any other MMO.
The problem is that 90% or more of the people you meet are idiots/griefers/scammers/loot thieves.
So most people find a group of friends and stick with it, and won't group with anyone they don't know because:
The risk is not worth the reward from grouping.
In my experiences with games like EQ, EQ2, FF11, CoX, and other group heavy games, I have found most people i've met in groups to usually be nice, sharing, decently skilled people. WoW, on the other hand, has one of the worst MMO communities i've seen, and since soling is so easy, when you do group with people at higher levels, it's a crapshoop to see if they have any skill or not. The previous games I mentioned (among others) are much more community based, and if you are indeed a idiot/griefer/scammer/ninja looter then word spreads around and these people get groups less often. I play WoW and enjoy it, but it's community is not something that should be seen as the regular MMO community.
This.
I voted yes because I love grouping with quality people.
Playing a great game while meeting someone from a country you've only read about is nice, but only a game with a good community can pull off forced grouping IMO.
Like stevestyle said.. "I play WoW and enjoy it, but it's community is not something that should be seen as the regular MMO community. "
Does anyone think a game will ever have something like a Morale Patrol?
One of the best things about CoX is that it really offers a different grouping experience versus solo play.
Grouping in CoX offers the following:
1) slightly better xp. Its not huge but its noticeable
2) Truly makes you "super" since most things stack in CoX
3) Different spawns.
I really think most MMOs would do well to look at 2 & 3 above to really make grouping more popular. The idea of being able to get some crazy buffs and take on 3 bosses at once while the rest of your group takes out the Archvillain whereas outside that group you might be able to tak 2 bosses at once and you would need to be careful.
See in an EQ style game you get in a group for negative reasons. Because roles need to be filled.
In CoX you get a group for positive reasons, you get more interesting spawns and the the stacking and synergy actually makes you stronger than just the additive effect of more people.
A group of 5 priests on WoW can often be sucky because various roles won't be filled. A group of 5 defenders can be a group of tank mages because of synergy of buffs. A solo defender will often have crappy damage but 5 defender together may have similar damage to 5 blasters together. Due to this dynamic many people is CoX are often anxious to group or only group because it fun it makes you better. It is more than a requirement. Its not something you need to do to be efficient or whatever. You do it because you can turn your defender into a killing machine and that is fun and exciting.
Any game that is depending on forced grouping has basically given up on differentiating group play and making group play have a fun incentive. So instead they have opted for a ham fisted "role-based" requirement + carrots way. Which in the end has a rather depressing effect.
In EQ or WoW or LOTRO. The refrain is "We need a healer or we can't do it". For CoX its usually something more along the lines of "Sweet, speed boost, I am gonna tear some stuff up now" or "Sweet , fortitude, now I can flip out and kill stuff."
In EQ/WoW you need your tank and you need your healer but basically those two operate the same in or out of a group and basically those two corner stones of the EQ-style grouping experience basically make the DPS guys not die. The DPS basically operate exactly the same in or out of the group. They simply have to manage their aggro. In CoX you can operate completely different. You could go from squishy DPS to doing good and having good defense. You might be able to recycle powers far far faster, making you more survivable and doing more damage.
This is the critical difference that MMORPGs really need to explore to "fix" the solo versus group problems. Grouping really should be different. Not just some people forced togehter that mostly operate the same solo or in a group.
NO, I am a soloer
I mostly solo but enjoy grouping from time to time on MY terms, so no I would not play a game that forced me to group. Just say no to raiding!
As long as there is plenty of solo content for when my friends aren't online. This certainly isn't an either or scenario.
I enjoy multiplayer games. I like group activiites.
I have played a few games where you have needed to complete group quests to continue.
I have always found this a good thing, I also like the system of more xps in groups.
The social element is the single greatest attraction to these kinds of games. The gameplay tends to be piss poor in comparison to games of other genre's.
(Can you imagine playing Eve as a single player?)
Activities that encourage social interaction and or progeression systems that do the same are excellent. It's much easier to find groups or to make more friends if people all have common goals. It's faster to find people to play with when they are all llooking too.
I played CoH, and it does have a lot going for it, however it could use some improvement. The grouping mechanisms are good. Fast travel so you can group up quickly, missions scale up to match the size of the group, and you can sidekick and mentor so that any level can group with any other level player in the game. Also, groups work well together, complementing each other, better IMO, than in WoW in the 1-60 game. In WoW it seems like you don't need to work together much at all, it's like a free for all in a group.
However, the CoH game play is a little fast, to the point that there's almost no downtime for chatting or socializing when you're in a group.
Not much if any downtime required between battles, and travel requires a lot of button mashing, so again not much time for chat during travel. I found a lot of groups were, fight, kill, kill, xp, xp, heal, go left, wait, ok, let's go, where's the boss mob?, this way, kill some more, reward, thanks for group.
Fun, but needs a bit more depth to match the grouping experience of a DAoC or EQ.
The poll shows that there is a segment of MMO players that don't mind the forced grouping design. Might not be as popular as WoW, but it's a viable design.