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Why play online, if all you want to do is solo?
FrostWyrm
Member Posts: 1,036
First let me start off by stating this is NOT, I repeat, NOT a topic
meant to bash soloers in any way, shape, or form.
I'm just curious as to why anyone would spend money month after month to
play a game completely by themselves instead of perhaps paying only once
for an offline solo play RPG. What drives you to play online if you dont
want to be social, and why do many of you believe that you should be
able to advance equally as well, and recieve equal quality equipment as
groups/raids? It's my personal logic that when people pool their
resources, it's only natural that they're capable of reaping more reward.
Anyway, I want some opinions from solo enthusiasts. Conjecture only
takes one so far, I want the story from the horse's mouth......No!....No
put down the rock! I wasnt calling you horses, it's just an expression!!
Comments
I once used to be a pure solo'er, but now thinking back to my MMOG experience, all of my fondest memories were of the people, guilds, friends i have made...
I think people like to solo because they can go at thier own pace, but still in a multi-player/competitive environment. They aren't restricted by how much thier group members know, etc.
I group when I can. I solo when I have to.
It's as simple as that. Because I am a working professional with a family I often find I just don't have a couple of hours to dedicate to a group of friends or strangers for an adventure.
I like to solo and group but tend to solo more. When grouping you often have the loot hogs who want it all for themself and the ones that want the group to follow them from spot to spot looking for better one waisting time usually when you dont have much. I like to solo when I dont have much time or dont feel like getting in a group thats exspecting you to play for hours. I also find grouping fun when you can get in a laid back group just having fun where people are not bitching or trying to be bossy when they aint that good anyways.
I've answered this question quite a few times, but I guess one more won't do me any serious harm. The first thing to understand is that solo fighting and solitary existence are two different things. While one might prefer to do their "pve" activities alone, that doesn't necessarily mean they don't interact with people to trade, chat, roleplay, etc.
That said, there are several reasons I prefer to do my pve activities alone. One is that I take some measure of pride in the fact that everything my character is or becomes is due entirely to my own endeavors. I like being personally responsible for my character's strengths and weaknesses, exercising a degree of independence that is rarely possible in the real world. I feel that by grouping, much of my character's progress can be attributed to others. The main reason, however, is that every pickup group I've been in has had one of two goals: gain as much experience as possible in as short a period of time as possible, or accomplish the quest objective as efficiently as possible with no mucking about; there's no time to stop and smell the flowers, there's no time to read any lore that might happen to be involved, there's only time for achieving objectives. I simply don't enjoy that style of play. I greatly prefer to take my time, set my own pace, and retain the ability to change my mind at any given moment.
Now, why play online if that's the case? Because online worlds are persistent, evolving, dynamic worlds that last years. I can complete a single-player rpg in a week, and then that character is forever finished. In an MMO, my character can continue to grow and change. Also, as I mentioned above, there is more to any MMO than simply killing things. I enjoy roleplaying, and I enjoy belonging to a quality guild. I also enjoy the hum of life that other players present. In a sense, they're like additional scenery, extras in a movie; they flesh out the environment and make it seem more vibrant.
Really, the list goes on and on. I suspect there are as many reasons people choose the solo playstyle as there are players. I feel that the primary thing to understand is that people respond to different things in all areas of life, but those differences do not preclude co-existence. People tend to get so preoccupied with differences that they completely fail to notice any similarities. When it comes to MMOs, we're all gamers, after all. Some of us like pvp, some pve, some like grouping, some like soloing, but we're all after quality products that capture our imagination and give us enjoyment.
simple question to answer. people like to show off. the easiest way to level your character (most of the time) is solo, as you dont have to depend on group members not to be stupid 12 year olds that dont know when to heal efficiently, you dont have to wait for those morons who go afk every 2 minutes and say "brb" and you dont have to wait and be one of the "LFG" morons. You just do it.
People like to show off, and soloing online is the way to do this. Saying "I have this character that none of you can see thats uber" means nothing, but when you can PvP someone and kill them like they are a simple fly, thats how some people get their kicks. The people who do this would otherwise be drooling infront of some other mindless entertainment, so they might as well mindlessly grind solo instead. atleast this way, they can feed thier ego.
Napolean complex anyone?
I solo almost exclusively In any MMO that will let me. Thats just how I enjoy my games, I don't have to worry about fufilling a certian "role" or going AFK for longs periods of time things like that. Now, why do I play online games if only to solo?
Let's say you have been playing this single player rpg for weeks maybe even months and you beat the game well.... thats it no one else sees it theres nothing else you can do, you just spent weeks/months building a character, getting to know him, feeling like hes really _you're_ character that you made and earned all those cool items and whatnot for only for it to just end and no one even knows it.
In and MMO its not like that even though you solo theres people that will see you see your accomplishments and your character doesnt just ....end. Also even though I'm a solo gamer I like to mess around and chit chat with other real people while questing and stuff it just adds a whole 'nother layer to the experince. And of course PVP that's a HUGE factor in my choice of MMO's or Single Player.
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Hail to the King, baby.
Reading back to my original post, it sort've struck me that I make it
sound like there is never a purpose to solo and that I dont like to
solo. Let me clear things up by saying I myself do prefer to solo low
levels in a game then typically stick to grouping later on unless
there are none available, or I'm just out to make money.
Soloing from time to time is great, but I guess what really gets me
are the people who feel as though they should be rewarded equally for
soloing as others are for grouping or raiding. I personally enjoy
being capable of doing certain things on my own as well as teaming up
with others, but I never expect to advance at nearly the rate, or come
across treasures as great alone as with others. I just see a lot of
people on message boards complain that games are not "solo-friendly"
but in my opinion after you reach a certain point, they really
shouldnt be. There definately should be things one can do alone, but
as far as character advancement, in my personal opinion, its only
natural that one can push him/her self only so far before assistance
is needed to go further
Simple, the thrill of ganking someone half your level and knowing that they are god knows how far away from where you live and swearing at their computer at you, PRICELESS.
The problem with grouping is that you become somewhat dependant on the person/people your grouping with and unfortunately a good fair amount of players in any MMO game are complete idiots who think they are john rambo. Also i prefer to solo as i can go at my own pace which is a lot faster than most and if i have to go at group pace, it annoys me.
Uhhh... because MMOG's aren't only about grouping?
Hmm there are a lot of reasons.
Most people who solo do enjoy grouping as well but often just don't have the time to. I'm one of those. I love to group but most of the time I dn't have time to but when I do have time to group I love it. In EQ I spent about half of my game time solo, not because I wanted to solo but because I didn't have enough time to get into a group and still have time to play.
These days, even though most games allow you to join a group fairly quickly, I typically solo even though grouping is easy because I don't want to join a group then have to leave halfway into the adventure. It's just not fair to my group. So I only group when I know I'll have time to finish whatever it is that the group has planned in the short term.
I know a LOT of people who solo feel this way.
Another kind of solo'er is the crafter soloer who plays the game because there are tons of people whom they can interact with but they don't necessarily want to group for adventure. But they interact with them as a salesperson on a regular basis.
There is far more to do besides group to have fun in an MMORPG. How many pure crafters really want to group to get things? Most of them just want to craft. You don't need, or typically even want, to group for that in most games. It's counter-productive. The time spent joining a group could be better used towards producing more goods or selling more items.
There are tons of reasons why players solo in MMORPG's. As a matter of fact the only reason to group is to tackle content you can't do by yourself or just for the social aspect of it. But if you are in a guild and can chat with friends through guildchat or Ventrillo or Teamspeak then the social aspect of the game is already taken care of and the only reason left to group is to tackle things you can't do alone or to get XP faster. Personally I don't care how long it takes to level as long as I'm having fun so there's no real need for me to group unless I have a desire to go dungeon crawling or whatever you want to call it.
That's just my take on it. Other's oppinions may differ.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
At some point in the evolution of MMORPGs, it seems that a lot of people have come to define "rewards" on a hierarchy, where only those who group are allowed to get the premium gear/drops. People should be rewarded for their effort -- to be blunt, I'd feel much more accomplishment from soloing some truly difficult task than doing it with a dozen other people. Why? Because the task is being divided by the efforts of a dozen people -- it's EASIER for the group. I'm far more impressed seeing someone successfully solo a truly difficult creature, for instance, than seeing a half-dozen guys tackle the same task.
That said, I solo primarily, group ocassionally. Why play online, if all you want to do is solo? Because nowhere in the MMORPG does it say "group". I play in MMORPGs because I like the persistent, evolving nature of the world, and I like participating in that world with other people. Participating together in an online world is the definition of MMORPG -- again, participating does not mean grouping, nor does it exclude it, and nor does it exclude soloing. I've always found it strange that those who group mostly can't seem to fathom the fact that other methods of play are equally legitimate.
Two examples of online solo play that I loved, that involved other people, and hence would only have been possible in an MMORPG:
1) in EQ, playing a Shaman who roamed the world helping others. What a strange concept, wanting to play with other people and just do the roaming, "walk-the-earth-like-Kane-in-Kung-Fu" attitude. I've healed folks; buffed folks; and gotten some excellent online friendships started by doing so. To me, that's the essence of an MMORPG.
2) in WoW, the first time I was at the Crossroads and it came under attack (which when I left WoW was occurring about every five minutes, which totally spoiled the experience to me). Did all the Horde side group to defend the crossroads? Nope. That would have taken time. Instead, nearly 20 people coordinated the defense of the Crossroads by using their Defense Channel. We fought together, coordinated our skills -- and we did not group. And it was a truly rewarding experience. It was exciting, and it became more so when the Alliance tried to withdraw and we ran after them, again using the chat lines to coordinate, picking up players here and there as we went. It was awesome, and it was COMPLETELY contrary to the grouping experiences in WoW and elsewhere (where far too many people have pretermined ideas of what roles people should play, reducing a ROLEplaying game to a question of mechanics; and far too many "l33t-speaking" morons).
Both of those are examples of why I play online games. I don't want to be forced to play with the far-too-numerous childish idiots out there (especially in WoW), I want to work and develop a character over a long period of time (years, for my EQ, AC, and UO experiences) and work with and help others when I can and am inclined to do so.
And that is just as legimitate a way to play an MMORPG as an grouping philosophy. Again, nowhere in MMO is the word "group" or "raid" or any other stricture. Thinking that only by grouping are you playing an MMORPG "properly" is flawed and erroneous thinking.
I always solo and personally just see mmo's as giant single player games. Most games you buy like GTA3 can be completed and explored in a couple of weeks, mmo's cant, and instead of lots of npc's to interact with you have 'option' to interact with 1000's of real people.
I do like to group occasionally though
As far as this goes, you have to ask yourself why anyone who primarily plays the game solo would have any reason to purchase a game that functions this way. According to your definition, solo players won't be able to advance past a certain point alone and will be stuck wearing secondhand gear if they even attempt it. The result? There's nothing at all for a solo player in such a model. This explains why so many people stay with World of Warcraft until level 60 and then leave; the journey is enjoyable, but the destination offers nothing whatsoever for the solo gamer.
As I've said in previous posts, I don't think every game on the market should necessarily cater to the solo crowd. There's nothing wrong with games that mandate grouping, provided there are alternatives out there for those who don't enjoy it. If a game is going to have tremendous rewards for one style of play, however, it would be foolish of them to expect any business from those who prefer a different style.
Now, if grouping provided a slight bonus to advancement and slightly better rewards (you're killing bigger things so you're finding better stuff), I'd have no problem with it. If soloing becomes a struggle and the gear I have access to is vastly inferior to what I'd get grouping, I'm hitting the Cancel button on the account page. Such a game clearly wasn't made with me in mind, so I'm not going to stay waste any time there. No one enjoys being a second-class citizen.
Im a big fan of soloing and do it almost exclusively , the problem with grouping is that it slows me down to much. I have lost count of how many times ive been grouped with other players who say " AFK for a sec " or " brb " , it slows me down immensly.
Another problem i find is greed , and what i mean by greed is : I invite a player who specializes in a specific skill that the group needs to be able to complete the mission , the player upon realising his impotance says something like " i'll join your group ..... but only if i get all the loot " that pisses me off so much that i cant even put it in to words.
oh well...
I am a solo player at heart who started as a guildy.
I work insane hours and they are oddly spaced so working with a set group of people is often an issue as is them actually being online when I am.
And I love it.
I love being able to be a uber without having owed it all to some pl group or anything. While I like to interact with other charaters, I prefer not having to make bonds with people who I may or may not like.
I look at mmo's now as giant competitions. The better the competiton the better the mmo. Pvp games are the ones I play and follow, the more hardcore the better. The thought that games like Trials of Ascension with full loot drop, open pvp and permadeath- make the game that much better cause if you survive, you are truly gamer great.
Anyway, I wouldnt play any game that required grouping or made soloist second class in any regard. If I cant play a game alone then I wont pay to play it.
But you must realize that there must be both sides or every example of play for a mmo to be good. There must be groups and guilds, hermit and solos, good and evil. When you have only one side of any of those social groups, the mmo usually lacks depths and losses (mine anyway) attention after a short period.
Anyway.
It all really comes down to: "what kind of person do you want playing your game?"
The reasons why people solo have been hashed out: most commonly it is an issue of not having the time to devote to a group, but also there is reluctance to group with unknown players, the desire to maintain individual freedom of action and the like. It doesn't mean that these folks don't like to play in a multiplayer environment, they do, but for various reasons they find themselves soloing.
The folks who are spending 60% or more of their game time in groups are generally folks who are dedicating a lot more time to the game, or folks who have remarkably consistent schedules with few interruptions, or folks who play with rl family/friends or folks who play mostly with guildies (and even there, some of the other categorizations apply like having predicatble, large amounts of time).
The key then becomes what kind of player do I want in my game, from the development perspective, but also from the player perspective. Time and again we hear from the more "uber" folks in the MMO community about how they don't like this or that game being "n00bified" or "dumbed down", about how the time spent in the game should matter, about how the time spent in groups should matter and so forth. These are generally remarks made by people who have more time to devote and more predictability in scheduling that time, and many of them want a game that caters to their own gaming goals and interests .. namely one that rewards players who have that kind of time and consistency to dedicate to the game. That's fair enough, we should all be able to have a game that caters to what we want.
But the reality is that the other group of gamer, the gamer who has less time, less predictability, desires more freedom, etc., is a larger group of gamers in terms of demographics. And that's why we see entire games being made for this type of player (WoW is the best example, although Jenuviel is right to point out that Blizzard had a very strange approach when designing lvl 60 content for a virtually completely different playstyle), and other games being modified to be more "friendly" to this type of gamer (one could mention the modifications EQ2 made for soloers and small groups, or, far less dramatically, the "newbie help" that Lineage II has instituted, as examples of this), resulting in predictable screams from the more "hardcore" type of gamer that their game is being 'n00bified', and that the effort they have so far put into the game has been cheapened as a result.
I honestly think it is really, really hard to make a game that pleases both of these kinds of gamers, because it's precisely the elements that you need to relax to make the game rewarding for the more time-compressed group that are the elements that the more time-rich group doesn't want changed. It's hard to design a game for both groups. I think a more profitable approach would be to create games for each kind of market, but the problem with that is that the more time-rich market is a smaller market, and now with the success of WoW, gaming companies will be enticed to go after the bigger market of gamers, rather than taking relative risks with the smaller market of more time-rich, or "hardcore" gamers. I really do think there is a market out there for a more hardcore type of game, but I don't think you'll be seeing it coming from the likes of SOE or Blizzard. More likely it would have to come from a smaller company more willing to take a risk on a smaller market of gamers, and if someone is willing to take that risk I think there's a market for it.
But really, one of the most tiresome thing is watching MMO gamers sling mud at each other about whether they are "casual" or "hardcore", "soloist" or "groupers". It's really silly. We all enjoy the games, we enjoy playing them differently and, in many cases, prefer specific games because they cater to our play style. As long as we are finding games that do that, all is well, and in any case there's never really a good reason to tear down the playstyle of other gamers. It's all good, after all.
1. Persistent online world are awesome.
2. I get lonely if I don't see the chat moving.
3. The option of grouping is nice.
4. Soloing to grind, and then grouping to raid/pvp is awesome.
5. Online games are so much more open ended than offline games... but that isn't because of the grouping.
Think there are a lot of reasons why people play solo and I've seen the bulk of them here.
I think there is a huge difference between several types of solo players.
You have the one that does nothing but solo and does not chat alot either. Usually this is either some money farmer or just a shy person. Why do they solo? Well some people might be too shy to do much but feel comfy by the precense of other (albeit virtual) people.
Then there is the player that does not like playing in group but likes the social interaction of chatting in general, maybe in a guild and perhaps even roleplaying a bit.
But most of us who solo a lot I think are subjective to moods. I sometimes feel like grouping, but a lot of the time I feel like going solo. In my case this usually has to do with r/l factors, when I solo I just want to work out stress, have fun at my own pace, perhaps kill some easy stuff just to work of some stress. Last thing I want when stressed are arguments about loot, some 'bad play' someone made aso ...