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There are nothing wrong about solo in MMORPG . What wrong is now, MMORPG force you to solo or group
iixviiiix
Member RarePosts: 2,256
You know what's problem ? The current generation MMORPG force you to solo and force you to group .
When you in leveling phase , you are forced to solo cause the community get cut a parts by difference questing phase . Even if you want to have group , there are no one willing to group with you .
When you you get max level , you are forced to group in instance or you quit . They force you play group contents then give you LFG button .
THIS IS THE PROBLEM !
Not solo or group , but get forced to play as developers want you to play
THAT IS THE PROBLEM !
I am out of words to say , keep beat the dead horse .
When you in leveling phase , you are forced to solo cause the community get cut a parts by difference questing phase . Even if you want to have group , there are no one willing to group with you .
When you you get max level , you are forced to group in instance or you quit . They force you play group contents then give you LFG button .
THIS IS THE PROBLEM !
Not solo or group , but get forced to play as developers want you to play
THAT IS THE PROBLEM !
I am out of words to say , keep beat the dead horse .
Comments
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Playing not how the developers intended is usually cheating with exploits/hacking etc.
You want that?
That's why easy grouping is part of the the core of my gaming principles.
This is just full of useless broad generalizations. I'm pretty sure that the developers don't want you to only play solo; If that were the case why would they spend time and money developing a grouping mechanic in the first place? It's not like the developers are going around saying "Yeah, I know there is a group option there, but when someone asks you to group, say you're not willing, because we don't want you to use that feature.".
You may not like that out of all the options the developer chose to offer, a large majority of people choose one different from the one you did, but that kind of "group think" isn't something out of your control. I mean, do you just decide not to go to work because too many people took the highway and you don't want to be stuck in traffic, rather than looking for an alternative route?
For the most part most MMOs are not so badly designed when it comes to teaming. But what is missing is MMOs that designs their MMOs for teaming. Classes that are all different flavors of DPS over fixed class rolls. No extra rewards for teaming, fastest and best way to level is solo most of the time. Sadly most MMOs require teaming at end game but most of the community is speced for solo play and their play style/mind set is solo because the game trained them to be.
IMO, I think all solo content should scale when you add team mates and give bigger rewards for doing the content teamed. Solo players still can solo and their boost would be the fast turn around of solo play. But for people who take time to team, their reward would be exp boosts and larger loot rewards because of the time it takes to make teams.
I think this would make people take the time to make teams and friends and in the end, lower the number of people who MMO hop. Its true, soloing is an option but very few MMOs take time to design their content to think of encouraging people to play every part of the game teamed. Great thing about MMOs is all the people around you but most MMOs are not taking advantage of that.
Grouping is generally forced upon people however if they wish to complete much of the harder content in games, but these days MMO's do tend to give alternate activities that you can do solo, so you're not technically FORCED to do any of this grouped content if you chose not to. The OP said it as a negative, but having the choice to leave the game is still always there, so technically you're not FORCED to do anything at all.
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Developers have to, you know, develop the content. Content has a target audience in mind and so it is designed and built for that target audience. The audience might be lvl 8 - 10 solo players, or it might be 12 level 50 players. If you are not part of the target audience then you are "forced" to change your playstyle in order for you to be able to play the content as it was designed.
The only way around this is to develop scaling technology to a point where it is viable, thus opening up the possible target audience to a much larger range. However, scaling either has to be done manually (i.e. create 100 different versions of the same content) or involves some seriously clever dev work to get scaling done automatically.
Manually creating multiple versions is too costly and also relies too much on instancing (you couldn't have a max level raid version of a quest in the open world next to a lvl 2 solo version of the same). Clever algorithms is very difficult to get right and again relies on instancing.
Until a developer comes up with a really good way to scale *all* content then at some point or another, you will be forced to change your playstyle in order to complete certain content.
So far, I've only played 2 MMORPGs that scaled content reasonably well:
1) SWG - This game didn't have quests as we know them. XP was gained purely from mob grinding. There were quest vendors in game, you could get 2 quests at a time. The quests lead you out into the wilderness and when you got close enough to your destination, it spawned a nest of mobs for you to grind through. These quests scaled with group size and (i think) gear. the concept worked really well, but was only possible because of the nature of the quests. Wouldn't work with standard story-telling quests.
2) LotRO - The skirmishes feature scaled content based on level and group size. There were 6 possible group size options: solo, duo, 3-man, 6-man, 12-man and 24-man. For every single NPC that spawned in a skirmish, the devs manually set what skills they had available depending on the group size. For actual health and damage output, these were controlled by an algorithm depending on the level of the skirmish (e.g. if you're level 37, you'd probably select the enemy level to be 37 or 38). This worked really well, however it is only possible because all skirmishes are instanced.
It's just a matter of time before more wake up and realize that great games are those that give you things to do and enjoy in 6 am, noon, 6 pm or midnight.
When it comes to group play the game must have a system in place that makes getting into groups at any time accessible/simple.
Marvel Heroes Online is a great example where you can select to automatically have others join you on your story/terminal missions as well as featuring channels designed for "Looking for Group".
When it comes to raiding during the first 1-2 days after reset or the last before it's best to find groups.
The thing that you might consider most, is why is leveling rushed so much, when it can be a great and fun experience , more challenging and less casual/grind oriented.
After players reach endgame in 1 week of grind leveling, they than cry how there is no endgame xD
Other games do not allow you start an instance until the party is full. Unfamiliar dungeon? Well, better wait two hours to get a full party that will kick you the moment you slow down because you don't know the layout, instead of allowing you to take a look or even try it on your own.
They don't have to make it easier, it's your problem if you take five hours instead of one etc.
So yes, you get forced into solo play, and you get forced into group play, both times arbitrary.
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And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
Maybe he thinks there shouldn't be group content and that any 'group' content is forced if it requires more than one to play it.
I don't think all content should be for all playstyles. No solo raiding for instance. Have content for solo, group and 'raid'.
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Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
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But yeah, the balance of each activity doesn't really speak to being "forced" to do one. You're not forced. You can choose in many games. (And the games which don't offer a dungeon-leveling choice are sort of just worse off for not providing that option.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I now realize that was one of the other threads; they're getting so repetitious I can't tell them apart.
Forced grouping sucks, soloing blows, MMOs in general are total shit these days, devs are all lying bastards, my games is better than yours.
That should basically cover the bases.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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.. oh .. you miss "MMOs are no longer "true" MMOs anymore".
People who post the same messages
over and
over and
over and
over and
over and.......
It's a reality we all have to accept; some gigglegasm, while others shrug with the thought of what a shame.
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Here's an example of being "forced" out of a playstyle. I personally hate questing (tasking fwiw), but when I started playing WoW, I very soon realize that there really isn't an alternative to questing when it comes to character development. You can't just find a good grind spot and have fun killing NPC's and expect to gain levels at the same rate or even anywhere near the rate that you would if you quested. Therefore in WoW, you are "forced" to quest.
Comparing that to group/solo I'll use Neverwinter as an example (could also use 90% of WoW and many, many other games). I was excited to see a game that me and my friends could play together and enjoy together. We all started out at the same time, all talking in voice over Mumble, and started learning the game. As we pushed through content w/o effort and hit around level 12-15 or so we wondered, "when are we going to enjoy this content together?". So we decided to group up and start running the missions together only to realize that the content was just THAT MUCH EASIER which made it even more boring. So while we were not "forced" to play solo, we pretty much had to run solo in order to face any sort of challenge. Forced solo play imo.
Eve Online, EQ1 (Hell, eq2 for that matter), Darkfall, SWG, and few others had TONS of content that would be challenging and/or engaging to take on with friends, but not one, not one of those games was I unable to play solo. It was just more challenging.
This is what is missing with so many (most) of the newer generation of MMO's.