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Why is solo uncool?
Numa999
Member Posts: 62
Is it just me, are has there not been any solo friendly MMO's in like.... ages. I still return to a 5 year old MMORPG called The legend of mir 2 the odd time because I can login, grind a few levels, get a few items by myself without having to spam "LFG blah blah" for ages to get a group just to play the game I've paid for....
Who in the first place said that MMORPG's should be group based. Massive multi player, 
, meaning... multiple people playing in the same virtual world. Not, I'm forcing you to play with people you wouldnt normally speak to in real life just so you can play are content.
Maybe I'm just very anti-sociable, which I dont think I am, but when I play games like FF11, CoH/CoV, WoW that demand I group, I just cant be bothered.
Taking legend of mir 2, I do go on guild hunts for bosses. I still talk to people in guild chat while I solo. I still fight in guild wars. I still pk with the guild etc etc, and I get to hunt and obtain items at my own speed and I dont have to waste time shouting for groups or waiting for people to come back from the bathroom so its win win. 
What do people here think. Do you like being forced to group? Yea sure grouping with friends is nice but what happens when no in real life mates play and all your left with is the "LEARN2PLAY" clan.
An MMO should be 90% solo, 10% guild based imo. And you can group for that 90% solo playing content if you so wish.
P.S Holland for the world cup 
Comments
Well, I like solo play as well, but find CoX and WoW to be very soloable games. Now, I am not interested in raiding so for me, game over for WoW. Can't solo the raids. lol...
Ideally, I would like the option to group, but also the option to solo. I do enjoy the multi player aspect of a good mmo. The sense of community. WoW, the forced grouping endgame is what killed me. I dont have a desire to organize a huge 40 person raid, staring at my cpu screen for 4-5 hours at a time, all to get a purple that will just enable me to use exactly .00045643 less mana on the next cast of Greater Heal. Yay... so I can click that heal button just a bit quicker now to heal the MT on the next 40 person part time job... errr... raid. And the thought of lvling another toon to 60 does not sound fun. Nor killing 55,945 furblogs to get faction to buy a decent formula.
Like I said, I do enjoy grouping, but only when I have time and inclination. I think another part of it is that I am rather independent and like to be self sufficient. I dont like asking people for things, but love being able to give advice, mats, quick help, gold, etc. Like seeing that warrior about to die, I like running up and crit'ing that mob that was just about to ice his behind, and having him offer me his first born in gratitude. Of course I simply /bow, wish him the best of luck, and run off.
Self sufficient... Perhaps that is a better term for solo... I would like the ability to be self sufficient in my toon progression. =P
"...and with that cryptic comment, I'm off to bed!"
People have this odd idea that you should have to group in an MMO because other people play it.
I like this analogy:
Real life is about as close to an MMO as you get. Do you invite every person on the street to go do stuff with you? Do you even like most of the people you meet in real life. Let alone want to hang out with them or be forced to hang out with them.
For most people the answer would be no. You get to know people and make friends and do stuff together. Its a sequence of events... you don't normally just randomly invite 5 to 7 or more strangers to go hang out.
So I've never figured out why in a game I supposedly so do just that. The game may not be real but the social interaction is.
Most people I meet in MMO's ... get the group killed, ninja loot and leave the group, yell at the healer until they leave which pretty much ends the group. You know the typical thing.
When I meet people I like who also know how to play or at least try to learn... I group with them.
At times I also solo.
Not all games are WoW with a multi million player base or L1/L2, FFXI... Games with a smaller player base are harder to find groups. Depending on your time zone and when you play. It can be very hard to find groups.
Thus if those games don't cater to solo play its very uninteresting.
Sometimes you only have a short time to play and setting up a group can take time. Plenty of reason one may solo. Like I said I don't think anyone should be expected to just jump in and want to group with total strangers. Going back to UO/EQ1 I met people talked to them and eventually groups formed. If those people weren't on tho I solo'd.
City of Villains or City of Heroes are great soloing/grouping games.
WoW end miserably for a grouper/soloer, so if the journey is all that matter and you don't care for the end, you might consider WoW, but if you are an achiever, than the end matter as much if not more than the journey, thereby WoW is not an option as far as solo/grouping is your only desire.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I am the exact same way, I love to solo because I work from home and if I need to log to take a phone call I need to log right away. Asheron's Call was a great solo game. I agree completely with WOW being a very soloable game until you get to the end. I played a Paladin (very soloable but takes forever to kill things) and a Rogue on a PVP server. The end game for the rogue was a little longer because I could stalk around Gadget killing people or going to crossroads find that one red person, kill him/her right in the middle of camp, vanish and watch the place errupt. Good fun but even that got boring and rogues are rarely invited to raids.
I was thinking of trying Eve, is that a good soloable game? Obviously DDO is out for me, and EQ2 seems to heavily encourage grouping.
"...and with that cryptic comment, I'm off to bed!"
Silkroad Online is a fairly decent solo game. It has to be, 'cos its grouping system is nothing special and the people you'd end up grouping with probably don't speak your language very well, if at all. Not to mention the lamer element that's in that game.
CoH is a great game to solo if you're a tanker/scrapper. Most defenders and controllers will struggle and a blaster's time gets harder at 30 and above.
However, at 40, the game turns into a remorseless grind. You can solo, but it takes forever to level, even fighting stuff yellow and orange.
I didn't play CoV that much, but the 5 schools there seemed to be more capable of solo play.
Horizons is also great to solo in. You have to, to a large degree due to lack of grouping partners and the fact that grouping has no true advantage apart from its social aspects.
SOLOISTS!!
I'm so glad to see people who share my thoughts on the topic. I enjoy MMO's for the social interaction with online "friends" and with guildmates but, since I'm a casual gamer, only able to play 2 or 3 hours a day, I find I can't get groups often, or have to leave them before the goal is completed...
As I posted in another thread, perhaps we need a casual gamer revolution! Unite, brothers and sisters, and call for games that work for groups as well as soloists!!
I had high hopes for WoW, I got 2 characters to 60 but then the huge raid groups needed for the high end content ran me from the game...
I just didn't have the time to devote to trying to assemble 20-40 man raid groups (good grief....)
maybe if we continue to politely speak up about our plight, some dev will take notice?
(I think most soloers are adults with jobs and lives, who, like me, can't devote themselves 24/7 to gameplay... comments?)
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Vagabond Spirit in search of a home...
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Which FF Character Are You?
It gets boring when the servers aren't laggy too.
It's become obvious, especially with the introduction to WoW and the way you can completely solo it it level 60, that this is what people are after. Even Sony heard the music and responded. EQ2 is packed full of solo content. So much of it, in fact, that you probably won't run out of it. There are bits you will need a group for, such as one boss in the betrayal quest, but most of the bits that you need a group for are completely avoidable and won't be missed. I do play from time to time but, still, it's not exactly my cuppa tea. I'm still searching for that.
I think this might be where Vanguard and games like it might miss the mark and end up less successful than they otherwise could be. Both styles of play seem to be needed in the same game. I've read some of the opinions of McQuaid and his tear about this subject, amongst others, and I think they have it wrong on nearly every issue. We'll see, I suppose. A lot of people might be after that particular feeling and the excitement they felt when they first played EQ... but I have a feeling that there won't be enough of those people to make it a hit.
When I telecommuted, Eve was a decent mmo to have around. Like you said, when a client calls the game has to go.
You can definitely solo play the game or belong to a small corp. I knew a few miners, merchants, and pirates who had been playing for over a year and never, or rarely, grouped with anyone.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
I play mmo's for primarily 2 reasons
1) So I have the option of interacting with others
2) Most single player games just don't have the size and scope of mmos
Anskier
By the way, i think EQ2 has a fair bit of solo content, it received a lot of criticism when it was first released for not having any so it should appeal to you.
"...and with that cryptic comment, I'm off to bed!"
That was it exactly for me with WoW. I solo'd two warriors to lvl 60, but once there I was too inept to function properly as a tank (because I had solo'd so much). I got tired of being yelled at by 12 year olds for not holding the aggro or attacking the wrong target etc (I'm 39 yrs old). After a couple attempts at raiding in pick up groups I lost all interest.
I still think WoW is an excellent game. And all these posts saying other wise just sound like jealousy to me. How many MILLIONS have bought and subscribed to the game? That figure speaks for itself.
I agree with the original poster about soloable games. I play mmorpg's to relax mostly. Grouping annoys the hell out of me. I do enjoy the social interaction and variety that mmorpg's have and the open ended gameplay. I can't get into the offline single player games. Oblivion sits on my desk, I've tried to get into it but I can't.
I had a blast crafting gear for people on Ryzom saga (specially because my price was always competitive so I would get tons of buyers, and they would always appreciate the free items they got depending on what they bought), but after crafting a bit I would go out and hunt some monsters down, on my own, because I liked going alone too.
Time is a big issue right there. It takes time to form a group, and there is always the need for someone to go to the bathroom and whatnot, so sometimes the downtime can be quite annoying.
I want to be able to log in and play, no waiting.
I was dissapointed with EVE by the game's pace, I found it to be too slow for someone interested in being a industrial/miner.
I'm sorely dissapointed with games where you have to go through a huge grindfest to get to the fun bits. I like to take my time doing things.
I also believe, like others on this thread, that the mmogs should allow for a player to choose between solo or group, without any penalties for this choice. Wish I could turn my game design into reality :P
www.MONGBAT.com
Warhammer Guild
Full agree...there has to be much more solo content...boring group-search especially on high-level is just so frustrating...and when I read such statements in upcoming vanguard about tiny amounts solo-content..then I get really really sick...this will kill the game for me.