Hey, I know this sounds nonsensical. Why play an mmo if you just want to play single player? But I genuinely enjoy the mechanics of MMO's. Technically, the only mmo I've played is WoW, but I've devoted 10 times more time to that game than any other game in my life.
I enjoy leveling up a character, customizing their skills, and having a large skill tree (yes 2 out of 3 of these are a shell of their former glory in WoW). I enjoy being in an open world with many other people. I even enjoy casual multiplayer such as doing some regular dungeons.
But that's where it stops for me. I don't like raiding. I'm anti-social and prefer only small low-commitment doses of interaction with other humans in my game.
Unfortunately, WoW's endgame is near entirely devoted to heavy multiplayer. Interestingly enough though, from what I've heard they've had some excellent single player challenges in the form of the Mage Tower. I've never experienced this since I think you needed to do a bunch of multiplayer stuff before you could begin to have good enough stats to do it though.
So now for my actual question. Do any mmo's exist that have challenging and rewarding end-game single player aspects to them? By this I mean there should be actual difficulty and skill involved. I don't like single player rewards that involve non-stop mindless grinding, even if those rewards are competitively similar to multiplayer rewards.
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That was probably a sign that you should have stopped there. But I thank you for leading with that as it saved me from having to read the rest.
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Guild Wars 1 can all be done solo with the help of the hero system. The absolute endgame and hard mode is very challenging on your own or with other players. There's a new complete edition available now.
You'll end up customizing a ton of hero characters that will travel with you, not just your own character. Level cap is low but the game is more about earning the, literally, thousands of skills and building an awesome hero team.
When adventuring, the instances are private, completely. You will be playing on your own. Mobs don't re-spawn unless you leave the area. It's not an open world and you won't see other people outside of the hubs (I know that's something you like). The zones are large though.
GW1 is kind of like... the smaller heroes missions you get in games like Starcraft or Command and Conquer where there's not base building.. but all the time... and with loot and all that.
There's like a 10 hour trial.. you can see if you like it but that short intro isn't a very good example of what the game is like overall.
If you do pick it up, start with Nightfall (although that campaign is the weakest story out of all four, but still decent) and put some Paragon class run speed buffs on your heroes so they passively increase your run speed all the time. The slow travelling is the most off putting thing for new players.
Or start with the Prophecies campaign and head to Nightfall as soon as you can to get some hero characters...
Your request is not unreasonable at all, a lot people like to play MMO's but want to keep the social part on their terms.
With that said, the only MMO I know of off the top of my head that you can do all of it solo, is Trove. It's voxel graphics, so, that might be a deal breaker for some. But all the content is the same for solo or group play, which you can chose to get involved in at your own pace and in small doses if you like.
Since it is Free to PLay, It is well worth a go see to check out if it fills the need for you.
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For PvP, Blade and Soul has one-on-one PvP matches and some interesting combat dynamics that make for a good play challenge. I never did well enough in them to bother getting too familiar with the reward structure, though.
It's been about a year or two since I played either one, but you might want to check them out.
Most single player games I know of don't offer this, though many can have pretty vast open worlds.
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I found the gathering of potions and other consumables for raiding in WoW intolerable and not to mention an absolute drain and waste of time. I would log in and then stare at my inventory dreading the grind for stuff to raid for a few hours a week. I quit. The rest of the game I loved.
Same thing with raiding in Everquest although that one you had an initial output of platinum to get the jewellery to raid then you kept it in the bank and used it for whatever dungeon or raid dragon you were facing. The hours and hours I put in waiting and organizing though wasn't so bad because I was chatting away with friends.
You can try P99 the Everquest private server or may be one of the time locked ones so you can just play on new characters or on new servers as they come. You experience the world and the multiplayer aspect and then leave before the raiding. Any way no hope in raiding in P99 so you are kept out of the end game by force.
Sorry reread your post you want an end game single player. Then perhaps PvP would be best for you.You can engage in single player PvP by being like a infiltrator or lone assassin or play EvE where you can mine and do other stuff solo and dangerously while being in a multiplayer game.
Or try one of those new finagle survival games.
"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