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The 'Group Play vs Solo Play in an MMO' Thread

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  • ShoregreyShoregrey Member Posts: 2

    My comments from the thread complaining about anti-social people in MMOs:

    I am a solo player. As a solo player, I understand that there are certain quests and content in MMORPGs that I will NEVER be able to complete or participate in.



    I DO NOT expect others to adhere to my playstyle. I am happy letting the groupers group and the solos solo.



    Why does everyone want to force everyone else into their style of play?



    Why the attitude "If you want to play solo go play Console games"?



    Truly, If I were a social entity, I wouldn't be locked in my parents basement(jk) playing computer games, now would I?



    I mean seriously, you expect the most antisocial people(lets face it, most gamers are geeks, dorks, shut-ins and other generally antisocial, friendless types...most not all mind you) who are sequestered in their houses and bedrooms to want to be social?



    It's like going to a monster-truck rally and complaining that no one play's chess.



    Keith WP



    Bitter Since 1994

  • JohnnyBravolJohnnyBravol Member Posts: 83

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

  • UsualSuspectUsualSuspect Member UncommonPosts: 1,243

    Originally posted by JohnnyBravol

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

    Because nobody could be as good as you. You are the pinnacle of human evolution. Congratulations, you have won at the game of life. Insert coin for another go.

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675

    Originally posted by UsualSuspect

    Originally posted by JohnnyBravol

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

    Because nobody could be as good as you. You are the pinnacle of human evolution. Congratulations, you have won at the game of life. Insert coin for another go.

    Actually, I agree with him.  There are lots of parties that wipe because of some stupid mistake made by some random person who is padding out the party.  I trust people that I've gotten to know and I know that I trust their judgement.  Some random idiot who jumps into a party that I have no experience with, why should I trust?  Why should anyone?

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  • SweedeSweede Member UncommonPosts: 209

    And a silly misstake is worsened by the damn rush people are in all the time, what happened to having fun it is a game after all, this is very noticable in WoW where people don't interact, dungeons is a necesseray evil that must be completed in no more then 22.35 seconds using group chat for some fun talking forget it, pretty much makes soloing prefered for me.

    I am not the best player and i never pretend to be but doing a rather trivial content should not require 110% performance for a bleeding edge raid fine i can see the need there.

    image

  • UsualSuspectUsualSuspect Member UncommonPosts: 1,243

    Originally posted by Cephus404

    Originally posted by UsualSuspect


    Originally posted by JohnnyBravol

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

    Because nobody could be as good as you. You are the pinnacle of human evolution. Congratulations, you have won at the game of life. Insert coin for another go.

    Actually, I agree with him.  There are lots of parties that wipe because of some stupid mistake made by some random person who is padding out the party.  I trust people that I've gotten to know and I know that I trust their judgement.  Some random idiot who jumps into a party that I have no experience with, why should I trust?  Why should anyone?

    Why should you trust that bank teller? That woman in the Post Office? The guy serving you a meal at the local take-away? Oh no, the world is potentially full of idiots that can't be trusted! Must lock myself away in a bubble away from all humankind, as they are all potential threats to my success.

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675

    Originally posted by UsualSuspect

    Originally posted by Cephus404


    Originally posted by UsualSuspect


    Originally posted by JohnnyBravol

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

    Because nobody could be as good as you. You are the pinnacle of human evolution. Congratulations, you have won at the game of life. Insert coin for another go.

    Actually, I agree with him.  There are lots of parties that wipe because of some stupid mistake made by some random person who is padding out the party.  I trust people that I've gotten to know and I know that I trust their judgement.  Some random idiot who jumps into a party that I have no experience with, why should I trust?  Why should anyone?

    Why should you trust that bank teller? That woman in the Post Office? The guy serving you a meal at the local take-away? Oh no, the world is potentially full of idiots that can't be trusted! Must lock myself away in a bubble away from all humankind, as they are all potential threats to my success.

    Because they can actually be held accountable for their actions.  Some asshat in an MMO can't.

    Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
    Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
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  • UsualSuspectUsualSuspect Member UncommonPosts: 1,243

    Originally posted by Cephus404

    Originally posted by UsualSuspect


    Originally posted by Cephus404


    Originally posted by UsualSuspect


    Originally posted by JohnnyBravol

    I prefer to solo as I cannot trust any other member of the human race to be competent. Grouping is simply not worth the risk, and the inevitable headache.

    Because nobody could be as good as you. You are the pinnacle of human evolution. Congratulations, you have won at the game of life. Insert coin for another go.

    Actually, I agree with him.  There are lots of parties that wipe because of some stupid mistake made by some random person who is padding out the party.  I trust people that I've gotten to know and I know that I trust their judgement.  Some random idiot who jumps into a party that I have no experience with, why should I trust?  Why should anyone?

    Why should you trust that bank teller? That woman in the Post Office? The guy serving you a meal at the local take-away? Oh no, the world is potentially full of idiots that can't be trusted! Must lock myself away in a bubble away from all humankind, as they are all potential threats to my success.

    Because they can actually be held accountable for their actions.  Some asshat in an MMO can't.

    You can blame the lack of community for that. Back in EverQuest if people were idiots or whatever they'd be blacklisted and word would travel fast. The same happened in Lord of the Rings Online before it went all solo-friendly and free to play. The problem is the lack of community is caused by people soloing all the time. So your main problem with grouping is actually caused by you.

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,643

    Originally posted by UsualSuspect

     

    You can blame the lack of community for that. Back in EverQuest if people were idiots or whatever they'd be blacklisted and word would travel fast. The same happened in Lord of the Rings Online before it went all solo-friendly and free to play. The problem is the lack of community is caused by people soloing all the time. So your main problem with grouping is actually caused by you.

    Why does this have to be repeated constantly.

    One doesn't ever have to group in order to be social, to sell, to help out with information. Soloing all the time has nothing to do with it.

    I solo all the time and I've given more game world tours than probably a professionial travel agent.

    People can be part of a community and not once group with everyone.

    Or, one can be part of the AWESOME idiots who I've grouped with who were selfish, only wanted to get their stuff done and then bale, profane, childish, felt that the group should run the way they wanted, abusive,...

     

    oh the list goes on of "special" groupers who I've grouped with. Community can be created without grouping. Community is about communication.

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  • JohnnyBravolJohnnyBravol Member Posts: 83

    Haha, you simply cannot say that group play is killed by solo play. If people solo, then it is a fault in the game rather than the player, unless the game is designed for soloing. It has to do with how the game is designed, not the players. Obviously you will still have people who prefer to group or solo based on their nature, but if the game is fun enough to play in groups, people who normally solo will group, and vice versa.

  • NightfyreNightfyre Member UncommonPosts: 205

    Games are becoming more for the solo crowd then group oriented.  Days of Everquest groups made things so much easier and fun.

     

    Groups - you meet people, interesting, funny, or just plain annoying /quit people.  These are where you make new friends.

    Solo play - shouldn't be the main point of an MMO, we already have Solo play games - Oblivion, Super Mario, Mass Effect, Mega Man and so on; let's leave solo play to those kind of games not in a MMO.

    Sure solo play is nice when you don't have the time or are anti-social but again solo should be to learn the game the rest of the game a group or least another person is more desirable. 

    Shame Star Wars MMO didn't learn this and instead made it even more soloable with companions.

  • Dixi01Dixi01 Member UncommonPosts: 54

     


    As I know from my previous MMO experience, I like to play in groups. Because when I'm trying to play some old MMOs, witch I've missed, or returning after several years, like EQ2, Vanguard, etc., I'm quitting again in a week, because I feel lonely and bored to do everything solo and meet almost no one.


     


    I really like random groups, not guild raids.


     


    When I'm considering to pay for any MMO (to buy or just subscribe for a month), I always evaluate my chances to play solo. Reasons are: sometimes I don't have a time or mood to play in a group. Often I have RL things that could force me stop me playing, or I might have to go afk for a while and so on.


     


    I suppose majority of players like an ability to play solo, so they are not obligated to seek a group as soon as they get into the game. But many of them will be happy to meet some in game, and group with them to do some tasks together.


     


    Some MMOs provide easy ways to do it. In Rift, groups were "public" by default. So anyone who like to group with you can just click and pick "join". In Warhammer Online were "public groups".


     


    So I think future MMOs should support all kinds of play.


     


    - solo, - random grouping, - classic type groups, - raids.


     


    For random or occasional grouping, should exist easy means to make a group, and bonuses of doing anything in group should be clearly explained to all players. Also those groups should auto-disband-drop if people went too far away from each other.

  • phantomghostphantomghost Member UncommonPosts: 738

    Originally posted by DiSpLiFF

     i'll say what i've said before, I personally think WoW did it best. Theres group play and solo play, but you won't get nearly as good quality gear just by soloing. I would never play a game that forced me to group 24/7, on the other hand i'd never play an mmo that was just solo play. Of course i'm a casual player (i guess? 2 hours a day) sometimes I don't have an hour to wait to join  a group i'll probably leave 40 mins into it. 

    I think WoW did ruin MMO's best. 

     

    They ruined the need to play the game by grouping by allowing players to be able to not really try hard to lvl up and gear up... questing for xp ruined MMORPG.  I think WoW was probably the worst thing for MMORPGS.

     

    As far as a game that requires you to group 24/7... that does not happen.  In good games such as EQ there was plenty to do in groups, out of groups, and with raids.  You had to work on your character in all aspects... in order to know your role you had to play it with groups and without... not oh well I am max level now... I guess I should attempt this grp thing

     


  • BeartosserBeartosser Member UncommonPosts: 94

    Once GW2 releases solo players will for the first time have access to a viable endgame progression path in a top tier MMO. That it took so long is a sad testament to the cluelessness of many devs over the years when it comes to recognizing the needs of their playerbase.

    Many of their own studies have surely demonstrated to them that the solo playstyle was the most populous, yet they steadfastly ignored the data when they continued to design new games. Did they think the rising number of solo players were going to continue to be satisfied with game design that sentenced them to second class citizenship forever...if so, they were obviously wrong.

    I would like to see a companion system that's fully functional, where solo players can add, equip, upgrade, and level  one, or multiple companion characters to fill groups as they see fit. If you could create and level your own companions from scratch like you do your main and alts, all the better.

    In the end it's about options, and the devs need to give players the ability to completely progress their characters in as many ways as possible. If more choose to do so solo, then so be it.

     

  • VidirVidir Member UncommonPosts: 963

    Originally posted by Beartosser

    Once GW2 releases solo players will for the first time have access to a viable endgame progression path in a top tier MMO. That it took so long is a sad testament to the cluelessness of many devs over the years when it comes to recognizing the needs of their playerbase.

    Many of their own studies have surely demonstrated to them that the solo playstyle was the most populous, yet they steadfastly ignored the data when they continued to design new games. Did they think the rising number of solo players were going to continue to be satisfied with game design that sentenced them to second class citizenship forever...if so, they were obviously wrong.

    I would like to see a companion system that's fully functional, where solo players can add, equip, upgrade, and level  one, or multiple companion characters to fill groups as they see fit. If you could create and level your own companions from scratch like you do your main and alts, all the better.

    In the end it's about options, and the devs need to give players the ability to completely progress their characters in as many ways as possible. If more choose to do so solo, then so be it.

     

    Agree.

  • DavinTFelthDavinTFelth Member Posts: 1

    I am a huge fan of Entropia Universe.

    You can TOTALLY be solo the whole time.  You can join a Society and have a private chat channel going the whole time with just your society members.  You can then still do everything solo, but have group to talk to.  Then you can do team hunts which give you the chance to hunt bigger stuff.  A lot of times these hunts tend to be the most successful also.  They have been more recently putting bigger boss mobs out where 100 people are all fighting it at the same time.  It's awesome chaos! 

    SO I like the option of doing both.  I didn't have a lot of that experience in WoW and havne't played many other games to know others experience.  I look forward to reading more.

  • panachepanache Member UncommonPosts: 397
    I think most mmo's cater quite well for soloists and group players the problem starts when the solo quest line inevitabley leads to elite mob group quest and you can't find anyone to do it with. I've encountered this with aion swg and now Conan. This problem gets worse as populations reduce.... How many capped level players want to help lowboys complete campaign/ epic quests

    Pan

  • UsualSuspectUsualSuspect Member UncommonPosts: 1,243

    Originally posted by panache

    I think most mmo's cater quite well for soloists and group players the problem starts when the solo quest line inevitabley leads to elite mob group quest and you can't find anyone to do it with. I've encountered this with aion swg and now Conan. This problem gets worse as populations reduce.... How many capped level players want to help lowboys complete campaign/ epic quests

    That's a problem caused by the quest chain design. Modern MMO's lead you around by the nose, telling you to do this quest and that quest, so that you can advance to this quest and that quest which are exactly the same as the previous quests just with different mobs and locations. 

    In older games like EverQuest you would be given a quest and would complete it when you got around to it. Like for example a quest to gain a Monk Headband, where you had to collect four items from deep inside various dungeons spread across the world. I picked that quest up at about level 10, tried a dungeon at level 15, couldn't do it so came back at level 25, got what I needed then went and completed the quest. That's 15 levels to complete a quest, not just a case of run over there, kill 5 of them and come back again.

    Once there are dozens of quests per level, then you run into the problem of finding the people to help you with it. It's like trying to get all the numbers to win the lottery. The first person to help needs to be at the same level out of 50, on the same quest out of the 50 in the chain, and actually have the time and inclination to want to do it. And then the group quest might actually need 6 people, so the chances of finding a full group get smaller and smaller and smaller.

    The introduction of quest chains in MMO's have completely killed grouping. Not only are most of them done solo, but the one's that aren't face the problem I just described.

  • EcocesEcoces Member UncommonPosts: 879

    the reason people play solo is because they don't want to play with YOU. I don't want to be forced with the "group only" elite because if you think you are elite and think you should dictate how others play i can only imagine how you will act if i don't "live up" to your standards in other areas of the group.

     

    I play solo because i don't want to play with 90% of the players that infest the MMO genre. That doesn't mean i don't group I love to group and I am always in a group, sorry you all need a developer to force people to play with you.

  • Cephus404Cephus404 Member CommonPosts: 3,675

    Originally posted by Ecoces

    I play solo because i don't want to play with 90% of the players that infest the MMO genre. That doesn't mean i don't group I love to group and I am always in a group, sorry you all need a developer to force people to play with you.

    That's essentially the problem.  Everyone I see is rushing to cap, I have zero interest whatsoever in doing that.  Therefore, my playstyle is diametrically opposed to most people and as such, I have no interest in playing with most people.  Add to the fact that a huge number of people playing MMOs are horribly immature, rude, obnoxious and entitlement-happy, I want to stay as far away from these self-important losers as I can.

    Give me a game with intelligent, mature, rational people and I'll group with them.  Not holding my breath that it will happen.

    Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
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  • narongkornnarongkorn Member Posts: 4

    Finally a new and original topic.

  • zeustruth0zeustruth0 Member Posts: 5

    Originally posted by Reklaw

    Originally posted by toddze

    My opinion: If you want to play solo, play a SINGLE player game. If you want to play with other people play a MULTIPLAYER game. Playing solo in a multiplayer game is an oxymoron.



     

    Playing solo in a mulitplayer game is kinda dumb, but thankfully we are talking MMORPG's here and not just multiplayer games.

    MMORPG have room for both and many type of playstyle's, one might enjoy grouping allot, one might enjoy solo allot, thankfully MMORPG can give us this.

    What many seem not able to understand is that solo players  "can" be very social, they don't need a group to be social there are so many activities that can be done with other people without grouping with them, there "can" be crafting where people help each other out either with resources, or simple things like sharing good harvest locations, what about something as simple as just helping other people in chat/ help channel, again very social.

    Groupers, the same thing they can be very helpfull with helping other complete some missions/quest/dungeon, they might have certain knowledge about instances/caves/dungeons/boss encounters that can help defeating it.

    Personaly I think to many people especially on forums like this have a very narrowminded view on both solo player and groupers.

    Over the years I became more and more a solo player, reason is that about 80% of my time I wanted to group it made my experiance not a nice one, people didn't talk in groups and if they did it was often Hi and Bye when they completed their quests, over the years it's always a handfull of people who actually wanted to group for social/exploring/discovering reasons, these day's the majority I encounter is more like "I need a grou cause I need to complete something" or mainly because of the benifiths, the adventure part has lost it's way's with the majority of groups I personaly encountered (keep in mind only talking about my own experiance, so someone else his or her experiance might be different.

    While I might have become a more solo player I am still very social, in crafting, in helping with all sorts of things and perhaps this might sound arrogant but many people I help(ed) ingame often ask if they can add me to their friends list because of the great help I gave them, in FE a few even said they should pay me for the help I give to many people.

    Overall I wish people could let people play MMORPG they way they want. Unless other people want to pay MY sub-fee I see no reason why others should dictate how I should play.

    Another things I don't mind if I don't get that Epic loot because I choose to solo, I don't need the game to catter to only me cause to me there is room for all sorts of gameplay aslong people have fun playing games in this genre. Al I want is to have freedom, meaning I don't want a MMORPG to force me in any way, not force me to solo and not force me to group.

     

    I like what you said, i have read all of you're post's and i agree with you 100% and makes sense as well, i like to be able to do BOTH solo and party if i need to and depends which class one is like mage, healer so on so forth i myself a mage past 14 years =D i played WoW i didnt like it played for 6-7 months i tried to like it but it wasnt my thing and no it wasnt the fee i have no prob with that at all.

    i can name afew FUN mmo's to play thats rohan, dekaron, cabal online, flyff and afew more, i find myself solo'ing more than i do partyin g, why? because it's MY choice and my style..if i wanna party i'll do so, no player nor a jack of all trades master of none gonna tell me what to do nor how i play thats for darn sure. most do not get this, its about F-U-N and if one thinks ALL solors will screwq up the party he or SHE got another thing coming, mostly (and its true) mostly you're party leader is at fault io been in so many partys so i know what i am talking about, this ONE goes out to the guy or girl whos saying all solo'ers are screw ups in a party, looks like to me he or she knows nothing here...blaming all solo'ers has no common sense.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • zeustruth0zeustruth0 Member Posts: 5

    Originally posted by Cephus404

    Originally posted by Ecoces



    I play solo because i don't want to play with 90% of the players that infest the MMO genre. That doesn't mean i don't group I love to group and I am always in a group, sorry you all need a developer to force people to play with you.

    That's essentially the problem.  Everyone I see is rushing to cap, I have zero interest whatsoever in doing that.  Therefore, my playstyle is diametrically opposed to most people and as such, I have no interest in playing with most people.  Add to the fact that a huge number of people playing MMOs are horribly immature, rude, obnoxious and entitlement-happy, I want to stay as far away from these self-important losers as I can.

    Give me a game with intelligent, mature, rational people and I'll group with them.  Not holding my breath that it will happen.

    i notice that to almost in every game i played, always rushing to the cap is NIOT how ones play if i wanna play i play at my pace, i wanna see everything in the game itself, the trees, the ground, all that i wanna take in and enjoy while i kicking butt, but sadly there are like you just said, rude, nasty down right disrespecting fools out there making their biz to stick their nose where it does not need to be.

  • UsualSuspectUsualSuspect Member UncommonPosts: 1,243

    The Path of MMO Evolution:

    MMO with forced grouping ---> Players want to be able to solo occasionally

    MMO with occasional grouping and end game raiding ---> Players want to be able to solo more

    MMO with rare grouping and end game raiding ----> Players want to solo for end game raid gear

    MMO with rare grouping and light (8 player) raids ---> Players want to be able to solo the raids

    MMO with soloable group content and soloable raids ---> Players complain of kill stealing breaking their ability to solo

    MMO with a central gameworld with all instanced content ---> Players complain of having to travel through the gameworld

     

    Players complain of having to pay $20 a month for a single player game.

  • ForTheCityForTheCity Member Posts: 307

    I really do believe the whole point of an MMO is to play with other people. In Single player games you aren't allowed to play with your friends, and thats why many people choose MMOs. Its still a form of social interaction, even tho you arent' actually seeing the person. 

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