I thought this was a "massively multiplayer game"

Because of my schedule, I was often behind everyone else in story missions. This made it extremely difficult to find groups to do Windurst/Zilart/CoP/etc. missions. Especially CoP because not even friends were willing to help me fight Diabolos when it was still a capped fight. I think I Like this approach much more.

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Originally Posted by PTrick

It'd be nice if the main quest line was more like LOTRO's. The content was designed for 5 person groups but if you solo or do it with smaller groups you get a buff that makes the content doable no matter the number. That really would've been the best way to handle the story content IMO.

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Actually when LOTRO started it forced you to team up and that held a lot of people back as they could not get into a team to do the content they needed to do in order to progress. It was only when they redesigned the game that they added the buff in order to make it more appealing to casual players who do not want to or do not have the time to team up.

Personally I like being able to do most of the content solo and then team up with members of my FC for the dungeons and help them out with theirs. I think that the balance is right, there must be solo content and there must be team content.

I think the balance between solo and party play is pretty well done. Getting people to help with the job quests in 1.0 was horrible and usually took 4-5 days of asking or shouting, despite me usually trying to help others with their quests, they would usually yield the same results. It sucked. It's also nice how I can hop on at 3am and get into content relatively easily, because of the large amount of 4man dungeons.

I do wish we had more 8man content other than two story dungeons, primals, and Binding Coil of Bahamut, but I still have yet to try both of those. Overall the balance is pretty good.

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Originally Posted by Aalwein

For being in the category of MMOG, this game has so many mechanisms that force people into solo play its ridiculous. During the betas I didn't have the chance to play with my wife (truncated)

It's just really saddening to have to play half the game solo when my gaming partner is sitting right next to me doing the same content... alone.

It just doesn't make any sense. Please allow at least light parties to enjoy all of the awesome content this game has as a group - don't force us to play ALONE when we are all paying to play a game TOGETHER.

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There's tons of things for Light Parties to do. If you don't have any solo activities though, people are left with little to do while waiting for groups other than wait. This is why solo content exists. Also, just because you're playing solo doesn't mean you're not benefiting from the existence of other players. Other players make the world feel more alive, even if you're not playing with them directly.

MMO does not mean forced grouping. Some people like to only group for dungeons, others interact with crafting/selling, and some roleplaying. The only thing MM means is (Massive=Large, Multiplayer=Many people). Just thought I would clear that up.

I feel like a lot of you are misunderstanding the point of the OP. The point here isn't whether or not you CAN solo it, it's whether or not you are FORCED to solo it. Most MMO's do not prevent you from being in a group while completing solo content. This one often does. My boyfriend and I have leveled up together in several MMO's now, taking each and every step together, from fresh new characters all the way to end game. This time however we are finding that pretty difficult. While a lot of that difficulty has been a result of the character creation locks (he wasn't even able to create his character until last Thursday, where as I created mine in beta 4), other roadblocks have been choosing different starting cities, and quests that won't allow you to complete them when in a party. As much as I love the game so far, these various issues are starting to add up into a huge problem for us.

If something is designed for one person, allowing more than one person to do it would trivialize it. You can't complete them in a party because they would be too easy. The further you progress, the more the game opens up and the more you can do in a group.

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As much as I love the game so far, these various issues are starting to add up into a huge problem for us.

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It's not an issue, and your vague statement is a fallacy. Also, don't use the word 'us' when the problem is based on your opinion rather than that of everyone around you.

Yes, I'm not asking for forced group content, I'm asking that forced solo content be removed. If grouping up on content that is tuned for solo play trivializes it, who cares? If it matters that much, have the amount of enemies or existing enemy HP increase accordingly. It's just extremely sad to have to break party every 15 or 20 minutes when running the story quest. MMOG may literally be defined as just lots of players playing in the same game, the whole POINT of MMOGs is to play with other people.

Really you guys seem to be taking offense to my point and are so hardily defending this game. I love the game, too, and I love solo content. I would hate to have to go back to an EQ-style game that may not mechanically force you to group, but does it based on content difficulty. But when my wife has time to play (which isn't a lot), I want to play WITH her, not watch her play. I don't want to be forced by a game mechanic (ie. "you can't do this quest in a party") into playing solo.

It is, it's just in the "standard" style where solo play for most of the game is the way to go. I would say it's ironic that people support forced solo content but not forced group content, but the XIV community is pretty weird about this situation.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

. Also, don't use the word 'us' when the problem is based on your opinion rather than that of everyone around you.

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Dude the more I see your comments on these threads the more I find you to be a troll who is just trying to sound intelligent, she obviously said "us" as in her and her boyfriend, how about you get some reading comprehension before commenting again.