The Solo disease?

[thedevilsjester]

Crafters play solo do they not ?, so why should a battle class not be able to ?

Oh, nice, I hadn't thought of that one!

No, Jester... You're just missing the points I was trying to make.
[snip]
You were asking why people don't like soloers, basically...

I think you missed the point as I never asked this question. In fact most of your post addresses points that...well...I never really asked or tried to make, and your argument about single player offline RPG parties translating into multiplayer online parties, while written well, doesn't translate like you think it does.

I don't really have a problem with a game developer adding in a easy mode.

Easy mode? No one here is talking about easy mode, and soloing is far from easy mode. Even in a properly scaled down scenario, soloing in my experiance is much more difficult than partying with a well rounded party. A lot of extra strategy and care must be taken, for example if you are a Warrior, who is going to heal you? How will you survive without being healed? What strategy will you use? If you are a White Mage, who is going to Tank or DPS? How will you manage to deal enough damage to the mob before he squishes you? Soloing is far from easy mode.

That being said, I am aware that some developers, instead of using proper scaling techniques, just dumb down content across the board, and this is an absolute no no. As a soloist, I despise dumbed down content (and often skip over it), I want a challenge.

TDJ
Which is a point to the mmo, make friends to play with.

The point of an MMO? Who made these rules? I didn't agree to them. Did we have some kind of global vote on what an MMO is supposed to be, or did you just form an opinion based on your own preferred game style and assume that this is the way things should be?

Like leveling or group crafting. (like some one makes arrow heads which i make into arrows etc) And if That person says "no i play solo" it can be taken as an insult.

You, absolutely, misinterpret what playing solo is. Playing solo means that I do not party. That is it. Crafting, which I can do solo, which as pointed out by someone is a completely solo job, to provide LS or friends with materials or items, is still soloing. You can stretch the definition of solo to make soloists look as evil as you would like, but that doesn't change that soloists, in all my MMORPG experience, simply do not want to PvE in a party, that's it.

I don't agree that solo player should take 8 times more hours than a full party.

That's some weird logic.
[snip]
Each situation would need to be balanced to the player/s as would the reward.

At least someone understands the concept of scaling and equal effort for equal reward! There is no reason why your 4 hours in a party, are any more valuable than my 4 hours solo. If I put in the same amount of effort (and not simply with some dumbed down easy mode, but a proper scaled environment) I should get the same reward.

@Leeloo
Oh I like you more and more.

There is some truth to this.
/hug

Actually, posts like the one you quoted are the problem, not the solution. Too many people, some who even "claim" to have been soloists, like to make the statement that all soloists really wish they were groupers. It is as bad as saying all Hispanics (or any other racial group) secretly wish they were White. It is a horrible, not to mention completely wrong, judgement that my original post was attempting to shed light on.

[Xandre]

Actually, posts like the one you quoted are the problem, not the solution. Too many people, some who even "claim" to have been soloists, like to make the statement that all soloists really wish they were groupers. It is as bad as saying all Hispanics (or any other racial group) secretly wish they were White. It is a horrible, not to mention completely wrong, judgement that my original post was attempting to shed light on.

I said "Some truth."

Certainly there are other factors to consider, but I do believe that if you did or were to make a friend(s), someone more than just a player you casually talk to from time to time, then you'd want to spend time with them.

Also, the comparison you made is not a viable example to support your argument due to its extremity.

[thedevilsjester]

I said "Some truth."

Certainly there are other factors to consider, but I do believe that if you did or were to make a friend(s), someone more than just a player you casually talk to from time to time, then you'd want to spend time with them.

By spend time with...you mean have your virtual avatar near their virtual avatar linked by a virtual party mechanic? How does that equate to spending time with them? Isn't talking to them, both in text chat and voice chat on a regular basis, more social then the virtual proximity of your avatars? Really, how is forming a party with them "spending time with them"? If it were real life, yes having them in close proximity is leagues different than chatting with them on the phone, but that character in game, isnt really you, and the proximity is virtual (you are not really closer to them then you are when you are solo halfway across "the world"). I would think that those who party, and don't talk, voice or text, are less social than those who solo and chat all day with their in game and out of game friends (XFire is pretty good for this). How does wanting to form a group mechanic automatically make you social, and not wanting to, automatically makes you anti-social?

Also, the comparison you made is not a viable example to support your argument due to its extremity.

I disagree. You feel, because it doesn't really affect you, that it is an extreme comparison. From my side, being in the group that is regularly attacked, it is quite a fair comparison. One large group, who expresses their supposed superiority, believes that another large group wants to secretly be like them. (I should note, for the record, that I am not including "all groupers" in this, just the ones who express said sentiment) It is a valid comparison. The only area that the comparison falls short in, is that race cannot change, where as behaviour can, but it is the closest comparison I could find without comparing religions, and that will just get messy and I am sure no one wants the topic to start degrading into that!

@Griss
Yes you are absolutely right that someone experienced in soloing only will (typically) not make as good a partier as someone who has partied most of the game. The opposite is true as well though. Someone who is used to the party mechanic, is not going to be as good solo as they are used to a certain type of mechanic where there is a healer role, a tank role, a DPS role, etc... and when they are in a situation where they have to be all of these, if they are not used to it (like a soloer to a group) they will fail just as hard (of course, a benefit of them soloing is they only bring themselves down, not the whole party). This is just the nature of experience. If you intend to play in parties, you should play in them early so you get to know your party role, and if you intend to do a lot of soloing, you should do so early so you can get a feel for playing your character in its new role (and in the case of FFXIV, probably get some new skills...since as a soloist, Cure is nice, but Sacrifice is useless, etc...)