For those of you complaining about EXP chains while soloing...

[Hikozaemon]

THM is the new blackmage MANABURN OVER HERE!

thats what i was thinking lol who needs whirlwind. Only proble is thm will not be good as solo once casting is canceled by moving

[Jynx]

thats what i was thinking lol who needs whirlwind. Only proble is thm will not be good as solo once casting is canceled by moving

Actually I tend to solo much more efficently when I don't move, better MP regeneration.

[Stimpack]

This all comes down to how people feel about soloing in an MMORPG. It seems that some people just have a problem with solo players altogether. I don't see why soloing and partying can't be equal in experience gain. You already get a buff for being in a party, and I feel that's advantage enough. I'm sorry to say it, but if you have a vendetta against solo players in an MMORPG, you're just ignorant. Parties will always kill faster than a solo player, that paired with the party buff is enough.

(edit) It's amazing. People are acting as if soloing will ever be as efficient as partying. It never will be. As I've stated, parties will always kill at a faster rate than a solo player. No one is asking for solo/party exp to be equal. People are merely asking that the gap be bridged.

[Estellios]

The "make soloing easier" suggestions were made back when 1.19 was released because it did make it tougher for some classes to solo (I think mostly Gladiator?). Self-combos and the new abilities in general seem to have bridged the solo vs party gap quite a bit, though.

[Bowen]

This all comes down to how people feel about soloing in an MMORPG. It seems that some people just have a problem with solo players altogether. I don't see why soloing and partying can't be equal in experience gain. You already get a buff for being in a party, and I feel that's advantage enough. I'm sorry to say it, but if you have a vendetta against solo players in an MMORPG, you're just ignorant. Parties will always kill faster than a solo player, that paired with the party buff is enough.

(edit) It's amazing. People are acting as if soloing will ever be as efficient as partying. It never will be. As I've stated, parties will always kill at a faster rate than a solo player. No one is asking for solo/party exp to be equal. People are merely asking that the gap be bridged.

/look of disapproval

[Frein]

This all comes down to how people feel about soloing in an MMORPG. It seems that some people just have a problem with solo players altogether.

I think I can explain this. The anti-soloing stance stems from the combination of the following two ideas:

1) Playing an MMO alone makes little sense as you're discarding the one feature that makes an MMO unique and, arguably, is the only strength of the genre. It's like buying a car to fulfill the role of a push cart: Sure, you can load it with things and push it, but an actual push cart would do what you want much better because that's what it's actually designed for.

2) People consistently take the path of least resistance even if it hurts them in the long run. If soloing is portrayed as a sufficiently efficient method to progress in the game, people will be reluctant to go through the effort of cooperating with others. The more people flee the pool of players available for grouping, the more difficult it becomes for the remaining players to form groups. Therefore strong incentives to solo are a direct threat to those who play MMOs with the intention of interacting with other players as much as possible.

The first point makes the argument that the soloist don't really want an MMO ("These are not the droids games you are looking for."), while the second point explains why a shift towards solo-friendliness must not be allowed to happen.

And there you go.

[Charismatic]

while the second point explains why a shift towards solo-friendliness must not be allowed to happen

Except it doesn't. Therein lies the problem with your post. Solo-friendly need not mean party-unfriendly or that partying would not be preferable.

[Frein]

Except it doesn't. Therein lies the problem with your post. Solo-friendly need not mean party-unfriendly or that partying would not be preferable.

What part of the pool of players available for partying shrinking did you not understand?

[Jynx]

Hell as long as solo is even half as viable as parties I bet many people would still solo instead of party. Sometimes you just want to play at your own pace, watch TV, eat, go AFK whenever the hell you want to.

Solo can and always will exist in the game viable or not.

[ShinChuck]

Ah yes, the days when you were forced to play a certain way or be left behind. Those were the days.

Seriously, who wants a game where everyone actually has the option to play the way they enjoy?

Amen, my friend. I have no problem with the people asking for balanced solo/party play, but the people who seem aggressively anti-solo entirely... geez, what do you have against people enjoying the game? Are you so incredibly closed minded that you can't possibly fathom the idea of gameplay that facilities the choices of the solo and party players?

As a theoretical, do you oppose things like, say, Chocobo Racing, Triple Triad or Blitzball in FFVII, VIII and X? After all, those are RPGs, not racing sims, card or sports games. Yet SE choose to put them in, and people enjoyed them - do you fault people for doing so?

You're stuck in an odd, archaic mindset of, "It's 'Massively Multiplayer Online', therefore it MUST force players to play together." But that's a very limiting view of a genre wide-ranging with possibilities. "Party play" is not the extent of it's definition. You are interacting with players everyday, by shopping, by typing /cheer at someone, chatting with a linkshell, hanging with a friend crafting.

Perhaps more important than "party play" in regards to the idea of an MMORPG is the idea of choice, and freedom, in a living, breathing world. The genre is ripe for innovation, of helping people connect in *new* ways, of living in a virtual world in accordance with their own will as much as that of the developer and the community, and will never advance if we have people foaming at the mouth every time somebody dares mention something that goes against the idea of "party play and party play only!"