Stories that focus on the individual should never require parties.

[Felis]

Because the goal was to make the game more casual friendly? Yoshi-P himself even talked about how people these days don't have the time to play for extended hours.

For this Yoshi-P bring the content finder ... with 2.0. Instead to make all story soloable he want to make it for casuals easier to make a party.

[DemonForest]

At least what i read into the OP was something I've found obnoxious with a lot of games, you are playing the (one and only) hero? The who are the rest of these people?
A nice change might be a side storyline for those who don't want to party that sees the story from the sidelines. Final Fantasy has always revolved around parties to the greater extent. The Cut Scenes should deffinatly show the whole party reacting, not just the main character. If you go the solo route perhaps fight lesser whatevers and see the main cut scene through a hole or from the side and see the main party react. This way if you change your mind and want to (or find a) party later you can move the story along with them.
However while there should be better rewards and fullfillment from being social. If possible allow other players to see and fight as well.
I remember from the XI days that there were days that I could not find a party for my job either it was not in demand or i couldn't afford the gear upgrades. So i missed out on almost all of the story and got bored rather quickly. I'm hoping 2.0 allows both while still encouraging the other.

[Myrhn]

Everything when I log on I put in my party search that i'm looking for hamlet, CC/AV, primals, and only once i was asked if i could help with the body AF brd, i helped and everyone was happy. The shout in uldah only reach ppl in uldah maybe if use the search a bit more ppl could reach u and party stuff can be done fast

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

I do see the OP's point. If the quest is involving the player, not the player's friends or player's shellmates, but solely the player, then the quest could be scaled toward a difficulty that is more acceptable for that quest at the level accepted.

Quest Giver: The equivalent perhaps would be, "Only someone who is worthy can pull the sword from the stone!"
Implication: Solo. I have to pull the sword. I don't need anyone's help for that!
In Actuality: Wrongs!
When you arrive at the sword in the stone, there's a giant dragon dual-wielding huge blades about two-roegadyns tall and one-roegadyn wide. He flies, flips, and rolls around the arena with lethal precision, performing dual circle slashes to strike even the archers, and tail swipes OMG12 watch the tail, 50 DKPS minus?! It takes ten seconds to pull the sword. You need a near full party to keep the dragon warrior occupied. He is also immune to wrist flick. Party wipes, but at least you got the sword pulled.
Surprise, you try to turn in the quest, the dragon warrior's twin brother is camping and killing the quest giver. He refuses to be kited away and you can't get through the dialogue fast enough to receive the quest reward. You now need a server-wide alliance to stop this sumbich. But you find that it's difficult to get these folks to join, because they want to take the quest now. C'est la vie.

I think I would have preferred to see the ability-based quests (at least up til' the 15 minute cooldown abilities) to be solo at the level received. And keeping the gear-based quest in a separate sequence, let that be the group-based portion of discovering the job.

[Dzian]

You have already seen people will happily do Ifrit several thousand times for Loot, thus requiring 8 people.

Personally I don't think anyone "Happily" grinds Ifrit 1000 times for loot. It's more a case of "god damn I will get something to show for all this bs" grind grind grind in the hope you might eventually get something that at least makes it a little worthwhile.....

I also personally think this is yet another issue affected by the RNG that we all know and hate. If things were more challenging and had better loot distributing in exchange for the challenge it'd be less of a grind then people may spend less time grinding av a thousand tmes, cc a thousand times, moogle a thousand times etc etc and thus people may actually be more willing to help others.

I know people who typically play 3 hours a night after they finish work and the only thing in there focus is how many av/cc runs can they squeeze into that 3 hours in the hope of darklight.

Another thing would be incentives. Offer out a reward for helping people with quests. one example the recent united we stand. implement a system where if you go and do it and help people out you get like 50% of the reward. i'd do things like united we stand all day long if i got like 2500 seals a time.

pretty sure people would be more willing to jump in to help people if they got a reward out of it for repeating it.

[Elexia]

I disagree strongly.

This. SE put in the time and effort to display everyone's character in the cutscene that's in a party which also have some interaction as well (however the focal point will be on the specific player as usual)...this is something I never really see in other MMOs.

Lets keep party play, yeah? MMO etc, single player MMOs people are getting tired of. Though..it seems a lot are in favor of MMOs being a solo player experience.

[Zaaku]

This is a Massive Multiplayer Game

Multiplayer


Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-yougetthepoint

[viion]

I didn't mean to single you out sorry, just thought your quote fit what I wanted to say. It's a shame that your server doesn't have many people on it when you are on, and hopefully the content finder will help you in this aspect. But changing the content to "scaleable" while might sound good would only hinder the drive to make this a "social" game. They have lessened the restrictions on alot of content, AV/CC/DH are all enterable with 4 people and the final AF fights are not that hard to 6 man (except BRD, that one always pisses me off) I was just trying to get people to raise their server community up to what we have on Ridill. See someone you partied with, /wave to them; see a /sh in town that you have cleared with ease, teach new players how to also; these people will remember that, there are not that many people on a server that you shouldn't know a vast majority of them. Don't kill me but "Coming in 2.0" ><

Yeh the coming in 2.0 is seeming to be the only answer. I can understand why more and more people are giving up and waiting, though likely not for same reasons for this subject.

It is great they lessened the restrictions for a lot of content, but why have them at all? Why do I need 4 people for AV/CC/DH? Why cant i go in solo, why do i need 8 people for Primal, why cant i go in with 2-3 friends?

Why do SE put these restrictions in at all and not allow us the chance? Is it because if their QA team cant do it we cant? That would be a lame excuse, especially when after Garuda I find their QA to be not very good lol real players are much better.

I hope the "content finder" helps as you will find more which make it a little easier, but the restrictions are just not needed at all.

[DarthTaru]

If people aren't capable of cultivating any relationships, friendships or alliances that are mutually beneficial then you probably shouldn't be playing a Massively Multiplayer online video game. Instead of taking any initiative, like creating a linkshell and advertising it for people who can barely play but want to do story line missions and advertising it on your lodestone world forum, you just come here whining for Yoshi P to bring the game back to its 2010 philosophy which was absolute fail.

While the OP was unsuccessfully shouting for a party to do what he wanted to do, i'm sure he was ignoring numerous other shouts to do what other people wanted to do, but these people are quick to hypocritically condemn others for not wanting to line up during their apparent very limited play time to get them what they want completed.
So not only do you apparently have no time to play an MMO, you're too selfish to benefit anyone else, and seemingly incapable of cultivating any friendships to help you progress in a game that is almost two years old.
So with all this said I think you're just playing the wrong game if not the wrong genre.

Do better or play something else.

[Estellios]

Skimmed a bit through the thread, but OP while I believe your concerns are valid I don't know why you think United We Stand should be a soloable quest. It involves the three nations coming together to fight the Garleans and the cutscene upon entering Castrum Nova has a pretty large company vs. empire battle, so it makes sense that the fight would need a large group. It's definitely probably do-able with a group of 6+.

Most AF battles do not require a full party either. You can get away with 5 people in some fights, but 6 should be good for the rest.