Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Orophin]

Solo play does exist, it's called crafting and gathering >_>

And as of ARR, leveling up a few classes via questing too. :P

[Undrentide]

Its nice to make some progression on your own...like other people have said sometimes playtime is limited, we have work, children, social lives etc, and free time is at a premium. Sometimes you get an hour to yourself and think ok ill go do leves for an hour, or ill go farm craft etc. Personally i get a few hours in the evenings to play and thats when i tend to do stuff solo, and then when i have more time like weekends thats the time i can spend doing group content etc. Believe me id love to stay home all day playing the game!
Plus Lady made a very good point, some people just dont want the drama associated when groups of people get together and inevitably fall out. Some of the end game linkshells are run almost like a business, people are expected to put in a certain amount of hours per week, do the events when the linkshell leader decides (usually when its convenient to him/her), and then when something goes wrong in said raid or someone doesnt turn up major drama and flaming ensues. Id rather have solo play than be forced into a situation like that.

[TohruHonda]

I enjoy both. I don't always want to group up.

[valetarkus]

I think the biggest problem is how long and how much time you have to waste sometimes just to form a party. I waited 3 hours to get in a full party once, i was really annoyed, then after like a couple fights some peeps were like, "oh it's getting late, gotta go." killing the exp chain/raid/quest/whatever. I love partying! Love the social stuff, but lesbihonest, sometimes party formations can be a b****. Hopefully this will change in 2.0 though.

[Undrentide]

I think the biggest problem is how long and how much time you have to waste sometimes just to form a party. I waited 3 hours to get in a full party once, i was really annoyed, then after like a couple fights some peeps were like, "oh it's getting late, gotta go." killing the exp chain/raid/quest/whatever. I love partying! Love the social stuff, but lesbihonest, sometimes party formations can be a b****. Hopefully this will change in 2.0 though.

If you take FFXI as an example, say i played from 6pm to 2am as i did, you could spend easily 1- 3 hours of that LFP even as WHM, then add on 45 mins to get to a camp. Sometimes youd be lucky and the party would run sweet as a nut, other times youd get to a camp and the party would dissolve after 20 mins, or people would go afk. That was the most frustrating time sink ever and i dont want to see it make a return in FFXIV.

[Radacci]

I'm a Virgo, so i need lone time, or i get depressed
No one likes being forced into things...Even though it's an MMO, it just gives you the option to play with others.
There's as many reasons people wanna solo, as there are people who wanna solo; or more actually, since personally i can see multiple reasons to do so.
Time restraint, don't wanna do it for extended period of time, wanna do stuff at my own pace, many people are annoying/douche/idiots, so i certainly wouldn't want to be forced into party with such people. Maybe you wanna grind some specific mob, for specific mats, and don't wanna spend forever trying to find people who wanna grind same mobs.
Since most people are concerned only with end-game, and don't care about content before that, it gets hard to find people for lower level content anyways...would be quite dumb if new players can't progress, cause there's not enough people to party with. Not to mention it took 2 weeks to get party for Castrum.
I like partying, but not being forced into it; and not all the time.

[darios]

I think the whole solo playing on a MMO is the adrenaline of achieving things by yourself that normally required more that one player. Like those days on XI When a RDM or a Blm solo NM in Sky and Sea. Or the fun of doing Carby solo kites Cuz as a SMN you refused to be a Cure whore, Blue Mage slaying Imps left and right as I watch in the hill of Caedarva mire with my party trying to get a job to 70+. "Cough before Abyssea showed up and screw that up". Also in the MMO community most players only speak English and some foreign players feel intimidated by that so the ability of solo playing is a good way for them to enjoyed the game they love.

[AdorraEloom]

Doing groups for bigger raids is what MMO's are all about, but to have every single task in the game require a group is non-sense. I strongly agree with Yoshi on the fact that the main story progression can be done solo, key phrase is can be, so that means option to do it in party is also there. Most frustrating thing in ff11 was finding the "Right" people to progress through the main story, my static did the main story missions once a week, and sometimes 2-3 people would not show up costing the rest of the group more time to find fillers which would result in people falling behind and so on. I for one enjoyed the main story in ff11 and always hated having to wait 1 week to see the next part of the story. With the option to do the main story solo, people can do it at their own speed with out the frustration of looking for members to see the next mission/cut scene.

[Starlord]

I just don't like parties because they all tend to turn into elitists who have to have a thousand pieces of armor in order to feel they are playing the game right and talk down to you if you do not. This is part of the reason I left FFXI because of players like that. I really would hate for FFXIV to end up down that same sad road.

This is the quote I'm referring to straight from the FFXIV Facebook Page.

http://www.facebook.com/FinalFantasyXIV?fref=ts

All I'm saying is "Don't expect a full game of nothing but solo" Because this is a MMORPG, where you group together for the same cause to beat said content. Yes there should be solo content, but I feel the group aspect should weigh heavier. 1.0 had too much solo play content ( until like the last 1 year when they started to put in Primals and Dungeons and what not). At that point of time, 1.0 was "like" any other console game with a social network.

[Nix]

Personally I prefer solo... D:

Back in XI I played with large groups of people and I got stung a lot by them too. Drops got ninja'd and more drama than I could shake a stick at. I'd find smaller groups that would boast about a 'no drama policy' and the people in them would become really close friends, but ultimately when that shiny item drops in the lootpool, 90% of the player-base goes to shit putting pixels ahead of morals and friendships.

My XI server was a host to all kinds of trash and I didn't want to pay $60 ($30 each for me and my husband) to move, so by the end of it I was so sick and tired of greedy ass-hats that my last few months were spent fishing and crafting.

XP party forming was a whole other ball of crap - 3 hours forming only to get out there for a few fights and then people are like "Man, it's getting late! Not going to find a rep.", sometimes it was faster to just go solo instead of waiting for the inevitable letdown.

It's hard to find a decent group, I thought I'd have more luck in XIV and for a while it was good until those 'close friends' you thought you had turned again because of loot. It only takes 1 bad apple to spoil the bunch (Especially when the leader of the 'bunch' excuses rude behavior because those bad apples are his ticket to loot).

Now I am extremely wary of large groups when it comes to dungeons and the like, there are very few people that I want to spend my time with ingame and sadly we are a bit scattered - hopefully we can all come together in 2.0 and play together again.

I love the MMO side of things - It's nice to chat while I play or have the option to party-up if I have the time for an xp group but at the same time when things start to revolve around items I get really wary. I loved that the Ifrit/moogle/garuda fights loot placed as it was, drops were somewhat unforgiving but at the same time there was no ninja lotting, no asshattery, but when it comes to dungeons and you've got one person saying 'ok, pass this piece to that person. Hell no they don't deserve it since they came on one run but you should give it to him because he's my friend' then that's something I hate (and time to find a new group).

Often times it's easier for me to just grind out solo levels so I have the freedom to AFK if I want to, and the freedom to not listen to people whine, but at the same time it's great to be able to chat with linkshell while I'm slaughtering marmots or something

tl;dr - If the player-base on my server in XI wasn't full of lootwhoring jackasses, I'd probably enjoy group content a bit more. But until people can get over their greed then I'll always prefer soloing and the lack of drama that brings.