Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Orophin]

Big post about soloing

I've been recently considering maybe I should take the same approach as you and maybe try to not get involved with the endgame stuff this time around. I'd probably be far happier just playing with a friend or two whenever they're on and just do things by myself, while grouping up with random people to get the mandatory grouping stuff done.

[Nix]

I've been recently considering maybe I should take the same approach as you and maybe try to not get involved with the endgame stuff this time around. I'd probably be far happier just playing with a friend or two whenever they're on and just do things by myself, while grouping up with random people to get the mandatory grouping stuff done.

I've played MMOs in my free time for many years and for me the biggest amount of pleasure has come from hanging with a really small group, like 2~4 people (close friends, husband etc) and just knocking out content where we could. A lot of fights were really fun and challenging and I hope that I can experience the same thing in 2.0.
Bigger groups seem to breed animosity; drops become such a cause of drama it's not even funny><.
It's like throwing a raw steak to a pack of starving dogs and expecting them to share. Totally not worth the trouble D:

[Jeronlmo]

I've played MMOs in my free time for many years and for me the biggest amount of pleasure has come from hanging with a really small group, like 2~4 people (close friends, husband etc) and just knocking out content where we could. A lot of fights were really fun and challenging and I hope that I can experience the same thing in 2.0.
Bigger groups seem to breed animosity; drops become such a cause of drama it's not even funny><.
It's like throwing a raw steak to a pack of starving dogs and expecting them to share. Totally not worth the trouble D:

I have seen many post like yours, and that is actually a very sad thing, ive watched many LS's from FF11 and FF14 and guilds from other games break over drops but the answer is kinda this... "Evil will prevail when good men do nothing", its like trying to find a non-profit company that truely does good for the world in RL, the people that get ahead are usually the same people that would replace employees with machines as soon as it becomes available, the fact that all of this is true is not because of the content, its because not enough of these people who get screwed over stand back up and do the job better.

The LS im in never has this problem luckily... we use points/attendance to do drops, there in no "seniority" even for the leader, our leader in FF11 was literally the gimpest member out of our 50ish members, he passed the chance to get I think 4 relics, when people joined us they literally never heard of him, they thought our main tank was the leader of the LS (including me when I joined).

[Nix]

its because not enough of these people who get screwed over stand back up and do better.

This is untrue - I have been in a few groups where the people in it were previously spurned by lootwhores and things go great for a while until a new shiny drop comes in that they really want... Then it's to hell with morals and the high road, they end up no better than the people they tried to get away from.

You're lucky your LS doesn't have problems, I've been in a few where they did points and again, was fair for a while until the leader started favoring friends and telling people they were ineligible.

Case point: My husband and I were in a limbus group that ran late on a wednesday and early evening on a sunday. We were both eligible for drops but hadn't lotted anything for 6+ months (hell, the only drops we did get from ultima + omega were 'junk', the headpieces and only because we were lucky enough to win a freelot.)

My husband started a class that required him to take out 2 sundays a month for classwork + meetings (our weekends got ganked a little because we both work during the week so any other free time was used for studying and gaming if we could). Loot rules for the shell stated that he had to be 75% attendance and above to lot, he was at 75% so no harm right?
Wrong.
A week or so before homam pants dropped (the drop he was listed for), the LS leader had a good friend join the shell. He wanted homam pants too (surprise!). They changed the loot rules on the day that they dropped (coincidentally, a Sunday) so that wednesday's attendance and sundays attendance would be calculated separately for some stupid reason. This put my husband at 50% attendance, so he couldn't lot the pants he'd worked so hard for and instead they went to LS leader's new friend. Needless to say we found another group sharpish... but no system is immune from greed.