Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[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:

[Rahsch]

I just don't get it, MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Game. Some people want the game to base around solo play, ( which was mostly 1.0 and at some points did get frustrating to just do everything by myself.)

Do they even know what an MMO is? This is just a little gripe that I been having everytime the subject arises.

Going to get bread now to make Sausage Sandwiches!

Example:



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

Even in an MMO, sometimes people don't have the time to play with other players. So they try to do things solo so they can just enjoy the game alone which what time they have. Doesn't mean they don't want to interact. Just that they want some things to do when they don't have the desired time to play with others.

[Jeronlmo]

right. i'd be fine with more forced party for whatever, if it would be quick and easy to join one, and you wouldn't have to stress about ruining the party, cause they could find new member in a min. But that's pretty much impossible, since there's so many maps, and so much content; everyone is spread out to much.

on the other hand it annoys me when i'm in some area, where some other people are on same quest mobs, and i invite them to party, and they refuse...i mean really? why fight over the mobs?

I think 1.0 was fine. party xp was faster, so there was incentive to party, but it wasn't forced on you; i think that's good enough.

When exp chains came out, I capped every job that was not already 50, 1 job every day. If you found this to be good leveling, your insane.

The only things that I'm against requiring parties are the storyline and to a lesser extent levelling. Reason I'm against partying for storyline content is that once people get past a fight, they never seem to want to do it again. I was stuck on baby Ifrit for months. Partly this is my fault for not coming back until May, but no one wanted to come kill him because they were all on 'United We Stand' or 'To Kill a Raven'. When I got to 'United We Stand', people that were 'To Kill a Raven' didn't want to help because "I don't need that anymore." Partying to beat a mission at the level it's designed for is fine, but if I'm level 50 and can solo baby Ifrit without breaking a sweat, I should be required to beg people to come so that we can kill him in a matter of seconds. As for requiring a party to level, there is no such thing. It's always possible to find some way to level solo if you try ahrd enough.

Though we werent on the same server, im likely one of the people to not help you... but guess why? Its not to be mean, but because you quit the game and refuse to be sociable like the rest of the people here defending solo play over group. If you do not know people, and refuse to play with them because drama "might" happen, I will not help you, I do not repeat content I have already completed and likely spent a long time trying to figure the content out for anyone to come in and want carried. The fact that people have maby 2hrs a day means nothing to me, these people you feel should be basically forced to help might also have -2hrs to play, and you want them to spend 30min's of that time helping a complete stranger... who wants nothing to do with them.

Even in RL, friends have drama, its part of life, if people want nothing but solo content its called an RPG (if you really want to just play solo and talk to people, open facebook while you play instead of turning mmo's into facebook). These are the same excuses to turn to regional servers and why I will likely no longer see all of my JP/Korean friends even though I speak neither of those languages. People who claim they are not racisist advocated that they were tired of seeing "squiggles" on their screens and they should all be put on their own servers like some sort of internment camp during WWII or something. Other peoples inability to communicate with people from a different culture... and from what ive read so far in this thread, many of you cannot communicate with people in general is now effecting me in a very big way.

Solo content is perfectly fine, but never should it be more prevalent than group content. In FF11 I used to solo alot, things like serket/bune/KA... lots of NM's, that most would bring 3+ people to, you could solo, you just couldnt solo and suck at the same time. Solo content in FF11 generally did not involve progression through the story, there was plenty of it, but most of it was a means to make fast/large money to progress your characters gear.

Ive been trying to get on these forums less and less because the community is so screwed up and im sure this post is going to get crap because im being blunt... but people constantly on here every single day working to literally change what a genre of gaming is because they want to play group content without every talking to people is just incredible.

[Raven_Reborn]

Sometimes I don't want to be bothered with people or gathering a group to do something. So I love having the option of solo content. However I still love those moments when a group of strangers work together to finish a goal. So I'm one of those 50/50 people. I just like options.

[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).

[ZakarnRosewood]

"Just go play offline and leave the MMO to the elite. We need a challenge and want to play with huge groups but only if you know what you are doing. We wont have these things if you insist on whining for the ability to play solo, even to a point. Solo players ruined this genre." This may be over exaggerating the actual OP but the sentiment is one i see expressed a lot when this topic is brought up.

And then this guy comes along and proves my point about the elitist mindset.

Though we werent on the same server, im likely one of the people to not help you... but guess why? Its not to be mean, but because you quit the game and refuse to be sociable like the rest of the people here defending solo play over group. If you do not know people, and refuse to play with them because drama "might" happen, I will not help you, I do not repeat content I have already completed and likely spent a long time trying to figure the content out for anyone to come in and want carried. The fact that people have maby 2hrs a day means nothing to me, these people you feel should be basically forced to help might also have -2hrs to play, and you want them to spend 30min's of that time helping a complete stranger... who wants nothing to do with them.

Even in RL, friends have drama, its part of life, if people want nothing but solo content its called an RPG (if you really want to just play solo and talk to people, open facebook while you play instead of turning mmo's into facebook). These are the same excuses to turn to regional servers and why I will likely no longer see all of my JP/Korean friends even though I speak neither of those languages. People who claim they are not racisist advocated that they were tired of seeing "squiggles" on their screens and they should all be put on their own servers like some sort of internment camp during WWII or something. Other peoples inability to communicate with people from a different culture... and from what ive read so far in this thread, many of you cannot communicate with people in general is now effecting me in a very big way.

Solo content is perfectly fine, but never should it be more prevalent than group content. In FF11 I used to solo alot, things like serket/bune/KA... lots of NM's, that most would bring 3+ people to, you could solo, you just couldnt solo and suck at the same time. Solo content in FF11 generally did not involve progression through the story, there was plenty of it, but most of it was a means to make fast/large money to progress your characters gear.

Ive been trying to get on these forums less and less because the community is so screwed up and im sure this post is going to get crap because im being blunt... but people constantly on here every single day working to literally change what a genre of gaming is because they want to play group content without every talking to people is just incredible.

[Klefth]

These people should just play offline games if soloing everything is what they want.

I keep thinking that people with that mindset is just playing the wrong genre and trying to like it. And yes, this is indeed ruining this genre since many of it's elements need to be made much more simple and easier in order for it to be soloable.

[Shougun]

These people should just play offline games if soloing everything is what they want.

I keep thinking that people with that mindset is just playing the wrong genre and trying to like it.

Except they arent playing the wrong genre. Some people like both, the option to do either in the same world (you cant have that in an offline game), some people like to play online in a live world (you cant have that in an offline game).

Obviously by SE actions they are going semi-ly this direction. They have group content, they have solo content.

Perhaps you are playing the wrong game. (I hate it when people say this.. -_-)

[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.

[shanvhere]

People are are rude and I enjoy solo play to enjoy the game at my own pace.