Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Xatsh]

The ability to solo in a mmo = very good thing.

Focus on soloing throughout the game = wrong genre and very bad idea.

Solo only/solo focused leveling and party play for dungeons/endgame only = very bad idea, Western mmo mentality which needs to die

Solo leveling, group leveling, low man instance, large alliance instance, solo instance, group open world, solo open world throughout the whole game = the way it should be



I understand some people like soloing more then group play, but the people who want to only solo have no business playing mmos. It would be like people who hate shooters wanting call of duty to be a racing game or football game. MMOs are multiplayer games, and multiplayer means playing together.... This mentality of MMO = alot of people playing solo in the same world is really really wrong.

[Linkurrra]

Because, often times even though you are on a server full of people those same people are not interested in actually helping you. Or your on for only a few minutes, but do not want to take all the time to form a party.

My number one reason for playing by myself is, I find social interactions with other players take more time and effort than just doing it myself. Coordination with other players can be cumbersome at times, especially if they don't listen, is a 10 year old, or has the attention span of a fly!

While I'm not against social play and parties, I have to be in the mood to do so or I will not play nice with others.
I'm sure many other players feel the same way.

[ZakarnRosewood]

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.. -_-)

Thanks Shogun, There is nothing in the acronym MMORPG that requires you party up or be forced into playing with others. Massive - lots of players. Multiplayer - more than one person playing at once. Online - Over a network connection. Role Playing Game - to take on the persona of a character and play that role in a fantasy setting.

My favorite definition for MMORPG is Mostly Men Online Role Playing Girls.

[fmonkey13]

Soloing and grouping are both essential to a game like FFXIV. Soloing is essential becuase it allows you to complete things and advance inlevels when you have limited time to play. While grouping allows you to make new friends and accomplish harder content. I enjoy both and was lucky enough to have a linkshell that did require you to be on at a certain time and force you to participate or be fround on. Which can be a turn of to many.

Solo play is liked by many because it is often hard to find groups for content if you are limited in time to play. Once again i was lucky to have a amazing linkshell that would help those out who had fallen behind.

With out soling i think FFXIV would easily lose over half its player base, so i would say it is essential to have a well rounded and populated game!

[Undrentide]

""... 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 way.

to this poster i say
Thats a rather mean spirited attitude to take. These games are about helping each other when we need it, regardless of how much interaction you have with a player. You did your content great, but remember you needed the help of 7 other players to do that content, some of could have already completed that content. If they'd had the same attitude as you then youd have left 1.0 having missed out on events such as Primal battles, Castrum Nova, Rivenroad etc due to them being unwilling to help. Whats the problem if your standing round bored in Uldah or wherever and your not doing much to going helping out random people. All that should be expected for your help is a thank you, not lifelong gratitude. I do understand your time is your own but be a better player, pass on your knowledge to those who dont know how content is done, or havent played the game as long, or even attempt a couple of runs just to give people an idea. It shouldnt just be "well ive got my weapon/armour of choice im not going back to that content". Wheres the harm in helping out now and again. You never know, that person who plays solo might end up being a good friend in game and able to help you out in other ways. For example take someone who's never really been bothered with DOW/DOM and just stuck to crafting, they might need help getting through the level 25 dungeon because they want a chocobo to help with travelling...you take time to help them, and they think what a nice guy im gonna offer to do his melding requests. Swings and roundabouts.

[Jeronlmo]

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

It has nothing to do with being elite, 100% nothing, and nowhere in my post did it say anything from your previous quote. Casuals are 100% required in MMO's to have a functioning economy. Casuals should just stop trying to dumb down content so the game can be completed by them (I am not refering to the story line, all should complete that).

These "Elitest" you hate so much that played FF11 endlessly, never truely beat the game, thats the point, its what defines an MMO for us, you just cant win, the fact is if you can complete a game by playing 1-2hrs a day, other people playing will have nothing to do.

The idea of winning a game by playing 1-2hrs a day is what makes "dailies" start showing up, gimpy repeatable quest your virtually forced to do every day. Its actually almost brilliant on the gaming companies side... an entire community that barely logs on yet its just enough so they can be counted as daily active subs when they advertise their game, less server maint, smaller teams to upkeep the game, content only needing to be created to last 1-2hrs/day.

Trying to compare a game like FF11 going to FF14 or WoW or something is just sad it what it actually takes from the developers, FF11 the content lasted years and people loved it, as in 10yrs of planning to keep gear relevant and to keep these people who never stop playing always busy, the content never ended because it was well designed for everyone.

[Klefth]

Yes! We need the game to attract a huge population so we can get on to solo everything anyway!

Why bother with the huge population then? Why bother with the multiplayer aspect of the game which should be the main focus in this genre? Why bother making it online anyway? So you can simply see other people running around? So you can show off your "hard earned" gear in a town?

Why even play a massively multiplayer online game if all you want is soloing? There's plenty of RPGs out there for that. Grab an elder's scrolls game if all you want is questing and getting 1337 lootz on your own. ._.

[Nix]

Yes! We need the game to attract a huge population so we can get on to solo everything anyway!

Why bother with the huge population then? Why bother with the multiplayer aspect of the game which should be the main focus in this genre? Why bother making it online anyway? So you can simply see other people running around? So you can show off your "hard earned" gear in a town?

Why even play a massively multiplayer online game if all you want is soloing? There's plenty of RPGs out there for that. Grab an elder's scrolls game if all you want is questing and getting 1337 lootz on your own. ._.

No one said anything about 'everything solo', but the game should cater to both those who like the solo grind and then keep higher tier stuff for people that like to group.
I don't think anything like Garuda weapons, relics and the like, even white ravens should be attainable solo, a line has to be drawn; but at the same time, plodding on through storyline and lore based things shouldn't force an 8man group on you.

[Shougun]

There is some misconception that solo = easy. Albeit if you have content that has no requirement (solo or party) you may find doing quests designed for solo play easy in a party or quests designed for a party hard solo (you can get around this of course through systems that force values).

However again, solo != easy. That is fault to the designers and not fault to the idea itself. You can make extremely difficult solo content, or really easy.

I dont really care how difficult the content is so long as the quality of work required and the amount of work itself matches the reward.

1.0 slow solo leveling was not the way to go at least when I played, rather you could get a party to max level in a day just by powerleveling (I avoided most of these because I wanted to level my characters once the game got better - so I only have 3 level 50s, and I focused small income on one). So in this case you could argue group play is really easy. (obviously this is a bad argument, but its akin to people saying solo = easy, so the idea is not the problem its the execution of the idea that was).

[Kallera]

Yes! We need the game to attract a huge population so we can get on to solo everything anyway!

Why bother with the huge population then? Why bother with the multiplayer aspect of the game which should be the main focus in this genre? Why bother making it online anyway? So you can simply see other people running around? So you can show off your "hard earned" gear in a town?

Why even play a massively multiplayer online game if all you want is soloing? There's plenty of RPGs out there for that. Grab an elder's scrolls game if all you want is questing and getting 1337 lootz on your own. ._.

:Sigh:

Enjoy your slippery slope. :|

Soloing, or being able to have a way to handle some( not all) content on your own keeps people with something to do, and goals to reach for, when they aren't going to spend 3-4 hours with a 'Looking for Party" marker on their heads.

Besides, crafting's something we all do. Convincing an exp party to frolic to a specific mob I want is hardly feasible, or possible.

And yes, there's also knowing "I can take down mobs above my level/the local Ixali Badasses like a boss". Sue me.