Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Nix]

There is some misconception that solo = easy. Albiet 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.

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 and the work itself matches the reward.

(1.0 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))

I echo you completely! I would LOVE for solo, challenging content instead of Solo sneeze-and-the-mob-dies content.

[Kisa]

I'm not sure why people are taking "I personally like soloing" as "OMG GET RID OF ALL MULTIPLAYER CONTENT!!! EVERYONE SHOULD SOLO!!!"

Why do you all care so much how others chose to play the game? Is them soloing negatively affecting your parties? No? Then stop telling people they are "playing the wrong game" and "ruining the game".

There needs to be a balance, obviously. And it seems ARR is going to be quite balanced for party and solo content. If someone decides they only want to do solo content... well I don't see why that is such a big deal to anyone else. It DOES make you sound elitist. Your way of playing isn't the only way.

[Endless]

I love when I can do things in groups and have a good time but also enjoy being able to do the same thing alone even if at a slower rate.

There have been many of times I have been in a place alone in an MMO trying to accomplish something and someone says "What are you up to?" and from that point you are now partied with someone, then someone else joins, and next thing you know you have a full group doing something that you never intended to group for and having a good time. At the same time no one would care what I'm doing and I continued to solo and still manage to get something accomplished. However neither of those would have been possible if I wouldn't have been able to start it solo to begin with, it would have been me asking around for help or looking for people to join and I don't enjoy sitting around.

I love MMOs for the massive community but I also being able to do something while waiting to enjoy the massive community.

[Starlord]

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.

I wouldn't mind "Story missions with Boss fights to be with a Light/Full Party" Why call it a "boss" if you just going to kill his wimpy behind solo style? The in-between quests should be soloable, but Boss fights should at the very least be a light party ( 4 players)

[Jeronlmo]

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.

The people I do content with, want something to do with me, they are social friends/LS members, the people you are trying to defend are the people saying they want to only solo ever, and complaining that people refuse to help them do things that are not solo. These people cannot get people to help them because they ignore these same people until they need help then throw them under the bus again.

Its like a friend that only calls you when they want to borrow money... exact same thing... you dump those "friends". Bad people are bad people.

[LicontAshontear]

I havnt read every post (and im not going to) but ive read the first 2 pages

I have been playing MMORPGs for almost 15 years, my first encounter with an almost entirely solo MMO was Guild Wars. I played that game for about 2 months and quit. Why? No sense of accomplishment. The reason alot of people WANT a Solo RPG is because they are usually not very good at the game or simply lack the time needed to invest into the game to be good. This brings us to the reason so many MMO's lately have been failing. Soloing sucks. The MAJORITY (notice the wordage here) of people that play an MMO want to play with other people, if you make the game too easy (aka guild wars) then people will finish the game too quickly and then quit. The MINORITY (again, notice the wordage) of the player base want a solo heavy game, and while that is all fine and dandy it will (and has) ruined many games (guild wars being the exception). Nowaday's developers are trying to make money rather than trying to make a great game. FFXI was the last truely good MMORPG in my opinion because when they made it they didn't care what people thought about it, they didnt care what the players said they wanted, they made the game they wanted to make which is what allowed them to make a good strong core game. Even though FFXI had almost no solo content for several years the game thrived. Why? Because the people that couldnt handle it or didnt have time to handle it left the game. Leaving behind only the people that could party and devote large amounts of time to the game stayed, and others that had similar interests saw this and joined the game. When you try to make everyone happy, NO ONE will be truely happy. If you try to make a game that caters to both solo players and hardcore players well then you're just going to end up with a game that has a low lvl cap that is easily reached an a week or 2 (guild wars 2, took me 1 week to reach max lvl on my first character), and while this will keep the casuals happy, the hardcore people will hate it. So how do you make the hardcore people happy? Endgame. So now we have to make an endgame gear treadmill. And while I personally LIKE the treadmill (it keeps me busy), the casuals will hate it. You can't make everyone happy, don't bother trying. Make the game YOU want to make, if you do that and do it well, the game will be successfull.

Just my 2 cents. Carry on folks.

[Alerith]

...but Boss fights should at the very least be a light party ( 4 players)

I enjoy party content very much, but to the above quote:

Why?

Challenging, fun and satisfying boss battles existed long before MMORPGs. I see no rule that states things must be as you say the should be.

[Kirito]

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.

You do not need to worry. In 2.0 there is a content finder where finding a party for a specific dungeon is very easy apparently. Although I would kind of miss having to walk to the entrance of the dungeon rather than get teleported to it automatically. In fact they should make it so you have to get to the entrance of dungeon before being able to use it in content finder.

[Starlord]

I enjoy party content very much, but to the above quote:

Why?

Challenging, fun and satisfying boss battles existed long before MMORPGs. I see no rule that states things must be as you say the should be.

Boss fights in off-line games ( at least in FF games) other people were with you killing a Boss. Why call it a boss if you do it by yourself? Be no different than killing a marmot -.-.

[ZakarnRosewood]

For the record, I dont think anyone who likes/wants solo play has ever wanted to eliminate the party play or make it a solo only/heavy game. I just dont want it to be like FFXI was in its early days, and I dont want it like WoW was in its later years (I soloed all the way to end game) I think what we all want is a nice balance through the early stages of the game with the high end rewards and end game content to be more focused on party play.

Its just a straw man argument people seem to build up around solo play and what they think it will do and what they think we want.