The Solo disease?

[Jynx]

Balance is key, there needs to be direct benifits for parties compared to solo play otherwise party play is downright discouraged. Solo players will play solo regardless of how "Good" the exp or rewards are mainly because they have the ultimate freedom to do what they want when they want.

In XI I played most all the jobs that could either Solo 1-75 or once 75 were proficient solo players. Beastmaster, Blackmage, Thief I prided msyelf on my skills as a thief taking on monsters that others would flee in terror from. I knew that I wasn't the best in a party, but I made up for it with my abillity to solo.

[Esthar]

My god, let dude solo if he wants too.
When reading all your aggressive comments WHERE YOU TRY TO EXPLAIN SOMEONE WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO HAVE FUN (my god...), I can perfectly understand why one would rather play alone. (^,^)

[NoMX]

First, I'd like to point out that most of the big single player Japanese RPG's (Such as the Final Fantasy franchise) aren't truly "solo" anyways. You usually control multiple characters in a party. Sure, there is only one PERSON playing the game, but there is not usually only one CHARACTER taking on these huge, destructive beasts to ultimately save the world. In an MMO, you're playing ONE of these characters in the party, while other people are playing the others compared to single player games where you play 3-5 individual characters at once to fight the same monsters.

In my opinion it completely ruins the game for one person to be able to kill the roughest, toughest monster in the game that the lore describes as being a badass to the ultimate degree. It's a task for a group, and should never be allowed to be done solo. If you reeeeally want a solo MMO, go play runescape. Unless they changed it in the last couple of years, there is no such thing as partying in that game and you do everything alone, aside from trading. It's just a social single-player game. It sucks... but yea. That's the sort of game you're describing.

Content in an MMO should never be made 100% scalable. Sure, there are certain situations where it's ok. We have it in leves, where you can manually scale them to meet your groups skill and size, but for NM's that's downright stupid. NM's should always be made with the intent of being killed in a group. It's almost always this way for every game. They're made to be killed by a group, though skilled soloists usually find a way to beat some of them anyways. This is fine, IMO, so long as it's not a monster thats meant to be able to completely annihilate any one single adventurer alone based off the lore around it.

As for desirable loot dropping monsters, plain and simple, casual players and soloists alike should not be able to obtain the best gear as easily as a hardcore player can. I'm not saying they SHOULDN'T be able to eventually obtain these items, just that in a game meant for grouping, there should be a great benefit to actually... Grouping. If everything was handed to you with ease on a silver platter because they made all the best gear obtainable through soloing, then the game would have zero challenge or ability to retain mine, nor most people's interest for more than a quick second.

[Silala]

In my opinion it completely ruins the game for one person to be able to kill the roughest, toughest monster in the game that the lore describes as being a badass to the ultimate degree. It's a task for a group, and should never be allowed to be done solo. If you reeeeally want a solo MMO, go play runescape. Unless they changed it in the last couple of years, there is no such thing as partying in that game and you do everything alone, aside from trading. It's just a social single-player game. It sucks... but yea. That's the sort of game you're describing.

Runescape introduced a skill last year to address that criticism called dungeoneering. The skill is soloable to some extent, but you gain allot more xp by grouping with others. The skill is pretty much like the standard raid, killing monsters in an instance with a boss at the end, but only lasts like 20-60 mins per dungeon depending on how well your group co-operates, so those with not much time will still benefit. Anything outside of that though is still solo friendly outside of mini-games like you said. There are bosses in the open world that require grouping if you're low in level, but most of them do become soloable by max level. This is pretty much info from when I stopped playing in October of 2010, so maybe new party-oriented things have been introduced since then.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

(ran out orf room)
take example of World of warcraft. It is an mmorpg based from their "popular" rts game Warcraft. (i only heard of dune and comand and conqur (sp) ) Obviousely the mmorpg would be about pvp. And even have all servers (normal rp or other wise) got most content in pvp style.
Much like Final Fantasy games have been about teamwork. Where heros group up and defeat a common enemy. Or much like crystal chronicals where you and three other players (local) could join up as a their character and go through the game as a team. (the solo style is actually hard since you just have a moogle and most puzzles are better with more then 1 person) Also some titles in final fantasy did have a multiplayer mode where if you plug in another controler player 2 can take control onver 1 character in the battles. I think it was ff9 that did this.

Should a player beable to choose to solo? sure idm options. Should a player join an mmo and ONLY solo, and never grouping. No.

[NoMX]

No, Jester... You're just missing the points I was trying to make.

My first paragraph was eluding to the fact that all these single player RPG's we're all familiar with have always had us forming groups of like-minded individuals who got stronger over time. Their goal is always to overcome an overwelmingly powerful foe, but as a team working together through all the obstacles before them they become strong enough to put up a fight. The MMO part in "MMORPG" to me means that each player in your party is played by a different person, while in your single player RPG's one player controls them all. In both game types you have big groups of people all going out and battling evil. The difference is, soloing in an MMO takes away that entire feel. It's no longer about a group of people working together to progress in the story and such... It's some jack ass stabbing dodos in a corner by himself for 10 hours a day.

If you took the same person and had him solo level 1 until cap on any major MMO of your choice that possess endgame content he is pretty much useless for anything besides soloing. Now, if you take the same person and have him group up the whole time, then he will know how his role is supposed to be filled in a party situation. He will be a much better endgame player.

Most skills people obtain while soloing do NOT transfer over to group play. For example, someone who's done nothing but solo knows absolutely nothing about managing their hate on the game, as it's an entirely nonexistent concept to them. You also use entirely different skills as a soloer than any group player would. For example, if a gladiator was soloing it'd be absolutely stupid for them to have provoke or wardrum on their bar. Wasted points... Just like it'd be stupid for a THM to waste spots on contagion or punishing barbs in a group, seeing as they will never be in range of an NM's attacks in a group situation (providing they're healing/debuffing/dd'ing and not tanking).

My point is... During the leveling up process, people should be encouraged to group. Soloers are at a huge disadvantage when they do group, because they rarely know what's expected of them. Sure, they can learn once they hit 50, but they'll already be behind the curve for group play at that point... They could have just partied half the time and learned it all before then, and avoid potentially stupid mistakes.


You were asking why people don't like soloers, basically... This is my reasoning. They more often than not lack the skills to perform adequately in a group because they spend all their time alone. When you have one of these people join you for a fight... It becomes very annoying, very fast. I don't want to waste my time wiping to what should be an easy fight because someone chose to never learn how the game works in group mode.

[Eldaena]

You were asking why people don't like soloers, basically... This is my reasoning. They more often than not lack the skills to perform adequately in a group because they spend all their time alone. When you have one of these people join you for a fight... It becomes very annoying, very fast. I don't want to waste my time wiping to what should be an easy fight because someone chose to never learn how the game works in group mode.

That is a huge assumption. This means you are guilty of the stereotyping that this whole thread is about.

Edit: Just because a few 'soloers' you have played with weren't up to par with some of your elitist views, doesn't mean all solo players tossed into a group situation would behave the same way.

[Bled]

That is a huge assumption. This means you are guilty of the stereotyping that this whole thread is about.

Edit: Just because a few 'soloers' you have played with weren't up to par with some of your elitist views, doesn't mean all solo players tossed into a group situation would behave the same way.

for the love of god, we have the label soloist being thrown around can we please keep elitist out, labels like these do nothing but hold games and their communities back.

[Eldaena]

for the love of god, we have the label soloist being thrown around can we please keep elitist out, labels like these do nothing but hold games and their communities back.

I'm sorry that my term caused you to feel that you must post in retort, but when one person believes that the way they do things in a game, or how they feel about others in a game, is the right way and the only way, that feels pretty elitist to me.

He is saying that solo players are almost always bad at playing in groups.

How does he know this?

Has he played with most solo players in this game? Seriously doubtful considering they do not want to party with him or seemingly anyone. He is assuming.

[Bled]

I'm sorry that my term caused you to feel that you must post in retort, but when one person believes that the way they do things in a game, or how they feel about others in a game, is the right way and the only way, that feels pretty elitist to me.

He is saying that solo players are almost always bad at playing in groups.

How does he know this?

Has he played with most solo players in this game? Seriously doubtful considering they do not want to party with him or seemingly anyone. He is assuming.

Don't insult me in thinking that i don't know what an elitist is... By creating a derogatory label such as elitist you only further the very problem you are attempting to label (which has no relevance). Ever hear of the saying "treat a person like a animal long enough and he will become an animal", that is the most basic way of describing labeling theory. You are part of the problem so stop flinging these stupid labels around!

Edit: Your not the only person, the whole community has adopted this mentality and its turned these threads to crap!