The Solo disease?

[Grimm]

You make the common mistake of thinking that a soloist wants a dead world with no life or activity in it. A world like this gets boring pretty quickly. It would be tantamount to living in a real world where every person other than you is a computer. Almost like a prisons solitary confinement. I play an MMORPG because I want a world that is active, alive, and where I know that behind a large number of those virtual avatars are real people, interacting with the game world in entertaining, exciting ways. For example, I love going out in the world doing my quests and running into some others doing their quests, crafting, harvesting, whatever. Even seeing an occasional party run by off on some errand, makes the world feel dynamic and alive. It feels very lonely in instanced world games like Guild Wars, where even though it carries the title of MMORPG (which I do not think it deserves) you will never see another living soul out in the game world unless they are in your party. I do not have to like party mechanics to want to feel a part of a larger community.

Also, offline RPG's are a poor substitute for an MMORPG. The content, even in the largest games with the most DLC, are still a fraction of the size of a typical MMORPG, and tend to have relatively short lifespans where new content is released, and then its off to the next one.

It's not a common mistake you want an alive world I understand that but what is the point of having other humans behind these characters if you do not interact with them. That is what I meant by the illusion of a dead community many solo players but, NOT all. Do not communicate with the rest of the community that does not help an MMO grow it helps it die. Like I said I hope they start making MSO games for players like you where you can see everyone running around doing what they want but not much party play. Never understood having an alive world to only look at it, not interact and be a part of it.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

It's not a common mistake you want an alive world I understand that but what is the point of having other humans behind these characters if you do not interact with them. That is what I meant by the illusion of a dead community many solo players but, NOT all. Do not communicate with the rest of the community that does not help an MMO grow it helps it die. Like I said I hope they start making MSO games for players like you where you can see everyone running around doing what they want but not much party play. Never understood having an alive world to only look at it, not interact and be a part of it.

fable game sorta do this well 2 and 3. With gold and an online connection and setting you can see player orbs in the game and if you want to join in their game. (with out player consent but do give you a kick option.)

That is why you shouldn't be the "voice of the people" not all soloers community talk with ppl they play bythemselves.

[thedevilsjester]

It's not a common mistake you want an alive world I understand that but what is the point of having other humans behind these characters if you do not interact with them. That is what I meant by the illusion of a dead community many solo players but, NOT all. Do not communicate with the rest of the community that does not help an MMO grow it helps it die. Like I said I hope they start making MSO games for players like you where you can see everyone running around doing what they want but not much party play. Never understood having an alive world to only look at it, not interact and be a part of it.

No, you misunderstand what a soloist is. I LOVE to interact with other people. I talk, I craft (I love to provide my guild with crafted goods), I give advice to new players that need it (i.e. where is this, how do you do this, what is this for, etc...) and just in general have fun. What I do NOT do is participate in the party mechanic which is only a small part of the overall whole as far as interaction goes.

Ahhh... Begging your pardon, but yes you did, in post #13 of this thread you said the following - a direct copied-and-pasted quote - in response to a statement Dubont makes in post #6 about how FFXIV has solo content but is not going to be 100% soloable...

No, again my words are misunderstood. I can see where you can make such a mistake with that phrase, except that I have explained it four or five times already. I simply POSED A QUESTION about why someone would think that a game could'nt both be a solo game and a group game. The person I replied to mentioned a game that a game could never be a 100% soloable, and I simply asked the question of why? (as in, a simple question about why the author of the post thinks that a MMORPG game should never be a 100% soloable) I did not, as my words continue to be twisted into, ever ask for more content, or more solo content, or for this game to be changed in any fashion. In fact, my posts are about game design in general (and peoples concepts of them), and not any one particular game. I am a software developer and game designer, and I find it interesting to hear peoples opinions about why a game could never or should never be designed a particular way. Instead of trying to do point to point counter arguments, I choose to ask questions in an attempt to get the other poster thinking about their answer and why. That is all. (It is, more or less, just my devils advocate stance, intended to delve deeper into the reasoning that some posters have, which is why it is phrased as a series of questions.) Please, for the last time, stop twisting this post to mean what you want it to mean to support your argument. (And those of you that were just honestly mistaken, well now you have the real meaning and intention behind that post, so please, let us move on).

[Cxplorer]

I totally understand you! I am a solo player has well

[Aketo]

I always try to look over my post before hitting the enter key, as I go over to see with or without a spellchecker to see if I type out words correctly while seeing if things flow or sound right when read after I finish typing.

Why I understand it might be hard for you to want to get everything your thinking down in text going 10 times the speed of your key typing from your head, it would really benefit you to go back and look over what you typed.

So you are able to see if what you typed flows well and makes sense while trying hard to see if a words are spelled right.

A suggestion would be to have a physical dictionary next to you if your uncertain of a word.

I have a bother that struggles with the same condition as you, however he tend to taken advice I have given him over the years and doesn't have nearly as much trouble as he once did, though it does take practice to say the lease.

I know its not something you really wanted to hear, but even if it takes a bit of extra time between posts in the long run people are more likely to read what you have to say if your not rushing to post whats on your mind before giving what you typed a decent look over.

As for soloing while you might think that it makes a mmo empty and disconnected it is not the same if we choose to ignore people, as a mmo as many online game has been for many a place to connect with others in a online community be it a world, server or whatever you might call it to connect with others.

Grouping is only one of many aspects of community, to assume that without grouping that if we all soloed (which is very unlikely) believing the world would feel dead would be a bit extreme in thinking to put it mildly.

Remember not everyone is going to have the same interests and desires as you, and as such when the developers diversify the way the game can be play your bound to run into different kinds of people that play the game.

While you might not agree with how soloers play, you should also be open to the fact that we are not here to anger you we are just here to play the game the way we want to.

I am many like me would hope that people that group would be able to understand that and at lease be able to accept each others preference while being civil and open mind to each other.

I know I have been well known for spending half a day just talking to friends in game and people in zones, even though I am soloing alone does that sound like a dislocated and dead world to you or that I am being anti-social?

I would hope not if anything that might make be look very social but not in the way some of you really want me and others to play by your rules and your groups playing your way while forcing us to play your way instead of ours.

Which I might add sounds a bit unfair if you ask me to be demanding anything or suggesting we group remember not all of us totally hate groups per say, but enough bad apples and mistreatment from group members over the year in many games along with other factors have made grouping in general a sour subject or necessity when soloing is a viable option

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Now not saying a mix of both is bad, just never seen an mmo handle that well. If content can be solo, people WILL solo it. Even if you want to do it with a group just for having fun in a group, people will look down on you saying "you can solo it, and do not need a group" This happen to me alot in WoW and Aion. I enjoy being with other players, and tend to have the most fun that way I do not join in groups just to have it be easy.

I also enjoy some solo stuff and feel good when I CAN solo something. I'm not the best "gamer" persay and tend to play games on "easy". So when I can solo something say in ffxi like COp mission in sea, i was VERY happy. heck I cried when I beat maat as I didn't think i would ever, since I am not the best solo'er.
And again not to be mean. OP could have stated his topic a bit better. Because in my eyes coming in an mmo and bluntly saying "I hate grouping, and will refuse to group with people" kinda made me think "wow... who does this guy think he is." Kinda left a sour taste.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

sorry i keep running out of room. :P
Pretty much he could just left it at "i perfer to solo, that is how I enjoy the game" This way he isn't coming off as a jerk. And this was something I was trying to point out. Just had a rough time explaining it. And that also to me, He does SEEM (not is) playing victem. Like anyone can say anthing about grouping or that in an ff mmo group are sorta expected at somepoint (like everymmo I played) That even though it is in the Eulaaks rules, it is a standered of mmo in general sort of an unwritten rule. And that most end game content is centered around grouping. This also includes WoW and Aion. (and these have alot of solo aspects as well)

[Kilta_Firelotus]

If someone can quote this tell TDJ that elder scrolls oblivion those buggy, as similar stuff. You do see npc do other stuff. I actually for the first time in YEARS of owning this game say the countess of layewin with her personal escort march on horseback going to chorrol. That is the work of the radient AI. And I also found a guy who was assassinated, and a mob of npc killing each other because of a thf. These things do not always happen or are seen by the players. And no elder scrolls game has a finite amount of mobs. Just npc.... :P as I soon found out when I killed everyone in morrowwind. XD doomed that file like no tommarrow. Anyway..... Tell him I agree about the guild wars thing. I played it and imo wasn't an mmorpg. Well maybe the fact it is free after buying has something to do with it... XD

[Kilta_Firelotus]

If I could find my dictionary Id have it with me. But ya I do reread what I post, and to me it reads fine. I also give people notice that if you do not understand me, just ask a question.

I also stated I do not mind soloing, just if they are rude about it. It tends to kill the mood of any game. Like the OP seriously did not need to type this topic out. And should ignore people who give them a hard time. What I do find funny is I made similar posts and was blasted over them. Not to long ago I made a topic to the devs by re conidering a few things and add more options to the game. So alot more types of people are willing to join and have fun. All people said was "useless thread" "this thread adds nothing" How does this thread add anything? Why do we need to know about this? I never once seen ANYONE say anything bad to or about solo'ers. I knew tons of them in several mmo. But these people who solo'ed also did join in group content and didn't suggest a mix of solo content and group content.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

lol.... ya ima quote tdj AGAIN. gimi a sec and i'll edit this post.