Solo vs Party

[Rydin]

Why can't they just coexist?

The Party crowd says:
Its an MMO, thats a social experience....
The entire point of playing an online game is to play with others.
Otherwise just play an offline RPG

The Solo crowd says:
It can be no fun waiting for a party that may not ever happen
In a pickup group you will, inevitably, be grouped with bad players from time to time

With that being said...
I'd like to share with you the reason I started playing this game... And also the reason I continue to play

I've never played an MMO before this one... I didn't know anything about party dynamics... tanks... healers... DD.... I didn't know any of it. I didn't realize there was this huge social aspect to it.. I didn't expect to need to use my mic and get on voice chat. I didn't know what teamspeak/ventrillo was. I thought voice chat was only for FPSers to talk shit to each other

However, I played EVERY offline RPG I could. With SE being far-and-away the best in my book... Chrono trigger, FF series, Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series.
FFXI came and I was still teasing my friends for playing Everquest... I wasn't ready to MMO....

But then something happened... A small light went on inside me.
I'd play a game... get to level 99 with everyone... get the best weapons... and at that point you have less than a day of content in the game....
Getting to 99 and getting the weapons was it.
In an offline RPG, The Journey is the Game.

That's when the small light grew..
I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters... I wanted more adventurers with Lvl 99 Cloud... More Renzokukens with Lvl 100 Squall... More trance time Monkey antics with Lvl 99 Zidane... I didn't want to say goodbye to Edger and Locke, or Chrono.. or the Cecil or the illustrious white Knight. hell, even the Secret of Mana sprite grew on me by the end

And thats when I knew what I must do... Play an MMO... where getting to the highest level is just the beginning. the good times really can go on forever. You don't level this character only to say goodbye in a few weeks.

But by then, FFXI was several expansions in... and I felt like an outsider. So I started scoping new MMOs to try... the straight medieval theme never really gabbed me.. I just loved how SE was always able to mix medieval, fantasy, steam punk, futuristic, Egyptian-Greek-mayan-Asian-Persian mythology all in one game...

then I heard rumors of FFXIV... And I was like "I wont miss out on this one"

so here I am....
I logged in.. met people.. started voice chatting.. learned about parties
Although its not the reason I started playing... The social aspect, party play and the friends I've made are the main reason I've kept playing for so long

So where does that leave us?
The happy compromise is there... i can see it

In terms of leveling....
EXP parties netting you 25k an hour at best
solo grinding netting you 10k an hour at best
If power leveling exists, it should fall between these 2, more EXP than solo but not as much as a party....

As far as content

For parties:
Dungeons... thats a VERY party oriented thing.
Primals are also made for parties
Most new content should be party based. Hopefully the Job quests require at least a light party (4 people)

Solo content:
Company leves
Crafting/gathering (Although I would love to see some group crafting/gathering implemented in the future)
A monster Arena, similar to FFX but geared towards a solo challenge. Many of my friends loved the challenge of soloing and low manning NMs early on, and even in FFXI. Most of that was due to broken classes. Now that there is a lot less OP in the world, this would be a great thing for players with not as much time on a particular day to try
Imagine NMs made specifically for soloing. because thats what they are made for, and because its in a controlled arena, it doesn't have to break game balance at all.
Also SE can make it as difficult or easy as they want, and vary the different bosses so that a class might be better suited for some but not for others. I don't know what the rewards could be? But even the party heavy players would be interested in this from time to time. Its a cool thing to do while waiting for that party to form too