Why do people want solo play in an MMORPG?

[Cynthis]

Easier said than done. I'm a very social person yet I seem to have terrible luck getting into a stable linkshell (one that doesnt disband and is active) or a linkshell that is interested in helping up its lower level members, mentors so to speak. i really hope to get involved much earlier in the lifespan of this game than other MMO's but usualy by the time i come to the party everyone already has their cliques. Just like real life, MMO's get into their comfort zone of people then arent always willing to seek out new people. I know i love to help out random strangers if I am able to help because i remember what it was like to be in their shoes.

Amen! /10char

[Wynn]

There can, and should be, room for many play styles in an MMO. Options are a good thing.

[AdorraEloom]

People refuse to pay $15/month for the same content as an offline solo game... it is why F2P is the way of the future. Because no mmo released in the last 5yrs is worth a sub, because they all have about 1/5th the content they need to be worthwhile.

Everything is rush rush to endgame to do 2 dungeons, then break for 3 months wait for content, do the 2 new dungeons and level 5 more levels, wait 3 more months... repeat. yea that is not worth paying for.

No one will pay for a game they are bored of, at least no normal person would.

Before I go on, Just so you know I'm not attacking you but stating my point of view on this.

Doing Dynamis/sky over and over for 3-4 years justifies 15$ a month? FF11 had the same content for years, and I'm sorry but if people justify that it took them 1 year to get to 75 and thats why ff11 was such a great game, I don't know what to tell those people, my first job took me about 3-4 months to get to 75, and every other job after that took me 1 week tops in a solid static party.

Again I'm not attacking anybody just stating my point, ARR is not ff11, and sometimes change it good, that does not mean the game will be dry and boring, I thought the whole point of ARR was to make the game better, more involved, more alive, more things to do, and so far it seems it will do just that.

[strallaalaa]

There can, and should be, room for many play styles in an MMO. Options are a good thing.

i agree and disagree. the best way is the way anyone will use. if party play is the best then even the solo'ists at heart will jump in parties. doing stuff for the fun of it or whatever is False, only very few people actually would do that.

just like tera where they had party quests in between tons of solo quests, no one seemed to party. i played when it just came out and shouting for people or even asking in guild i couldn't find people to duo or trio with as it was fastest way to level. i would run threw zones solo'ing as i shouted ..watching almost everyone else solo'ing. then the big quests came and no one around to do them with, so you just skip them and hope maybe someone will shout and do it later but almost never happens.

choices need to be forced on people usually, force party or they won't. forced solo or they won't. having things that are for solo only yes, having stuff that is for party only then yes. that works cause you have to party in a dungeon, so that is what you do, if you could solo them too as a choice then you know what they would all solo it. just like leveling up.

so play style there are room for them yeah, separate servers maybe. but other then that, they are all different games, a game with my type of game style is totally different then other peoples stye. it's a nice thought to have both in same servers and game but one gets pushed to the side. that is like paying 10bucks for an item in a cash shop and then me taking 3months to get mine in game threw 100hours of gameplay.... it doesn't work.

[Shougun]

Before I go on, Just so you know I'm not attacking you but stating my point of view on this.

Doing Dynamis/sky over and over for 3-4 years justifies 15$ a month? FF11 had the same content for years, and I'm sorry but if people justify that it took them 1 year to get to 75 and thats why ff11 was such a great game, I don't know what to tell those people, my first job took me about 3-4 months to get to 75, and every other job after that took me 1 week tops in a solid static party.

Again I'm not attacking anybody just stating my point, ARR is not ff11, and sometimes change it good, that does not mean the game will be dry and boring, I thought the whole point of ARR was to make the game better, more involved, more alive, more things to do, and so far it seems it will do just that.

/yay

lol

I'm not all the way to ADD but close enough that even hearing someone say "run the same dungeon for a year" makes me sleepy.

I think you can extend the life time of a dungeon through new modes and branching paths / revisits at higher levels and such but.. "the same dungeon" for a year..? /sleep

Although in ARR I think Yoshida is going to encourage lockouts through limited tokens per week and such so that extends dungeon life time (because you arent running it over like a zombie).

[strallaalaa]

when you say run the same dungeon for a year like dynamisis, you mean run all 3 city and 2 snowlands? learning it all without messing up and then eventually being able to do it quickly? it probably took that year less you just jumped right into a good linkshell and followed around. when it first came out we would have 64men wiping and it was great. and even near the end i'd get into shells that couldn't handle snowlands and just did city runs for a year. i don't see that as boring in any way. yes dynamisis was long as hell and after 4years of it, it got boring, but then we had the other ones that came out and were entertaining and new endgame content that kept coming out. so really you just run threw it if wanted ...didn't have to for sure other then 1 of your classes. i had everything for classes and didn't need to do it all that time. i kept on doing it for all 8classes i leveled, it wasn't necessary.

[Shougun]

when you say run the same dungeon for a year like dynamisis, you mean run all 3 city and 2 snowlands? learning it all without messing up and then eventually being able to do it quickly? it probably took that year less you just jumped right into a good linkshell and followed around. when it first came out we would have 64men wiping and it was great. and even near the end i'd get into shells that couldn't handle snowlands and just did city runs for a year. i don't see that as boring in any way. yes dynamisis was long as hell and after 4years of it, it got boring, but then we had the other ones that came out and were entertaining and new endgame content that kept coming out. so really you just run threw it if wanted ...didn't have to for sure other then 1 of your classes. i had everything for classes and didn't need to do it all that time.

3 + 2 = 5 dungeons, != 1 dungeon

:P

I like change and cycle. If the dev could introduce hard to get gear and then connect it over multiple dungeons and then update those dungeons with branching paths or other changes then I could see it lasting longer. IMO FFXI party play put me to sleep though so I just stopped because of that. (Love the environment / world but the "gameplay" style knocked me out)

I like a lot of WoW's dungeons, my own character is pretty damn old and gimped but I get on my friends every now and then and its pretty fun / intense. (Because he already has a guild group it doesnt matter I'm not as spot on lol)

Edit: still have to be careful stagnating content and gear

[AdorraEloom]

when you say run the same dungeon for a year like dynamisis, you mean run all 3 city and 2 snowlands? learning it all without messing up and then eventually being able to do it quickly? it probably took that year less you just jumped right into a good linkshell and followed around. when it first came out we would have 64men wiping and it was great. and even near the end i'd get into shells that couldn't handle snowlands and just did city runs for a year. i don't see that as boring in any way. yes dynamisis was long as hell and after 4years of it, it got boring, but then we had the other ones that came out and were entertaining and new endgame content that kept coming out. so really you just run threw it if wanted ...didn't have to for sure other then 1 of your classes. i had everything for classes and didn't need to do it all that time.

It took us some time to learn them, the three cities took us a few weeks of attempts before we got it down, the snow area's were a bit harder at first, prolly took double the time to learn as a city. For the first year we would do it with like 40+ people or something, but after a year and a half many people stopped showing up and we would do it with like 20, had no problem at that point as everyone knew the drill, but after 2-3 years Dynamis was easy and boring, half the people would rotate going afk through the run as it was beyond boring. When half a raid goes AFK for more than 20 minutes at a time, indicates that the content is dead and not interesting.

[Yashnaheen]

i agree and disagree. the best way is the way anyone will use. if party play is the best then even the solo'ists at heart will jump in parties. doing stuff for the fun of it or whatever is False, only very few people actually would do that.

just like tera where they had party quests in between tons of solo quests, no one seemed to party. i played when it just came out and shouting for people or even asking in guild i couldn't find people to duo or trio with as it was fastest way to level. i would run threw zones solo'ing as i shouted ..watching almost everyone else solo'ing. then the big quests came and no one around to do them with, so you just skip them and hope maybe someone will shout and do it later but almost never happens.

choices need to be forced on people usually, force party or they won't. forced solo or they won't. having things that are for solo only yes, having stuff that is for party only then yes. that works cause you have to party in a dungeon, so that is what you do, if you could solo them too as a choice then you know what they would all solo it. just like leveling up.

so play style there are room for them yeah, separate servers maybe. but other then that, they are all different games, a game with my type of game style is totally different then other peoples stye. it's a nice thought to have both in same servers and game but one gets pushed to the side. that is like paying 10bucks for an item in a cash shop and then me taking 3months to get mine in game threw 100hours of gameplay.... it doesn't work.

So much this. If soloing is viable parties will become less common. If soloing is about the same as parties speed wise, parties will be rare. Individuals have preferences. Communities will do what is easiest.

[Wynn]

i agree and disagree. the best way is the way anyone will use. if party play is the best then even the solo'ists at heart will jump in parties. doing stuff for the fun of it or whatever is False, only very few people actually would do that.

just like tera where they had party quests in between tons of solo quests, no one seemed to party. i played when it just came out and shouting for people or even asking in guild i couldn't find people to duo or trio with as it was fastest way to level. i would run threw zones solo'ing as i shouted ..watching almost everyone else solo'ing. then the big quests came and no one around to do them with, so you just skip them and hope maybe someone will shout and do it later but almost never happens.

choices need to be forced on people usually, force party or they won't. forced solo or they won't. having things that are for solo only yes, having stuff that is for party only then yes. that works cause you have to party in a dungeon, so that is what you do, if you could solo them too as a choice then you know what they would all solo it. just like leveling up.

so play style there are room for them yeah, separate servers maybe. but other then that, they are all different games, a game with my type of game style is totally different then other peoples stye. it's a nice thought to have both in same servers and game but one gets pushed to the side. that is like paying 10bucks for an item in a cash shop and then me taking 3months to get mine in game threw 100hours of gameplay.... it doesn't work.

Based on your bolded statment, you get what I mean, I think. They don't have to allow everything to be solo'd to make room for people who like, or even prefer, to solo.

I can't imagine how any MMO would work if people could just solo level appropriate raid content if they just decided to. I think that would be quite awful actually.

But the game can include many different kinds of content which will provide options and a change of pace now and then for both solo and group activities.

The existence of one need not threaten the existence of the other. They can co-exist.