I thought this was a "massively multiplayer game"

[Karthes]

It's not being solo that bugs me. It's the constant dropping group and reforming that's annoying.

[Malkavianqueen]

I feel like a lot of you are misunderstanding the point of the OP. The point here isn't whether or not you CAN solo it, it's whether or not you are FORCED to solo it. Most MMO's do not prevent you from being in a group while completing solo content. This one often does.

This. I really don't understand why the game constantly forces you to go into solo instances. I don't want forced grouping. I want the option to play together with my boyfriend instead of being forced to ungroup constantly because of the main quest and class quests. They could use the same sort of level scaling they use in fates to up the difficulty or something. This seems to work in GW2 and would make the game feel a lot less restricting.

[Voqar]

I agree and it's sad. It's bad enough when new companies do this.

When companies that made some of the best original MMORPGs like FFXI shift away from the genre and go solo heavy over grouping and incorporate design that caters more to soloists than grouping, and worse, create design the discourages grouping, it's a travesty.


The solo ez-mode in MMORPGs doesn't yield experiences the way group-based content does. Look around the chat in this game. What content do people mention as the "wow that was amazing" type of content? It's not the solo ez-mode. It's the group-based stuff, the hard modes, the things where you need to lift a finger and use a living brain cell to conquer.


What really boggles my mind is this. The older MMORPGs like FFXI, EQ, DAoC, are still going, and still sub-based. They have fanatically loyal players who play for years. The games feature heavy grouping (forced even) and are not solo friendly (or at least weren't for most of their existence). THIS is what the genre WAS all about. And it was and still is successful.


The early MMORPGs were also a bit more hardcore. You had to be good at playing or you'd just die a lot and be miserable and/or not get groups and thus not really advance. You had to earn stuff, not just get it handed to you for doing trivial nonsense. And we loved it.


Why isn't it a good idea to create a modern MMORPG in the same mold as the originals with similar gameplay and some of the more modern MMORPG trappings? Make a group-heavy game full of challenge and reward for doing playing well and beating challenges instead of a weak ass single player game that gives you epics just for killing bunnies?


Why developers started mutilating MMORPGs to try to appeal to casuals and dummies is beyond me. It's like they are designing for people who don't like the genre and can't play the genre as it was established originally and while doing so they make games that will never have the lasting appeal of the originals.


All this has resulted in doing is producing failed game after failed game because newer MMORPGs are about 80% solo and 20% optional grouping, and that "single player campaign" content takes years and millions to develop, has little replay value, and gets vaporized by players in a relatively short amount of time (compared to the eternities it takes to develop it).


It's also really silly to have two games in one. The single player idiot mode where any brain dead chimp can level to cap in a few days with one paw tied behind their back. And the "real game" of endgame that's all about grouping and finally encountering some degree of challenge. Why not just have consistent game of ALL GAME instead of half or more idiot mode filler and then pull the rug out and boom, ok now, you gotta group all the time and do hard modes.


It actually ends up being 3 games in one if you add in the fake, meaningless, pointless, never will be balanced but will impact the rest of the game, PvP minigame crap that'll eventually get slapped in/on, because it always does, because even though many PvPers don't give a crap about the games they play outside of the PvP, MMORPG companies feel compelled to try to cater to everyone and to be everything to everyone, and MUST slap in that PvP garbage just to have it, no matter that it always ends up being crap (compared to PvP in genres where competitive PvP actually happens).

The problem with trying to be everything to everyone is that almost all companies fail to pull it off. Bliz has pulled it off with WoW on and off over the years. It's not an easy task. Other companies fail at it, even when the formula is simple, and their games turn into F2P jokes. For most companies, trying to be everything to everyone just results in a watered down game that doesn't have enough hold for anyone.

[amnie]

I've never seen this topic in any MMO I've ever played.


next you tell me there's no endgame and the class you don't play is OP.





also.

LOLx10 at the equation forced group play = hard content.

when will you people finally accept that killing crabs for hours is NOT difficult? geez.

[DwightParkman]

I have to agree with the OP.

as for all the people saying that they "dont have time" playing with people, thats complete nonsense on at least two accounts.

1. I see people playing this game all day. And most of these people are ones that i actually recognize as whiners of not having time.

2. Its not even because of time, it has to do with laziness. People hate people much more now over the past 7 years, people have developed a natural and unspoken resentment toward one another. I blame all the accessive accessability. Since no one needs anyone, theres no need fir anyone.

[knosian]

I agree that it's a bit stupid that the story / class quests HAVE to be done solo. It should be soloable, but with the option that party members can join.

[Alindra]

I came from playing swtor where, if I was doing a class or main storyline quest that I was having trouble with myself, I could ask a friend (or some random good samaritan) to help me out. In this game....I just have to keep trying, buy better gear, or grind a few levels and come back. It seems like just being able to have a friend help out would make things less frustrating, and encourage multiplayer in a game that's supposed to be multiplayer. Same thing with dailies - doing those with friends makes them faster and less annoying.

So yea, it bums me out that I'm stuck soloing things.

[TonyUK]

Massively single player online role playing game please look forward to it

[Nemmar]

What a gross exageration.

The story content wich you do solo must take about 1% of the total play time.

[wingofbenu]

hes 100% right, and it has been a peeve of mine from the very beginning. Outside of dungeons there really isn't much party related activities. Unless you count fates~ or bad fetch quests.

It would be way better if much of this was party orientated. Even if it meant we don't see our team mate in the story cutscene.

You do realize that by the time you reach level 40-ish, or an alt, the only decent way left to level a combat job at any speed faster than a crippled snail is Grouping for FATES or exp pts, right?