I thought this was a "massively multiplayer game"

[Kaesara]

I have to agree I would love to be able to group for story quests & leveling with my friends outside of dungeons there is not real need to group which is a shame.

[Zoelie]

It doesn't matter how the game is set up, people aren't going to be satisfied one way or another. I actually like that I can take my time with the story of this game so I can see WHAT the story of this game is. In FFXI for years it was rush around and jump from mule to mule to get whichever gear I needed for whichever mission I was redoing for whichever friend. Yes, it is a bit of a pain to drop group and regroup, but if you're in the same room with the person, it's not that big of a deal. I spent 5 years in FFXI stuck in a group for hours at a time grinding from level 10-75 for each job, I don't see how not being forced into that is a bad thing. The only thing that makes that harder is that you have to be patient enough to sit there and stare at the same mob for four hours and spam ctrl-1.
The fact is, not everyone has that kind of time to dedicate to a game. Developers are trying to give options to allow people to play if they have 10 hours to play or 2.

[Smashcore]

Anybody who read the story/class quest content should see that it focuses on you as an individual, hence it makes more sense to be solo. While I do think it would be fun to do these quests with someone else, I would find it rather odd since it wouldn't make sense in the overall story. I think that it's like this to provide you with a more immersive experience and I'm rather enjoying it like that.

[Moochan]

This is the problem with the genre for a long time now. OG's are a minority in terms of cash flow, so it probably won't change. What you want is considered niche, which blows my mind, because I think most MMOG playrs actually want a single player game where they can show off their achievements to other people.

I for one miss party mechanics, meeting people is what makes MMORPG's great. The first time you played an MMORPG you weren't excited because it was an RPG, you were excited to be playing with a bunch of other people.

[Orophin]

I think there's a good balance of solo and party. You're able to solo all of the minor things while when you need to go stomp a big baddie is when you call up your posse.

The first time you played an MMORPG you weren't excited because it was an RPG, you were excited to be playing with a bunch of other people.

Was the complete opposite for me. My first MMORPG was FFXI. I played it because it was a FF title. The MMO genre kind of grew on me from there, but my experience with MMOs is still rather limited. I've only played FFXI, WoW, Aion for a month, Rift for a weekend, and FFXIV.

I'm not really a MMO gamer, but I'm probably in the vast minority in this respect.

[DwightParkman]

ive been saying this for MONTHS, since alpha... the game needs to stop knee jerking the content with over abundant solo gameplay. There needs to be more party gameplay that provides a long term investment of challenge or community. People have scorned me for always saying this, and now look, everyone is starting to realise i am right. Even the people that are defending the game know that im right, they just aren't humble enough to admit it.

[Shiyo]

MMO does not mean forced grouping. Some people like to only group for dungeons, others interact with crafting/selling, and some roleplaying. The only thing MM means is (Massive=Large, Multiplayer=Many people). Just thought I would clear that up.

There's tons of things for Light Parties to do. If you don't have any solo activities though, people are left with little to do while waiting for groups other than wait. This is why solo content exists. Also, just because you're playing solo doesn't mean you're not benefiting from the existence of other players. Other players make the world feel more alive, even if you're not playing with them directly.

Because of my schedule, I was often behind everyone else in story missions. This made it extremely difficult to find groups to do Windurst/Zilart/CoP/etc. missions. Especially CoP because not even friends were willing to help me fight Diabolos when it was still a capped fight. I think I Like this approach much more.

None of these posts have anything to do with what the OP is saying.



Can people on these forums not read? This happens in every single thread. People replying with things that have NOTHING to do with what the thread is about.
The sad part is I could quote even more people in this post that reply saying things nothing to do with the thread, but I don't have the motivation to.

[Flotten]

What a gross exageration.

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

You are 100% right, the OP is crying about a problem that doesn't exist

To the reply above me: Can you read?

[Peprika]

I agree with the OP.

Reduce the amount of Solo Content, and capitalize on Group Required Content. If i wanted to play a single rpg then I WOULDVE JUST PLAYED FINAL FANTASY 7 OR ONE OF THE MANY OTHER 11 FINAL FANTASYS THAT ARE SINGLE PLAYER!

[Majidah]

For being in the category of MMOG, this game has so many mechanisms that force people into solo play its ridiculous. During the betas I didn't have the chance to play with my wife, as she was never in the beta, and now that I have had time to play with her after launch I spend more time out of a group with her than I do in one. Most of the main story is solo, grand company leves are also forced solo. A huge chunk of the game is forced solo tasks, taking the multiplayer right out of MMOG. Class quests also end up being mostly solo, although I can understand these being solo.

It's just really saddening to have to play half the game solo when my gaming partner is sitting right next to me doing the same content... alone.

It just doesn't make any sense. Please allow at least light parties to enjoy all of the awesome content this game has as a group - don't force us to play ALONE when we are all paying to play a game TOGETHER.

...said the archer 35.