Massively Single Player, Part 1

[Misaek]

I play with groups in MMOS in groups only when ABSOLUTELY necessary though I would rather play with one other person over just by myself. Soloing is fun because I don't need to rely on other people and playing with one friend is just like soloing but with company which I like best, small groups I am pretty good with, Large Groups though I suck at, I am good enough to get by but I am no good with like 10,25,30 people.

 

[SageRuffin]

I was always under the impression that MMOGs just meant that there was a metric f@#kton of people to play at the same time. I didn't know that it was imperative for me to play in a party to either have the most fun or get the best loot.

Well, that turns me off MMOGs more than already have.

 

[Da Ork]

Great Article Shamus. I tend to do a bit of both depends what mood I'm in and of course how many people are online that I know lol.

 

[RandV80]

Sorry, I wasn't clear... I'm looking for something like GW or the old Phantasy Star Online, where the world is instanced and I don't have to have my girlfriend subjected to the jerks that feel that it's a personal mission for them to support John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory... A few instanced dungeons here and there isn't quite sufficient.

Isn't the Dungeons & Dragons Online game both free and instanced?

As for the article, I fall under the "hate 95% of the other players". Though while I've been a long time single player RPG fan, I've never gotten too much into the MMORPG thing. If I could add something though, I think part of the problem is that the games have become too big for themselves and there's no real community. And it happens right at the start, when you're tossed into the designated 'beginner' zone and are quickly instructed to start the grind. This solo venture carries on for an undetermined amount of time and really sets the tone for anti-social behaviour onward.

How to fix this? I'm not sure, but I've seen a much better starting point done before. The very first MMORPG I ever played was 10 years ago a crappy little one called Dark Ages, kind of comparable to the many freebie Korean MMORPGs that you see these days. Now what Dark Ages did, starting with a simple character creation that involves choosing sex, haircut, and name, everyone started off as the Peasant class. To become a proper class, the Peasant had to go out and find someone of the same class to 'Mentor' them, who guides the peasant through a temple to earn their class. This creates a sort of buddy system, certain perks are given to existing players to encourage mentoring, and the newbie starts the game off socializing with a real person. While the game overall apart from a few inovated features would be pretty crappy compared to modern standards, it had a nice small-town feel to it where everybody knew everyone. In comparison try starting any of the current MMORPG and see how long you can go without talking to anybody.

 

[targren]

Isn't the Dungeons & Dragons Online game both free and instanced?

I'll check it out. Thanks for the suggestion! Hopefully it's not too complicated for her.

 

[dustyhare2142]

I still play WOW and have done since open Beta, in the early days I did group but stopped long ago. I'm not even a causal player, I play a LOT. The main issue with WOW is the community it has just turned into a group of elitist pricks (as someone else called them) who want to do an instance at full speed and have done it 1000 times before and they're just arse holes.

For a game thats has multiple classes and races and talent trees to get into a group you basically have to be class A and tree B or you wont get into a group. I used to play with a group of friends but they introduced another player who was again an elitist pricks. Even to the point where he was complaining I wasn't using the optimum order for the attacks and moves.

For me I play it because I enjoy it, not so much now as they keep dumbing it down in stupid ways where as maybe being able to solo instances instead of heroic version.

Also wow is just too loot orientated which again just encourages elitism. As i say I still play but the enjoyment has definatly faded. There's just nothing to replace it as the moment which is any good. Lets hope the new star wars mmo changes that

 

[Garaw]

Getting competent and pleasant players together to get shit done in an MMORPG is a weird sort of alchemy that can fail in many frustrating ways. I think most people who value single-player content in a game like this want it as an alternate way to progress whenever they need a break from dealing with other human beings.

Others use it as a way to learn the game and get confident with it, building the skills (such as they are in WoW) to participate without making a total noobsauce spectacle of themselves.

And sometimes server dynamics are such that your faction is 98% Chuck Norris enthusiasts and all the good guilds are elitists who enjoy being big fish in a small pond. Allowing solo progression is a necessity at that point.

 

[George Palmer]

I've been saying it for years. I want to solo end content on WoW. I'm not interested in, nor do I have the patience/time to get a group of people together at a certain time to run an instance or raid. I want the ability to log in and play the entire game by myself OR with a group of people should I choose to.

BUT thats just me. Im a different breed of cat.

 

[Feste]

I totally agree with this line "Specifically, solo quests that end in forced-teaming missions have no place in a modern MMOG."

I absolutely HATE when regular quest-lines end in a group quest. I play WoW, and I'm in a guild with some friends, but I have no desire to do instances in groups. It may sound anti-social, but I don't want to mix my gaming (an escape) with the work of building working relationships with strangers. I can do that in real life. Sure, I chat with my guild mates, but that doesn't put my character's status at risk. The effort it takes to get a group of even five people together just to finish one or two quests isn't worth it. (Especially since I'm on an old server and my main is only lvl 64.) The result? I don't finish group and dungeon quests until they're old and gray and I can solo them.

 

[Zydrate]

I think the only thing f-ed up here was your understanding of the article. You're arguing with the opposite of what I was saying.

Well, no reason for listing the other ways you are a bit wrong, plenty of other people have already done that. (Bad players, unavailable groups, etc)

 

[Tenchan]

Pretty sure many people (including devs) can't deal with the 'phenomenon' of solo players because they are hung up on a basic fallacy: they equate grouping with socializing.

Most solo players socialize the hell out of their MMO of choice. They chat, they trade, they show off, they watch, they entertain and are entertained... all of this by and with the other players. They are playing a massive multiplayer game. They are just not grouping in it.

On the other hand, countless groups don't ever socialize... they are simply fighting the same monster in the same place at the same time and taking advantage of possible synergy between their classes. When the last monster is slain and looted, they go their ways. They might just as well be playing single player with a bunch of computer controlled party members, it would make no difference.

The selling point of multiplayer is the social aspect, not the number of players in the same dungeon. Most solo players are not actually contradicting the point of multiplayer at all.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I keep telling people MMOs are boring grind fests, get me to where I can pay more money for a better characters with more states/ability than the average cut and paste drone and I will be happy with it!!

 

[Eversor]

Yup, soloing in an MMO sounds like me alright. It's partially for the wish of being efficient, but at the same time do things at my own pace. Were there another person in my party, I'd have to ditch one of the two seemingly impossible to combine aspects. I'd either be simply wasting their time by dicking around or running through things faster than the other guy wants. So meh, when possible, I solo stuff.

 

[Eversor]

I keep telling people MMOs are boring grind fests, get me to where I can pay more money for a better characters with more states/ability than the average cut and paste drone and I will be happy with it!!

If you play a game, you play it by the rules, not try to weasel out and cut corners just because you have less time/more money/life commitments/yaddayaddayadda. I've heard this crap a thousand times. Do you get an above average character as soon as you boot up a single player RPG? No, you don't. You have to earn your power. Then pray tell, why do you want special treatment in an MMO environment>

 

[RogueLament]

Hi, I'm a single player mumorpuger with a worlock in WoW and I have to say that I really like it because of the fact that you can trade and fight with other players as well as just questing on my own.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I keep telling people MMOs are boring grind fests, get me to where I can pay more money for a better characters with more states/ability than the average cut and paste drone and I will be happy with it!!

If you play a game, you play it by the rules, not try to weasel out and cut corners just because you have less time/more money/life commitments/yaddayaddayadda. I've heard this crap a thousand times. Do you get an above average character as soon as you boot up a single player RPG? No, you don't. You have to earn your power. Then pray tell, why do you want special treatment in an MMO environment>

........yes you get a special character in a SP game because you and yours tend to be a head above the rest of the bland generated fodder, in a MMO you are bland generated fodder fighting bland generated fodder(tho a good bit of the newer RPGs JRPG or otherwise sue bland MMO style rules to the point the game is bland and boring see FF12 for a good example.....).

MMOs focus on milking and restrictions I'd rather pay 3 times as much a month to have fun with it rather than be a sheep and go with the heard.

In a MMO you earn nothing new powers do little to help with the drag the rules antiseptic "balanceing" place on the game.

One dose not necessarily have to buy their way out of it,offer a mix and match build as you want class/character EXP and money is slower but you get full control over what powers go into youer skill slots to the level. What MMOS need desperately need is customization, being a generic cookie cutter stamped player character one of thousands/tens of thousands is simply boring.....

 

[Puregrrr]

I loved WoW but couldn't stand most of the vocal people in the game. (I was a solo druid up to level 70.) I am sure there are thousands of people just like me who I would get along great with, but like me, they won't speak up and have to suffer the fools. The times I really enjoyed working with other people was when I could get together with people I knew in the real world to work quests. Then it wasn't even about whether we have a tank or healer but a group of friends hanging out and playing together. So when Blizzard figures out a way to stop idiots and uber serious jerks, I'll see you back in Azeroth.

 

[UnravThreads]

Guild Wars isn't an MMO. The company (NCSoft?) said it themselves!

I, personally, do and don't agree with MMOs having solo content. As said by someone earlier, the game starts at end game, so level 80 for WoW players. What you do from 1-80 is earn your class skills, learn to play, gather some gold and experience to prepare you for this end game situation. A tank wouldn't necessarily know what to do when they solo hit 80, even if they've leveled from 1-80 as a tank. The skills needed for solo and multiplayer are different!

Games like WoW need more emphasis on multiplayer content, so dungeons, group quests etc, not less.

 

[lohac]

"2) MMOG worlds are bigger than huge.

There really is no comparison."

OBJECTION!

Seriously though, take a look at any of the X-series games, most notably X3. That, my friends, is as close to massively multiplayer as a truly single-player, no-online-mode game gets. The world is huge and all the time the traders and pirates on the other side of the universe are doing their thing (and killing your CPU in the process), and everything interacts.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Guild Wars isn't an MMO. The company (NCSoft?) said it themselves!

I, personally, do and don't agree with MMOs having solo content. As said by someone earlier, the game starts at end game, so level 80 for WoW players. What you do from 1-80 is earn your class skills, learn to play, gather some gold and experience to prepare you for this end game situation. A tank wouldn't necessarily know what to do when they solo hit 80, even if they've leveled from 1-80 as a tank. The skills needed for solo and multiplayer are different!

Games like WoW need more emphasis on multiplayer content, so dungeons, group quests etc, not less.

GW is a MMO after a certain point when you regularly need a group, one can scale and sort out single and multi content so that people can lone wolf it, but I see far more issues with linear, bland and highly restricted skill/equipment sets, it drags the game down and makes it boring....