End the war on solo gameplay in WoW (Part 1)

Which would be a wise tactic if you were negotiating with someone who could actually make game changes. No one who has answered here on the forum has that power.

If you do group content you aren’t a solo player… Because you do group content.

My suggestion would allow soloplayers™ who have superiorskilltoeveryoneelse™ to have a soloprogressionpath™ to give them the level of rewards they feel they are entitled to as players of themostsuperiorskillever™ (mythic end boss loot).

Yeah, it would push lower skilled players into quitting or group content. But in order to make an omelette you have to break a few eggs, so that’s okay. It’s the standard Blizzard corrupt a wish approach. The monkey’s paw.

You were coming across as I was a solo player because I do solo content, when I do both, sorry if that lead to any mix up.

But just as an example of both forms of content:
I do have Mad World
I also have KSM for the last 3 seasons
I have AoTC for a fair amount of raids
My dog in this fight is trying to introduce a bit more balance between group rewards and solo rewards, not full equality per se, just something between max ilvl solo content and max ilvl group content, that does not require a group, but can be done as such if people wish.

The thing is, if too many quit, the game could easily go into maintenance mode or fade away. I am just of the opinion that, to keep the game going, they need ways to keep people engaged yet not make them feel like they have no chance of doing anything.

True, but if CMs do their job, they can see a consensus and take that to the ones who do have that power.

People quit and come back all the time. This is part of the ebb and flow.

Outside of maybe disabilities keeping people from content, if there is a will to do something in game, there is a way.

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Could one of those disabilities be social anxiety? Or a high autism spectrum? Even these might not keep people from content, but if the only content is group content, there might be some issues.

Just asking as some of these solo players asking for more content for them, could have such disabilities, they might be working on it, but might feel like “group or die” making them go into the deep end when they are working on the more basics at the time.

I’m talking about disabilities that make it difficult to press buttons, see the bad on the ground, or handle stress. Like myasthenia gravis, a heart condition, being very low vision.

Things that can’t really be accomodated by a group of players.

I’ve known people on the spectrum who have gone through evidence based training to help them interact with others better. I also know of groups that are somewhat understanding of spectrum people.

Social anxiety is also treatable with therapy and medication. In fact, a clinician might support engagement in a supportive online gaming group play as a form of exposure therapy.

PTSD can similarly be treated and accomodated in some cases. As can anxiety, depression, and even gender dysphoria. I know this because I play in a group that does this.

I don’t think that everything short of mythic raids should be made redundant because some people are unwilling to help themselves.

Fair enough, though I think the redundant argument can somewhat be taken care of with an approach similar to how they do PvP hear, I.E. higher ilvl in say Torghast, or whatever “solo content” they put in, or even just special effects that are active only in said content, like how domination socket gear bonuses was only active in Korthia, the maw, toghast, and the raid, but not in M+…

If people could get heroic level gear from world quests, why would anyone ever join a guild or raid?

World quests/zm/Solo “content”/whatever already has rendered normal redundant with rewarding no skill content with normal level gear.

You keep bringing up torghast. It doesn’t reward gear.

Because that is what they enjoy or play the game for?

Which just tells me people only care about the gear, if that is all they care about, then they should get the gear they want and quit. If however, they want the gear to have fun in something else, by all means, they should be able to get it.

To put it another way;
“I want the gear because everyone has it and I am jelous” is an argment even I would say needs to stop
but
“I want the gear so I can push furthen or take it into challenging content, for my style” is the one I am trying to support

Correcet, it does not, but it could, and it could be gear made for just Torghast. Ones like you, for which Torghast is a chore, could do what you need to do to get what you want, but others, who want to push beyond that minimum, can do so just by doing Torghast

Visions were an almost perfect iteration of this, you did them for your cloak, I pushed farther and got Mad World, the only change that would be needed to make it fit for what some are asking for, would be the corruptions only being active in the visions.

Why are they playing a multiplayer game at all if they don’t want to interact with people?

There’s thousands of one player games out there, many with much better writing and don’t require fifteen dollars a month.

The former is common. The later is so rare it’s practically non-existent.

But it doesn’t. And it won’t.

What they want is to keep their content exclusive, because it feels more epic when most people are blocked from your content. Like it was back in the good old days of yore, when people had to belong to the right clique in the right sort of guild or no content nor gear for you. It makes your entire existence feel like a pinnacle of teh FOMO.

And making it harder for anyone to progress who is not a part of the sanctum sanctorum of the right sort of guild means they can bask in the glory of their specialness, and demand respect and awe from normal people who actually don’t respect them at all.

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As long as we realize this can also apply to those who do mythic raids and the like, I’ll answer with the following: They want to feel special, they want to feel unique, and they want others to know about it.

A single player game might provide them with all they want, except the ability to “lord” it over others. When, in all actuality, the gear is temporary, the memroies made, with friends, or by overcoming hard challenges, last forever (or at least till things like memory loss and senility set in).

If I ask someone why they raid, and they answer “for the gear” I am likely one that would like to slap them upside the head. If, on the other hand, they answer “to have fun with friends, pushing challenging content, and the comradery from such” I am going to applaud them.

To shed some more light on it, think of how many stories we have heard, over the years, of those who got items they wanted, say Thnderfury, Sulferas, or any of the other classic legos, only for the one to get them to abandon the guild and move on to a better guild or even just flat out quit the game. Did they really want to interact with other people, or were they jsut using others as a means to an end?

A line from Dinotopia is eat to live, don’t live to eat, a WoW form might be “Have fun to get gear, don’t get gear to have fun”.

One can respect the job or whatever, in this case raiding, PvP or M+, but unless the person has proven themselves worthy of respect, they don’t deserve anything beyond that.

A vast majority of players are only playing for themselves and for gear.

People will always do in mass the content that gives them the largest quantity of the highest quantity gear the fastest. Then get bored and quit.

This is why mythic plusses are incredibly popular and why m+ players have cry time over mythic raiders having higher ilevel end boss loot.

If heroic or mythic raid loot becomes available via world quests, all raids will stop seeing as much interaction, as will mythic plusses, and the developers will stop developing (they’ve already stopped developing as much for m+, they’re starting to use recycled m+ content now). Those who enjoy group content will quit the game, the game will go into maintenance mode and die. It’ll just be people doing world quests and that’s it.

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A lot of people have related how amazing it felt to show off their raid gear during vanilla, and get whispers from strangers telling them how awesome they were to have such amazing gear. Some have even said that the game ought to be redesigned to encourage that interaction.

No one in game is blocked from any content whatsover. Every account (barring free trial accounts) can complete the same content as every other account.

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So you go out of your way to help people who are not at your level? Of course not. You mock them and tell them it’s their own fault they weren’t born as talented and privileged as you.

Depends how much you’re paying or how much we know each other.

No one is more privileged than anyone else in World of Warcraft.

As for talent, it’s not really talent, it’s practice. Again, attainable by anyone.

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And I, for some reason, am not exactly among that group.

I know it will likely kill the game, but I’d just like to see Blizzard offer gear in the mail to those who only care about gear, and then terminate the accounts of those people, or at least suspend them, to see who is left, and then make the game for those people.