MMORPG is Massive, Multi-player, Online, Roleplaying, Game… You could hate every single player on the server and actively try to PK everyone you see and still be an MMO player… Cooperative play is not suggested in the genre acronym at all, period.
Now if you are CURRENLTY marketing your game as a group content focused MMO that may hold some weight towards gatekeeping and forced group play for progression, Otherwise, solo-play progression should hold equal weight with small group and raid style content.
Victim complex is real. I can guarantee outside the forums that group content players don’t think about solo players beyond seeing them as NPCs to get weekly world content done.
I mean, you can run someone else’s key. The point is just find some folks who want to play the same way you do and it’s fun. (Which applies across the entire casual-hardcore spectrum)
Pretty much the crowd I’m referring to!
Which is why I also mentioned communities, but there’s friends lists, discords, the forums… Multiple avenues outside of guilds to accomplish the goal of easier groups for like playstyles.
I have no beef with smaller formats, provided the reward structure is appropriate for the difficulty, but the idea that all these folks who say they want to do the content that’s currently available are chomping at the bit to come back for solo stuff just sounds off.
If they were really saying that they should get to control you, they would also be saying that you should be able to control them. Which, of course, isn’t either person controlling the other, its people working together. That people see the idea of teamwork as being dominated by others is … revealing.
Either way, I think there is plenty of room for development of things that can be done alone without infringing on spaces that exist as team oriented experiences.
Solo players still often like having a social aspect to the game, or may be more interested in RP than raiding or PvP. And there are plenty of people who would like something to do while waiting for raid night.
Adding more solo options is a good thing, provided it doesn’t render community activities moot. Dragonflight has had some great options so far, and these AI dungeons seem like a good way to top it off. I’m also very curious about these new delves as well.
Honestly what I think happened to this game is people enjoyed playing with their irl friends, or friends they already had made by other means. They don’t really enjoy playing with strangers. Those of us who have fond memories of wipes, and how we would laugh at them and get on the horse and try again these memories are warped by the lens of playing with real friends not random strangers we met online either by a guild or just pug but real friends we met away from WoW. WoW players we run into are more a-kin to a co-worker and everyone knows how we think of co-workers at times, only difference is you have no tangible consequence for telling that co-worker what you really think instead of waiting to get home and complain about them to your family.
In short, the community was always somewhat bad. What died was how many of us exist that still have our real friends with us in the game. Or enough of them to raid with or do dungeons with anyways. The game is not the mmo of friends we fell in love with, it’s now the mmo of strangers we play to hate.
I remember the pics they put up announcing Delves and the other features, and I had no idea what they were. After watching the streams post-BlizzCon, I am now super excited. I typically solo, so I know I’m really going to love the fact that I can do them solo when I want or with friends when I want. I think it’s a win win.
It’s a double-edged sword. The problem is, gamers have changed, for the worst IMHO. Remember, MMOs became big with EverQuest in 1999, the internet was still relatively new, the whole idea of playing with people all over the world was new and shiny and amazing, so the game was designed that way. It was supposed to be a cool thing just to sit around for 4 hours killing the same 2-3 mobs, because you could interact with people from across the world, in various stages of their life.
Then, at some point, the competitive people moved in. The ones who need validation to be the best at everything, all the time, in anything they do. These are the ones who push for/create things like damage meters, which are on the surface good things, but abused by, again, the mindset that you always have to be the best. These are the sort of people who whined about things like Azerite or Covenants because god forbid they have to pick an activity and understand being good at A means you can’t be as good at B. No, instead they demand to always be 100% optimal for everything, because that’s the parasitical mindset that min-maxing brings to games.
The game’s changed. The people have changed. And, sadly, the design of the game has shifted to accommodate the wrong kind of people instead of keeping what made MMOs so great years ago: The sense of exploration, discovery, playing with other people and not trying to one-up each other. The current WoW design team seem to think the right way forward is to keep up a seasonal, e-sport, hyper-competitive approach to the game.
While they changed the game, they also continued to expand casual play options. Now there’s endgame for every skill and dedication level out there. People just have to pick what they like and be comfortable with it.
I, personally, welcome solo content because not everyone wants to raid or play in groups. I like playing by myself, but I also like to have people around me. Playing by myself just allows me to move at my own pace.
IMO. A lot of people, myself included, don’t see mmos as a social game anymore. We don’t need an online space for social interactions because we get a lot of that everywhere else. Most interactions in game are throw away social interactions with a lot of people you’ll never talk to again in both retail and classic. I do a quest with someone and never see them again. Long gone are the days of seeing the same few people while leveling and becoming friends.
Solo content is just another thing to do in a world I pay access to and does not diminish group play. Unless your group players didn’t actually want to be there. Some folk just want to escape social pressures, or just play with a very small group of friends. Most single player games don’t offer the option of playing solo and with a spouse effortlessly like wow does.
Tldr more solo content is good for players. Sometimes you need some alone time in a world you love with the people you love.
I just came back from yet another Twitter discussion about the alliance and horde “sharing” the new nightelf city, and likely gilneas and most certainly Silvermoon in WoW: Midnight, and it occurred to me that WoW is certainly pushing a culture of unity for the sake of the game’s health, image and other reasons.
…And you know, some folks will be ornery as that objectively wholesome message gets pushed through, and you know… people might be prickly about it as the default leveling experience gets replaced with Dragonflight, a “post faction war” expansion. You know what would really help when the tribalistic element of the community rebels against faction unity?
NPC dungeon parties with cross-faction party members in follower dungeons (starting at level 10, no less), and faction agnostic big name NPCs in Delves.
You know what I think they could do?!
Time pass, political crap happens and would be nice if the new changes ppl are seeing (hating or loving) would be a prenounce of bigger changes.
Like, for instead, factions change.
Tired of human leadership the NE would, idk, join the Tauren (that lets face it by this time are also tired of orc leadership) and became a new thing, since the worgen and the NE are really close the worgens could join too and in a twist, blood elves and nightborne join.
A new faction…
It does not change anything gameplay-wise, just a few minor stuff like change who has open access to what capital and who lives there.
Does not change the fact everyone can play with everyone like it is now but the world would be more immersive.
Idk…
Just a opinion.
A lot of the issues I see brought up about the state of grouping with people feels like a byproduct of different goals clashing, to some the game is meant to be played at peak efficiency and a rush to the peak of content, anything counter to that is a waste of time. To others the game is just…a game, one they pay for and want to enjoy however they want, the queue system doesn’t care about either of those things though so both groups get lumped together which just causes tensions between the two to fester.
Absolutely! That’s why having an “endgame lane” that starts at groups of 1 then flexing up to 5, is so important! I have friends that love to tank (like me) or heal, but don’t want to do it for “the public at large,” or don’t want to need to fill a less-than-5 grouping with members of “the public at large.” This is why follower dungeons and Delves are so important, IMO!
I agree, I’m actually looking forward to delves quite a bit since I really only enjoy playing with my fiancé now. I’ll do group content for gearing up to what I want to do but generally just find it annoying. Having solo options isn’t going to harm the organized groups at all and would likely ease the issues of lumping both types of players together.
This is the demographic I’m most happy for with Delves and Follower dungeons: the completely valid 2-3 member closed circles that aren’t interested in expanding! I’ve been in this situation for years now, and I’m so excited for WoW to finally cater to us!
