Play World of Warships here: wo.ws/4dgUsv4 Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code BRAVO to get for free: 500 doubloons, 1.5 million credits, 7 Days of Premium Account time, and a free ship after you complete 10 battles! Applicable to new users only. i hope you all appreciate my heavy use of papyrus in this one
Only play if you want to farm bots or against players with few k hours and 15 min queue times after grinding for tier X ships or spending $150 use and then play against cheese underwater torpedo players or Airplane's that will dump on you literally.
solo was prevalent when everyone was stuck on single player games and mmo struggled to get traction now aday if you were good you could easily see millions day one
@@Rolkey exactly my point friend. He brought nothing to the table. It was heavily sarcastic. I find it really lazy to bash someone and not even attempt to do better.
Its the "go go go" mentality that i cant do anymore. I cant keep up, no one wants to slow down, and i don't want to ruin someone else's fun, or deal with the toxicity when i dont play the speed they do.
I have a similar problem. I like to look at the scenery and take in the details here and there. In ESO, a friend of mine and I would run slow dungeon crawls for our guild for whoever wanted to experience the lore or just see what was around. Usually had to run two groups.
YES. It really ruins these games. I'm playing FFXIV and I want to learn the map, understand what is happening, and see the story. But so many players just want to speedrun every level and get mad at you if you slow them down. It is really obnoxious.
I tried to return to ESO couple of months ago. Queued for dungeon with new character, and they blast away everything in their path. Dungeon ended in like 2 minutes. Not that I can't understand their view though. In every MMO, so many people are usually there for their dailies. And have done those a gazillion amount of times.
I have some serious social anxiety. I don’t like talking to people in real life or in games. But I do like the feeling of being in an MMO. Feeling like I’m in a living world and seeing other people doing stuff is just… cool.
Something that has been happening in MMOs is that you must join someone's Discord server to access high level group content, which is simply unacceptable to me
@@mobius4247An example of this is - Destiny 2. High level content such as raids are locked behind mandatory group play. Which is simply unacceptable to them and to me.
@@Rolkey Raids... require group play... [Mock gasp]... It's unacceptable to you, really? Challenging multiplayer content in a multiplayer game is... unacceptable? You play limbo without a pole, huh?
@@SupachargedGaming It sounded like the issue was having to use a third-party service. Discord hasn't gotten that bad yet, but now they're starting to put ads in it and I don't know how long it'll last before I end up jumping ship to another chat client for the seventh time now or something. LoL for instance eventually did add a built-in voice client so long as you joined the queue in the same group, which lets you coordinate without getting flamed by randos (since now you get flamed by friends)
Why I play MMO solo: because I find it very hard to find people that want to play the same game I want to play, at the same time and in the same manner. I enjoy some multiplayer aspects of a game but they are usually things that are risk-free and that doesn't rely on me having good reflexes or being a hardcore player because I never had any interest on that. (ffs, I play most game in the Story Mode difficulty because I enjoy more the story and exploration rather then combat)
i have always prefer to play alone, but at the same time i play support characters...it is weird, but there is a very satisfying feeling about being able to help someone at random in an MMO and not have to know them at all...also... that feeling of "you are alive because i decide to heal you, deal with these monsters for me"
i like to play solo and as support as well, but i dont have a problem with solo qued dungeons. i LOVE when shit starts hitting the fan and im able to keep everyone afloat. or when im the only one alive (oops, my bad i guess..) and end up soloing dungeeon mobs or a boss as a healer. makes me feel cool😎
This is why I wish that more MMOs would have it where any player that hits a mob gets xp and loot when that mob dies. It would let players kind of team up on the fly instead of having to formally form a group. GW2 does that and it's nice design.
Damn, I remember making a healer in World of Warcraft back in like 2006, think it was an orc shaman and NOOOPPEEEE, got it to around level 25 or something and ran the dungeon in the horde capital and everyone died, ran the one in the Barrens in a cave and everyone died multiple times and I was kicked, then ran a werewolf dungeon in the undead place and had the same result. Ended up just deleting the shaman and made an orc hunter instead and that worked out a lot better. I don't play MMO's anymore though, too time consuming and I lack free time as it is. I'm married, work 45-50 hours a week, have two children aged 14 and 12, and a lot of craziness on a daily basis. When I get off work I usually crack a beer from the fridge, screw around on UA-cam for 30 minutes, then watch a movie with my family after dinner. Friday nights and Saturdays are when I get to play video games because I get all morning to myself mostly so thats a solid 2-3 hours of gaming and I'm sure as hell not wasting those hours on an MMO lol! By lunch time shit gets busy so that 7-10am timeframe is sacred to me.
I haven't really seen you talk about doing solo content to aid the multiplayer experience. I'm talking crafting, baby! Mining, smithing, cooking. Farming rare items, or just coin. Selling your stuff to an Auction House or Grand Exchange. You play solo content, but you help another person doing group content progress. That dungeoneering or raiding person doesn't have to search for the Blue Rose and create a rare potion that increases their effectiveness. You can look for the flower and create that potion for them. This is content that you can't do in a single player roleplaying game. You can sell items to NPCs in a game of Skyrim, but it's never going to be as wholesome as knowing you helped out someone else playing the same game on the other side of the world by doing solo content.
THIS! This is exactly why, even in ARR, I paid to play. Cause, you know, trial users are garbage in the eyes of Square Peenix and need to be restricted in as many things as possible without getting them to leave entirely. Trading with other people or using the marketplace happens to be such a thing. I paid so that crafting stuff felt meaningful, even though I got fucking flamed and ridiculed when I said I made my gil through crafting. (Yes, safe to say my experience with FF14 is awful and I probably will never return to the game). Crafting stuff and selling it was some of the only fun I had with ARR cause the rest is just too bland for me.
That used to be my role in a WoW guild a while back. I liked to fish and fishing used to be a valuable asset to raiding back in Burning Crusade. When I came back for Legion crafting just wasn't rewarding anymore so I haven't come back.
Personally my favourite part of MMOs is 'offline' multiplaying as in playing alongside (irl with my bf in the room on his computer or through discord/etc with friends) and playing solo doing our own things like skilling/quests/etc but knowing they are also in the world doing their own thing at the same time as me. I don't think I've ever done content IN game w my bf on OSRS but we frequently play together and that's how we like our MMO games 😎
As an avid ff14 player, it's worth noting that the new Trust system allows for almost every content to be done solo. They still make you join groups for some required mini-raid like encounters but it's a neat option. There's also new Variant Dungeons that actively scale with how many people you queued with. I just like ff14 idk
I’ll be honest, I actually appreciate that 14 made me group with others to do dungeons. I remember being physically anxious about doing my first group content but the combination of people being nice and having gone through the hall of the novice made it a somewhat smooth process and I loved tanking my whole way through the game after that, which led to me enjoying healing equally as much, and even got me to try some extreme and savage content later. Not to say everyone will have that experience, but I cannot personally say, in good faith, that making people *try* group content is a bad thing, but I will say that if my early groups had been toxic maybe things would have been different, so there’s something to be said about that as well
@DominicGreene72 in my experience ffxiv players are genuinely kind in comparison to most online games. Not to say that EVERYONE is like that, but in my 10 years of playing I've almost exclusively had good interactions
@@EnuHarumonia I was a lifelong WoW player, swapped to FFXIV for 4 years or so, and recently dipped my toes back into the WoW waters for Cataclysm Classic. BOY are people toxic in WoW compared to FFXIV, holy shit. Maybe it's because I'm on a PVP server, but the amount of slurs I have seen thrown at my head made my jaw drop. Either it was always like this and I just forgot, or it got worse in my absence. Literally had people asking if it was okay to say the N word in guild/FC chat, only to then do it in all caps because the leader said sure. Like...???
@@veradrost9654 I've had Ex-wow players ridicule me for saying I like OSRS and calling it a nostalgia bait pay to win piece of shit game while preaching that I should instead play FF14. I tried ARR. Put 50 hours into it and only enjoyed crafting stuff... I quit right after finishing the story with the racist elves.
I appreciate the heck out of that change cause fuck queueing up with other people, fuck having to wait, fuck having other people potentially ruin my story experience (I was in cutscene and they just finished the boss without me. I was the tank.) Fuck all of that bullshit. But that won't get me back to giving the game a 2nd try tho. It's close but maybe if the combat was fun for me OR I would be able to use the marketplace as a trial player so crafting (The most fun part for me) feels meaningful at all.
Playing mmorpg is not about playing with other people. Is about being part of a living world, with other players. Like, you don't need to have friends in real life, if you don't want to
I enjoy playing solo most of the time, but part of that enjoyment comes from the fact that I'm one person among many in the ongoing environment of the game. I loved walking through Stormwind or Orgrimmar and seeing other people running around all over the city doing whatever they needed to do (back when that happened). Having the option to start being social at any time is a huge part of the atmosphere for me, because there are times where I want to do group content. I enjoy doing 5-man content, but I hate raiding.
"Playing solo" in an mmo isn't about doing everything by yourself, it's about being able to decide what you want to do. If that means joining up for a raid, that's your choice. If that means exploring alone, that's your choice. The problem with forced multiplayer content isn't that you have to play with strangers, it's that you often need to be at the whims of those strangers if you want to succeed.
I think great mmos have a good blend where the solo and multi build on eachother in tandem. Force example making a bunch of personal upgrades during the week and showing off how powerful you’ve become since friends last saw you in a dungeon or raid. Great video as always!
This is why the Event or Meta-Event system in Guild Wars 2 really captured me as a solo player. It's a system where the objectives of this Event (dynamic multiplayer quest) are displayed throughout its course depending on the vicinity of the Event or sub-events of a Meta-Event you're in, giving you enough information to contribute. This allows for you to play with a massive group of people, without the need for a lot of communication. Eventually in expansions these Events became harder and more complex, sometimes you were in need of splitting the player pool on the map into 3 squads and tackle 3 lanes separately before encountering the big bad boss. While those Events became harder, the need for communication also increased, almost tricking players into taking the lead, instruct other players or just communicate.
I have two issues with non-solo gameplay in MMOs. The first is that most players tend to be either at the beginning or end of the game, especially if said MMO has paywalls. Secondly, if I find one or a group of people to play with, I have to go at their speed and then I never see them again when we log off. I have to skip dialog I might've wanted to read if I want to stay at their speed most of the time (I prefer to read main story dialog if it's my first time through). One MMO I play has a few forced sections that basically require you to team up with people who actually know what they're doing, where failure is actually really bad (it will ruin the entire run, which can sometimes be long). These forced dungeons have really good loot that everyone should farm for, but it's hard to find people to team up with in the first place when it's now mid-game content (when end-game content stops being end-game). Then, among the people you do find, half of them are only there to farm a portion of the dungeon rather than the whole thing, so they just leave early. They don't even tell anyone that they're leaving early or else they won't find people to team up with either. I'm not sure what the fix for this is, but I definitely don't want these types of dungeons forced into the main story. I do actually enjoy these types of dungeons when there are actively other players, and I seem to find it the best with optional dungeons, so maybe that should be the path forward.
If you find a cool item in a single player game, you’ll never be able to trade it or be able to show it off to other players online. And it’s nice that all your characters are saved on their servers online. Even if a player decides to play mostly solo, it’s good to know that they have the power to play with other people any time they want.
Best moments of MMORPG I've had where when I was alone playing and found a random, did a quick dungeon or raid, had a blast, befriend him, never seen him online again in my life. I still remember you XxDevKnightxX
Playing an MMO solo is like going out in public without a group of friends: it's perfectly okay to go out alone and a lot of times it's even easier that way
I appreciate it when an MMO lets you take on everything solo, but still has strong incentive to take things on in groups. It's a difficult balance, but if they get it right it's great! The ability to solo something is great because then even if your scheduling with friends fall through, you can still attempt the content you wanted to do! Doing things solo usually means there's less room for error as if you alone die, there's no one to carry you through to the end and you probably have to start over the raid/dungeon or such. But if you're taking on something in a group there's different challenges like communication and coordination. Theatre of Blood in Old School Runescape has a decent ratio of scaling monsters based on how many players there are (ignore the fact mechanics themselves make it significantly harder for someone to solo, the scaling is what I wanna focus on) Enemies have 100% health if you're 1 person, 190% health if you're 2 people, 270% if you're 3, 340% if you're 4 and 400% if you're 5 people. You get faster kills along with a bunch of benefits for having more people like the ability to let someone carry, more efficiently lower enemies' defences and give people roles for specific bosses where that's good. And while it's way more difficult it would still be reasonable to solo if you're skilled enough to take on all necessary roles and have good enough gear and resources to deal with the longer fights.
The quest system did it for me, when you had to grind XP by farming kills, it made sense to group and camp spawns. (Everquest, EQOA, EQ2, FFXI). Then you're playing wow, finally grouped your NELF with your Human friend in westfall, you do some quests, one of you logs, one of you does a few more, your quests are no longer in sync. For very rare and brief periods did I find people to group with and level on my first tune, but let's be honest, the most efficient way to grind levels in most MMOs is Solo play.
Excellent video. Design is the key. Solo play often makes you completely unprepared for coop. You get good at playing your class and then learn that everything you learned to do makes you a complete pariah in cooperative play. Games ideally should provide you with AI teammate options so even if you're playing solo, you can learn team dynamics. In most games, the group is responsible for teaching every new person the basics which serves as a huge gatekeep.
I do a lot of dungeons in WoW, but I almost never communicate with anything other than a ping. I really like playing MMO healers (I play a healer Sith Sorceress in SWTOR as well), and there's something about that style of play that gets me in a very focused yet comfy headspace, brain releases all the happy chemicals. When I have to communicate it breaks that trance and it is still some fun, but not the most fun.
RuneScape and SWTOR got it right: You can play them almost entirely fully solo; but they also fulfill the role of lively third places w/ other humans, the MMO part WoW is also catering to this by adding bot followers for dungeons, similar to Guild Wars 1 heroes & henchmen
Playing online games solo somehow feels different from playing single player. Even if you never going to see another person through hours and hours of gameplay, just existing in same world with other people makes all the difference.
Idk why but your little bits on people's personal lives like Damien's tweets and roasting companies is always funny. It's kinda like reading the controvesy section for a beloved celebrity.
Would be kind of difficult considering the structure of an MMO is built with server relliance. Maybe if they released server files to the public but that'd bring whole lot of problems i think
My solo tendencies started because I had pretty awful internet as a kid and I didn't wanna slow other players down. I guess I never grew out of it. Now, why was I playing MMOs when my internet sucked? I was a very lonely child. Yes, this is paradoxical.
One thing people tend to forget is it's significantly more complicated to play an mmo when english isn't your birth language. It took me years to learn it and I still can't right sentenses on the spot in an online game chat. And, of course, there is no way I can speak with a mic, i have an accent.
On the flip side of that, if you have to use a language that isn't your native language, you can become much stronger in that language through using and experiencing it. English is not my native language, but you probably would not be able to tell in a casual conversation. The only reason I am as proficient in it is because I played tons of social games, MMOs and multiplayer roleplaying games that required that I use the language with others.
@@CptMarkka Yeah, totaly. I speak english way better than most of my friends. ^^ I just wish people would be more aware online that the majority of people aren't fluent in english.
@@ssebasgoo Most of us are aware though, especially if you play on a non-american server. I myself have a thick Norwegian accent that I will never be rid of, and that doesnt stop me from speaking English. I actively read, wrote and spoke English for about 10+ years to get from basic conversational English to still having a thick accent, yet being able to read, write and speak with near native fluency. Learning languages take time, you will make mistakes and that is fine.
That is actually a very interesting concept… maybe there is potential to take an open world rpg type game, but marry it to the community aspects of mmo’s such as a market place or leader boards…. I’d dig it…
As a solo MMO player myself, my biggest issue with group content is when making a group is required rather than auto matchmaking. In something like OSRS some of my favorite multiplayer content are things like Nex, Zalcano, and Barbarian Assault as they are all bosses where there is a dedicated world that has auto teams where you simply show up to the world and get into multiplayer within a minute. If wanting something more serious, can easily just branch out from the main group into a more dedicated group. Raids 1, 2, and 3 in OSRS however are not anything like that. You can't simply just show up and have a competent team within a minute. It could take more time to find a team than to do a raid. Can't simply just go to a world, say nothing, and be in a raid within minutes.
As someone who has been playing WoW since its inception, so much of this hits home for me. I'm in my mid-thirties now, have a full time job and a baby on the way. A lot of the people I used to play with no longer play the game, and I don't have the time, social energy, or desire to start fresh with new people in the game. I have made casual acquaintances here and there, but my play time is limited and what I want to use that time for is important to me. I saw another comment down below where someone said they prefer to play solo because it's difficult to find other people who want to play the same way at the same time as them. I 100% agree with this. I'm not a super hardcore player and when I take my limited free time to log on, I want to do what I want to do. I still love WoW, but it's a different gaming experience as a true adult than it was when I was in college.
An MMORPG is a millennial game. Most of its players are now in their 30s, which is why more and more MMO players play solo because of life commitments. I enjoyed grouping when I was younger and playing MMORPGs, but now with 2 kids and 2 jobs, I only get to play at certain times during the day or week. I'm guessing there are other players out there with a similar scenario.
Yep, I played like a no-lifer and high eusocial PvE interaction back in 2005-2010, but since then grad school, jobs, wife and kids, so 2019-2020 with the "Classic" vanilla hype, I just leveled mostly solo and did a solo self-found 1-life "hardcore" hunter challenge to lvl60. I could go at my own pace and didn't feel like I was missing out.
I really appreciated the way you tackled your sponsor in the video. It gave me a good laugh. I appreciate that you made it fun lol. For once i didnt fast forward through that section
I tend toward solo play in MMORPGS. But I like the option of engagement with others when im in the mood also. Oh and I wanted to add, awesome video. I think we may have the exact same psychology when it comes to gaming lol.
I play MMORPGs solo. When I play I want to have fun and play "MY Story". When you join a guild, you are no longer playing your story, you are playing the guilds story. When you join a guild you are no longer playing "The Game", you are now working a new job. Plus you must now put up with all the B-S krap from other guild members.
When I started playing WoW I had a group of people I found that played with me... I started it to play with coworkers but they were all too high level to play with me and, for both of those players... eventually they stopped playing and I passed them up. Now I play solo because I want to play the game.. and not wait on someone else to play the game with me. I still group up for things with other players in the area doing the same quest, but typically we only do this for single named npc's that take forever to respawn. We want all the experience and all the loot that drops for us.
I appreciate you bringing up the lack of time aspect of things. When I was younger I moved around a lot so video games were a good way to stay in contact with people and get me through the lonely points. Now I’ve got two kids and I barely can get 10 minutes uninterrupted so I don’t even attempt to be social in game because I just can’t give the game or other players my full attention. So when I do get to play I’m rocking out solo even though I really do miss it.
Unfortunately, people can end up in their 20's & 30's with a real need to be social, and we can't find an outlet in MMOs anymore because these games have become so antisocial. Nobody talks. If you see people talking, it's either that weirdo with zero social skills attempting to be edgy, or people talking in the shortest possible form of game jargon to get things done asap. I've picked up and quit games quickly because the antisocial feeling is so strong, and when I read comments online about the games I'm interested in, I see other people saying the same thing. Players feel more comfortable if they have a reason to interact-- when they have to interact to progress. I like solo, too, but I wish SOME games prioritized the 'multiplayer' part of MMO.
SWTOR's story is so damn good it works fine as a solo game. Like holy shit, I have never felt the need to do raids. The story is just too interesting. I mean you can be a good guy Sith!❤😂
I'm starting to wonder if my difficulties getting into a MMO's community is mostly just the actual gameplay. I'm one of those people that want to take on challenging content with a group and make friends. But having deathly allergies to rotations and copying meta builds online might be holding me back more than just "MMOs are being more solo friendly".
12:01 , that was exactly what happened to me with new world , i was really enjoying the game for over month and a half , super casual super fun when i have time , but then the game impose a quest in a dungeon that you cant event enter alone , so as i could not continue my game and my story i just droped the game. For me the selling point of an mmo is that just like in the real world , there are a lot of people doing their own thing , and you have the option of interact with them , but when the game push you to do it , is just like a mom pushing a boy to talk and to play with other random boy that is already playing with his friends, they will include you just to fill a space , but they are already a group , and you are just there , and be there in the group is not the same as being part of the team.
Even solo players often interact with systems that have real people on the other side. For example EVE Online can be played solo but by taking part in the economy you are basically seeing the mmo aspect.
7:06 I think that the right answer... group content used to be a feature of the game since the mmorpg started as an escalation from 1 player videogames into a community oriented environment. But now, it's everyday more common to see that you star the journey surrounded by players in a starting point in which you're rewarded for group activities from the start. As weird as it may sound that became exhausting as people is tired of social interaction. Solo player in mmo is somehow a response from players tired of obligatory interaction with other players. This isn't a good thing for mmos in the end. But the answer from AAA companies to this phenomenon is to force even further all kind of group content into the main aspect of their games. Being this said, is ok to asume that the highest successfull version of mmos was that in which group content was only one of many features? Is there forcibly a mandatory need of separating solo player from multiplayer making it obvious as two separated ways of gameplay? Note this: all mmo so far has failed in exploring this question through development design.
there is no paradox, there are just people who think games should require people to interact with them. why? because no one would want to play with them if given the choice. its what I like to call, "the dog and porkchop paradigm". nowhere in the acronym MMORPG does it state that players are _required_ to play with anyone. Its massively multiplayer, meaning theres a lot of people playing at once but not necessarily with each other. its online, meaning it requires a continuous internet connection. there is RP, meaning you play a role in character or out of character. its a game, meaning there are systems in place for a form of progression like levels, skills and activities. As for "the dog and porkchop paradigm", its the situation where you take the old saying 'youre so ugly, your parents had to tie a porkchop around your neck so the dog would play with you', which is a way of saying that playing with you is so unappealing there has to be a form of incentive to coerce people into interacting with you. which is what forced/required grouping is, its the porkchop. the game devs are the parents and other players are the dog. This is why you have advocates for forced/required grouping in games like MMOs, the average player isnt wont to socialize often and I can say that most people in MMOs play solo as most people are independent in real life. Could you imagine that if you needed to go to the store, you had to contact four or so other people just to walk in and buy a gallon of milk? I am not advocating the removal of group content, far from it, but the base systems should allow for solo play.
I've been playing Toontown Corporate Clash, and tbh I feel like it does such a great job at basically forcing you to rely playing with other people. You can solo if you want, but if you want to progress in the game, some things are practically impossible to solo.
I play alone because most people can't get immersed in a game. They want to play with me and then banter and talk about deep topics and I'm okay with that but their focus is only on that even if they say otherwise. I want people who will get engrossed in the game and want to go on adventures not escape or vent about life. I want to talk about our next mission I want to talk about what we may find I want to talk about our fears of losing in the game.
Anarchy online is a "solo" game again and has been for a few years due to its low population and people running 6 account multi-boxes. I'm part of the problem as I can do everything I need with my accounts as a hardcore casual with little time to play.
I used to play alone for the simple fact that when I'm playing a solo game I can go at my own pace. In some mmo guilds, people generally demand commitment and other things... This is usually tiring and many times we are not always able to actively participate in the guild's activities. However, recently I found myself playing T&L and in this game, playing alone is practically very difficult, since most of the content requires guilds. But surprisingly I managed to find really nice and friendly peoples who play at a calmer and simpler pace, just like me. After playing with them I just started having a lot of fun, my experience is much better compared to my experience alone. Currently I only play with this group of people, loud laughter and various confusions. This is the definition of playing with a group of friends.😂
I think content like the Inferno in OSRS is also important - where there are solo challenges that you cannot possibly get carried through. Then the endgame group content feeds into endgame solo content and so on.
One of the design decisions of GW2 that I really like is making it so that there is no "mob tagging" in the game. This means that if you hit a mob, you get rewarded with xp/loot when it does, whether there was already someone else fighting it or not. I would love to see this design implemented in more MMOs, especially ones that use trinity class design. This would allow players to work together on overworld content with practically no friction. You don't have to form a group, you don't have to talk to eachother, there's no pressure to stick together past the content that you're currently working on together. But, it allows you to properly play to your role in a multiplayer environment in a way that you don't really get to do if you're entirely playing solo. This also helps solve the issue of players fighting over quest mobs which always always always sucks. I think for this to work you would have up balance overworld mobs so that they aren't too easy to kill, but they can be killed solo if you're very careful. Something like how classic WoW was balanced. You can generally take on one, maybe two, mobs at a time and get through ok, but it would be a lot quicker and easier if someone else was there helping you.
something asmon said recently applies pretty heavily to this, back when mmorpgs became popular there was more of a market for socializing, social media wasn't really a thing, discord wasn't a thing, you would log on to a game to talk to your friends, mmorpgs were literally chatrooms with gameplay, now the markets different and people arent using mmorpgs to socialize and make friends as much (as well as we've all become antisocial jaded adults but thats beside the point) but people still enjoy the gameplay
As a former social player, I've grown to enjoy solo playing on WoW. It reminds me of a time years ago when I first started the game leveling through dark shore all alone, taking in the music and the atmosphere. And yea, people right now say "Just play a solo game then!" But I want to play wow, the game I fell in love with and still enjoy despite all its problems. I don't want to go back to guilds and raids and having to min-max every peice of gear and having multiple extra addons on my screen to shout at me because Im doing something wrong. I just want to play the game like a game not a job and if tomorrow, Blizzard announced a fully solo server with a companion system baldur's gate 3 style, I'd buy it.
I like being alone. I also like to be around like-minded people while I do my thing. I know that if I'm in a game where people share a common interest it will be easier to strike up a conversation because I know I have at least the game in common. An example: If you placed me at a biker's convention I would feel awkward. I'm not a biker guy. Even though I think bikes are cool I would have little to contribute to a conversation and hoping someone has the same interests are considerably lower. At least in an MMO I can feel like I'm at a gaming convention where I can mingle if I want and know I at least have one thing in common.
i think what makes gw2 (basically the only mmo i play) so nice is that yeah, it's solo-able. but everyone is also just so chill??? like unless you're doing PvP everyone's super nice in my experience. and there are ALWAYS people on the map, even in lower level areas, cuz they have metas that take place in those areas and they downlevel you to match. i remember being relatively new and coming across the shadow behemoth for the first time, for example i also tend to just play with my partner, i've been replaying the entire story with him (first time for him) and it's been really fun. let's me work on that damn legendary necklace at the same time since you need to replay the story for that anyway. but it's really fun just running around in-game and talking while we level up n stuff too i haven't touched dungeons or raids much even though i've played the game for like 8 years, but i recently joined a discord full of people that i know from tumblr, so i'm hoping to get more into that side of the game! i loved doing fractals with my dad and his friends but they don't play very much anymore. but in the rare instances i've done dungeons with complete strangers, they were still super fun
The best example from vanilla wow, i think, are cave quests. Quests where your goal is in a cave. You can technically solo these quests, but you have to work very carefully and quickly. One mistake and you die and have to deal with respawns. But if you run into someone else doing the same quest, it doesn't matter how much of a solo player you are, grouping up with them is your least bad option. The vanilla wow questing experience was hundreds of these tiny implicitly incentivized interactions with other players that all created opportunities for communal growth. Combined with static server populations (no layers or shards), you started to recognize people around the server. The quests themselves were objectively not fun (which is a problem), but they fostered socialization in the best way. No MMO since has ever tried to capture that again.
Very, very few have tried to capture it. Older ones captured it even better. EverQuest's Project 1999 or new Teek TLP server come to mind. Vanguard also comes to mind.
The main problem I have with getting into hardcore group play like pvp, raids, and sometimes dungeons is that it takes so much damn time to find the people, set up a time for these people to play and then gather all these people to whatever location they need to be to do this group activity. To make matters worse we then have to do this extremely difficult activity only for one, two, sometimes everybody messing up all the mechanics forcing everybody to restart. I hate it even when I had all the time in the world I felt like it took too much time and now I have a job so there’s no way in hell I’m doing another raid in my lifetime. Don’t even get me started on the idea that people need to record their dps and record how many times they finished a raid and all the bullshit. When I play a game I play it to have fun not stress over so many dumb details that stops from getting to play the actual game.
Remember that part in early (FFXIV) A Realm Reborn when the early main story quest makes you run three dungeon instances in a row? My social anxiety hasn't allowed me to forget.
I actually enjoy Guild Wars 2 group play. You see a map objective, go to it, other people also go there, and you do it together without joining a group etc.
I really like playing just on my own, because I can often enjoy the story and the world better and in my own pace. On the other hand I do have problems in finding friends online and connect with other, what is very ironic, because I have no problems to connect irl with other people and I actually like to play with others. I have this problem no matter the game. It didn't work in MMOs aswell in Call of Duty and also other games, but those are the MP games I've put the most time in.
I played Maplestory since before Big Bang and I can say people have been upset that party play is no longer there. However, back then, the reason why party play was so popular was because it was the only viable method to level up as quests and mobbing was not optimal unless you were already high enough level to one-shot them quickly. Nowadays, mobbing as become a lot easier and with the constant 2x exp coupons we get from store or even ingame buffs and the revamps of classes to allow for bigger screen clears. The downside is that partying up with others is only viable when you want to do an end-game boss. However, it seems that maple is doing event party quest that resemble how old party quests felt like so we'll see how this plays out in the future.
![Why do people play MMO's solo? [MMOPINION]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AcGezDYNLIU/mqdefault.jpg)
Play World of Warships here: wo.ws/4dgUsv4
Thank you World of Warships for sponsoring this video. During registration use the code BRAVO to get for free: 500 doubloons, 1.5 million credits, 7 Days of Premium Account time, and a free ship after you complete 10 battles! Applicable to new users only.
i hope you all appreciate my heavy use of papyrus in this one
Only play if you want to farm bots or against players with few k hours and 15 min queue times after grinding for tier X ships or spending $150 use and then play against cheese underwater torpedo players or Airplane's that will dump on you literally.
I think this Ad possessed my body to download and play world of warships
world of warships is a scam what happen to the funding for Ukraine
solo was prevalent when everyone was stuck on single player games and mmo struggled to get traction now aday if you were good you could easily see millions day one
also fyi war gaming doesnt want players they want investors
"I like to play with myself where others can see"
Forgot who said this, but pretty much how I feel about MMOs
I tried this in the park and they arrested me
@@brennansage4100a park r really? Bad joke dude
@@GoveeCalgaryit’s a decent joke. Better than your attempt
@@dontblocktheboxHe didn’t make a joke tho?
@@Rolkey exactly my point friend. He brought nothing to the table. It was heavily sarcastic. I find it really lazy to bash someone and not even attempt to do better.
"I didn't mean to put you on a SECOND spectrum" killed me
Its the "go go go" mentality that i cant do anymore. I cant keep up, no one wants to slow down, and i don't want to ruin someone else's fun, or deal with the toxicity when i dont play the speed they do.
I have a similar problem. I like to look at the scenery and take in the details here and there. In ESO, a friend of mine and I would run slow dungeon crawls for our guild for whoever wanted to experience the lore or just see what was around. Usually had to run two groups.
i feel this in my soul
YES. It really ruins these games. I'm playing FFXIV and I want to learn the map, understand what is happening, and see the story. But so many players just want to speedrun every level and get mad at you if you slow them down. It is really obnoxious.
I wanna RP and it's kinda hard to do that in single player game. Unfortunately (playing ESO and GW2) it's hard to RP anyway
I tried to return to ESO couple of months ago. Queued for dungeon with new character, and they blast away everything in their path. Dungeon ended in like 2 minutes.
Not that I can't understand their view though. In every MMO, so many people are usually there for their dailies. And have done those a gazillion amount of times.
I have some serious social anxiety. I don’t like talking to people in real life or in games. But I do like the feeling of being in an MMO. Feeling like I’m in a living world and seeing other people doing stuff is just… cool.
this right here lol i just love mmos for the feeling tbh
Something that has been happening in MMOs is that you must join someone's Discord server to access high level group content, which is simply unacceptable to me
Uh...what?
@@mobius4247 In most mmos that I played, to reduce chances of failing, the majority of endgame players use discord to organize raids
@@mobius4247An example of this is - Destiny 2. High level content such as raids are locked behind mandatory group play. Which is simply unacceptable to them and to me.
@@Rolkey Raids... require group play... [Mock gasp]... It's unacceptable to you, really? Challenging multiplayer content in a multiplayer game is... unacceptable? You play limbo without a pole, huh?
@@SupachargedGaming It sounded like the issue was having to use a third-party service. Discord hasn't gotten that bad yet, but now they're starting to put ads in it and I don't know how long it'll last before I end up jumping ship to another chat client for the seventh time now or something. LoL for instance eventually did add a built-in voice client so long as you joined the queue in the same group, which lets you coordinate without getting flamed by randos (since now you get flamed by friends)
Why I play MMO solo: because I find it very hard to find people that want to play the same game I want to play, at the same time and in the same manner. I enjoy some multiplayer aspects of a game but they are usually things that are risk-free and that doesn't rely on me having good reflexes or being a hardcore player because I never had any interest on that. (ffs, I play most game in the Story Mode difficulty because I enjoy more the story and exploration rather then combat)
i have always prefer to play alone, but at the same time i play support characters...it is weird, but there is a very satisfying feeling about being able to help someone at random in an MMO and not have to know them at all...also... that feeling of "you are alive because i decide to heal you, deal with these monsters for me"
i like to play solo and as support as well, but i dont have a problem with solo qued dungeons. i LOVE when shit starts hitting the fan and im able to keep everyone afloat. or when im the only one alive (oops, my bad i guess..) and end up soloing dungeeon mobs or a boss as a healer. makes me feel cool😎
This is why I wish that more MMOs would have it where any player that hits a mob gets xp and loot when that mob dies. It would let players kind of team up on the fly instead of having to formally form a group. GW2 does that and it's nice design.
Damn, I remember making a healer in World of Warcraft back in like 2006, think it was an orc shaman and NOOOPPEEEE, got it to around level 25 or something and ran the dungeon in the horde capital and everyone died, ran the one in the Barrens in a cave and everyone died multiple times and I was kicked, then ran a werewolf dungeon in the undead place and had the same result.
Ended up just deleting the shaman and made an orc hunter instead and that worked out a lot better.
I don't play MMO's anymore though, too time consuming and I lack free time as it is. I'm married, work 45-50 hours a week, have two children aged 14 and 12, and a lot of craziness on a daily basis.
When I get off work I usually crack a beer from the fridge, screw around on UA-cam for 30 minutes, then watch a movie with my family after dinner. Friday nights and Saturdays are when I get to play video games because I get all morning to myself mostly so thats a solid 2-3 hours of gaming and I'm sure as hell not wasting those hours on an MMO lol! By lunch time shit gets busy so that 7-10am timeframe is sacred to me.
I main Priest in WoW and love running around a city casting Power Word: Fortitude on everyone I can find.
@@Travybear1989 It really is Joever during parenthood.
That second spectrum joke was Excellent
That one hit different
The joke is that rainbows are a spectrum (of color) so basically he was calling them gay, an old MMO classic.
Uhm no, the joke is autism, not homosexuality.
You could read into it that way. But the joke *really* is that MMO players are already on the autistic spectrum.
@@omegahaxors9-11 Go take a RAADS-R test rn
I haven't really seen you talk about doing solo content to aid the multiplayer experience. I'm talking crafting, baby! Mining, smithing, cooking. Farming rare items, or just coin. Selling your stuff to an Auction House or Grand Exchange. You play solo content, but you help another person doing group content progress. That dungeoneering or raiding person doesn't have to search for the Blue Rose and create a rare potion that increases their effectiveness. You can look for the flower and create that potion for them.
This is content that you can't do in a single player roleplaying game. You can sell items to NPCs in a game of Skyrim, but it's never going to be as wholesome as knowing you helped out someone else playing the same game on the other side of the world by doing solo content.
THIS!
This is exactly why, even in ARR, I paid to play. Cause, you know, trial users are garbage in the eyes of Square Peenix and need to be restricted in as many things as possible without getting them to leave entirely. Trading with other people or using the marketplace happens to be such a thing.
I paid so that crafting stuff felt meaningful, even though I got fucking flamed and ridiculed when I said I made my gil through crafting. (Yes, safe to say my experience with FF14 is awful and I probably will never return to the game). Crafting stuff and selling it was some of the only fun I had with ARR cause the rest is just too bland for me.
That used to be my role in a WoW guild a while back. I liked to fish and fishing used to be a valuable asset to raiding back in Burning Crusade. When I came back for Legion crafting just wasn't rewarding anymore so I haven't come back.
Great point man! I wonder: have you ever heard about or played foxhole? It’s way too ambitious of a game for now but I love the idea of it.
@@qynoi42I like this role as well, but it is never really incentivized I feel :/
Personally my favourite part of MMOs is 'offline' multiplaying as in playing alongside (irl with my bf in the room on his computer or through discord/etc with friends) and playing solo doing our own things like skilling/quests/etc but knowing they are also in the world doing their own thing at the same time as me. I don't think I've ever done content IN game w my bf on OSRS but we frequently play together and that's how we like our MMO games 😎
That's amazingly wholesome!
If I remember correct this is called parallel play and its super cozy and a nice way to do things you want to do but together
As an avid ff14 player, it's worth noting that the new Trust system allows for almost every content to be done solo. They still make you join groups for some required mini-raid like encounters but it's a neat option. There's also new Variant Dungeons that actively scale with how many people you queued with. I just like ff14 idk
I’ll be honest, I actually appreciate that 14 made me group with others to do dungeons. I remember being physically anxious about doing my first group content but the combination of people being nice and having gone through the hall of the novice made it a somewhat smooth process and I loved tanking my whole way through the game after that, which led to me enjoying healing equally as much, and even got me to try some extreme and savage content later. Not to say everyone will have that experience, but I cannot personally say, in good faith, that making people *try* group content is a bad thing, but I will say that if my early groups had been toxic maybe things would have been different, so there’s something to be said about that as well
@DominicGreene72 in my experience ffxiv players are genuinely kind in comparison to most online games. Not to say that EVERYONE is like that, but in my 10 years of playing I've almost exclusively had good interactions
@@EnuHarumonia I was a lifelong WoW player, swapped to FFXIV for 4 years or so, and recently dipped my toes back into the WoW waters for Cataclysm Classic.
BOY are people toxic in WoW compared to FFXIV, holy shit.
Maybe it's because I'm on a PVP server, but the amount of slurs I have seen thrown at my head made my jaw drop. Either it was always like this and I just forgot, or it got worse in my absence. Literally had people asking if it was okay to say the N word in guild/FC chat, only to then do it in all caps because the leader said sure. Like...???
@@veradrost9654 I've had Ex-wow players ridicule me for saying I like OSRS and calling it a nostalgia bait pay to win piece of shit game while preaching that I should instead play FF14.
I tried ARR.
Put 50 hours into it and only enjoyed crafting stuff... I quit right after finishing the story with the racist elves.
I appreciate the heck out of that change cause fuck queueing up with other people, fuck having to wait, fuck having other people potentially ruin my story experience (I was in cutscene and they just finished the boss without me. I was the tank.) Fuck all of that bullshit.
But that won't get me back to giving the game a 2nd try tho. It's close but maybe if the combat was fun for me OR I would be able to use the marketplace as a trial player so crafting (The most fun part for me) feels meaningful at all.
I like to be alone in a crowd that’s why I play (mostly) solo.
Playing mmorpg is not about playing with other people. Is about being part of a living world, with other players. Like, you don't need to have friends in real life, if you don't want to
I enjoy playing solo most of the time, but part of that enjoyment comes from the fact that I'm one person among many in the ongoing environment of the game. I loved walking through Stormwind or Orgrimmar and seeing other people running around all over the city doing whatever they needed to do (back when that happened).
Having the option to start being social at any time is a huge part of the atmosphere for me, because there are times where I want to do group content. I enjoy doing 5-man content, but I hate raiding.
I relate so much to what you said!!
"Playing solo" in an mmo isn't about doing everything by yourself, it's about being able to decide what you want to do. If that means joining up for a raid, that's your choice. If that means exploring alone, that's your choice. The problem with forced multiplayer content isn't that you have to play with strangers, it's that you often need to be at the whims of those strangers if you want to succeed.
"centuries, or even years" already earned you a like, good sir.
I think great mmos have a good blend where the solo and multi build on eachother in tandem. Force example making a bunch of personal upgrades during the week and showing off how powerful you’ve become since friends last saw you in a dungeon or raid. Great video as always!
This is why the Event or Meta-Event system in Guild Wars 2 really captured me as a solo player.
It's a system where the objectives of this Event (dynamic multiplayer quest) are displayed throughout its course depending on the vicinity of the Event or sub-events of a Meta-Event you're in, giving you enough information to contribute.
This allows for you to play with a massive group of people, without the need for a lot of communication.
Eventually in expansions these Events became harder and more complex, sometimes you were in need of splitting the player pool on the map into 3 squads and tackle 3 lanes separately before encountering the big bad boss.
While those Events became harder, the need for communication also increased, almost tricking players into taking the lead, instruct other players or just communicate.
I have two issues with non-solo gameplay in MMOs. The first is that most players tend to be either at the beginning or end of the game, especially if said MMO has paywalls. Secondly, if I find one or a group of people to play with, I have to go at their speed and then I never see them again when we log off. I have to skip dialog I might've wanted to read if I want to stay at their speed most of the time (I prefer to read main story dialog if it's my first time through).
One MMO I play has a few forced sections that basically require you to team up with people who actually know what they're doing, where failure is actually really bad (it will ruin the entire run, which can sometimes be long). These forced dungeons have really good loot that everyone should farm for, but it's hard to find people to team up with in the first place when it's now mid-game content (when end-game content stops being end-game). Then, among the people you do find, half of them are only there to farm a portion of the dungeon rather than the whole thing, so they just leave early. They don't even tell anyone that they're leaving early or else they won't find people to team up with either.
I'm not sure what the fix for this is, but I definitely don't want these types of dungeons forced into the main story. I do actually enjoy these types of dungeons when there are actively other players, and I seem to find it the best with optional dungeons, so maybe that should be the path forward.
Holy, the FlyFF music at 18:00 brings me back. Good times, I miss that game. I'm so old.
YES gimee an mmo like flyff where optimal leveling is in pairs. uwu
@@TheSugurMonkey Personal ringmaster slave.... those were the days
If you find a cool item in a single player game, you’ll never be able to trade it or be able to show it off to other players online. And it’s nice that all your characters are saved on their servers online. Even if a player decides to play mostly solo, it’s good to know that they have the power to play with other people any time they want.
Thank you Mr. President.
Best moments of MMORPG I've had where when I was alone playing and found a random, did a quick dungeon or raid, had a blast, befriend him, never seen him online again in my life.
I still remember you XxDevKnightxX
Nice video, just a quick note, in FFXIV you can solo all MSQ dungeons using NPCs, only trials are required to group
Yeah, it's great. Perfect dungeon runs 10/10 every time. Absolutely amazing tbh, no sarcasm
Ok but to be fair Rumours by Fleetwood Mac is a fire album.
Also yeah, solo MMOs and stuff
I find that ESO does this very well.
U can really immerse yourself while you are questing alone with pretty good voice acting among all the quests.
Playing an MMO solo is like going out in public without a group of friends: it's perfectly okay to go out alone and a lot of times it's even easier that way
"I didn't mean to put you on a second spectrum"
second? this would be my third.
i only play MMOs solo because i hate team play and i love the challenge of doing bosses alone
I appreciate it when an MMO lets you take on everything solo, but still has strong incentive to take things on in groups. It's a difficult balance, but if they get it right it's great!
The ability to solo something is great because then even if your scheduling with friends fall through, you can still attempt the content you wanted to do!
Doing things solo usually means there's less room for error as if you alone die, there's no one to carry you through to the end and you probably have to start over the raid/dungeon or such. But if you're taking on something in a group there's different challenges like communication and coordination.
Theatre of Blood in Old School Runescape has a decent ratio of scaling monsters based on how many players there are (ignore the fact mechanics themselves make it significantly harder for someone to solo, the scaling is what I wanna focus on) Enemies have 100% health if you're 1 person, 190% health if you're 2 people, 270% if you're 3, 340% if you're 4 and 400% if you're 5 people. You get faster kills along with a bunch of benefits for having more people like the ability to let someone carry, more efficiently lower enemies' defences and give people roles for specific bosses where that's good. And while it's way more difficult it would still be reasonable to solo if you're skilled enough to take on all necessary roles and have good enough gear and resources to deal with the longer fights.
Babe wake up, a new Idyl vid just dropped!
I thought this was j1mmy
The quest system did it for me, when you had to grind XP by farming kills, it made sense to group and camp spawns. (Everquest, EQOA, EQ2, FFXI). Then you're playing wow, finally grouped your NELF with your Human friend in westfall, you do some quests, one of you logs, one of you does a few more, your quests are no longer in sync. For very rare and brief periods did I find people to group with and level on my first tune, but let's be honest, the most efficient way to grind levels in most MMOs is Solo play.
Excellent video. Design is the key. Solo play often makes you completely unprepared for coop. You get good at playing your class and then learn that everything you learned to do makes you a complete pariah in cooperative play.
Games ideally should provide you with AI teammate options so even if you're playing solo, you can learn team dynamics. In most games, the group is responsible for teaching every new person the basics which serves as a huge gatekeep.
I do a lot of dungeons in WoW, but I almost never communicate with anything other than a ping. I really like playing MMO healers (I play a healer Sith Sorceress in SWTOR as well), and there's something about that style of play that gets me in a very focused yet comfy headspace, brain releases all the happy chemicals. When I have to communicate it breaks that trance and it is still some fun, but not the most fun.
"I didn't mean to put you on a SECOND spectrum". Bold of you to assume most of us were only on one spectrum before now.
I'm rocking the Kinsey Scale rn
I'm on at least three
You are probably the only content creator which I don't skip sponsors. You are that good. Thanks for all the fun.
This is the other side of the coin to the "abundance of solo activities is draining the multiplayer aspect out of the (m)morpg" discussion.
RuneScape and SWTOR got it right:
You can play them almost entirely fully solo; but they also fulfill the role of lively third places w/ other humans, the MMO part
WoW is also catering to this by adding bot followers for dungeons, similar to Guild Wars 1 heroes & henchmen
Playing online games solo somehow feels different from playing single player. Even if you never going to see another person through hours and hours of gameplay, just existing in same world with other people makes all the difference.
Idk why but your little bits on people's personal lives like Damien's tweets and roasting companies is always funny. It's kinda like reading the controvesy section for a beloved celebrity.
dead mmos would be neat if they tried to sell them as full games for offiline use once they die
Would be kind of difficult considering the structure of an MMO is built with server relliance. Maybe if they released server files to the public but that'd bring whole lot of problems i think
@@maerto technically you can i have seen people make offline version of korean mmo like perfect world , ragnarok and rising force online
My solo tendencies started because I had pretty awful internet as a kid and I didn't wanna slow other players down. I guess I never grew out of it.
Now, why was I playing MMOs when my internet sucked? I was a very lonely child. Yes, this is paradoxical.
One thing people tend to forget is it's significantly more complicated to play an mmo when english isn't your birth language. It took me years to learn it and I still can't right sentenses on the spot in an online game chat. And, of course, there is no way I can speak with a mic, i have an accent.
On the flip side of that, if you have to use a language that isn't your native language, you can become much stronger in that language through using and experiencing it. English is not my native language, but you probably would not be able to tell in a casual conversation. The only reason I am as proficient in it is because I played tons of social games, MMOs and multiplayer roleplaying games that required that I use the language with others.
@@CptMarkka Yeah, totaly. I speak english way better than most of my friends. ^^ I just wish people would be more aware online that the majority of people aren't fluent in english.
@@ssebasgoo Most of us are aware though, especially if you play on a non-american server.
I myself have a thick Norwegian accent that I will never be rid of, and that doesnt stop me from speaking English. I actively read, wrote and spoke English for about 10+ years to get from basic conversational English to still having a thick accent, yet being able to read, write and speak with near native fluency.
Learning languages take time, you will make mistakes and that is fine.
That is actually a very interesting concept… maybe there is potential to take an open world rpg type game, but marry it to the community aspects of mmo’s such as a market place or leader boards…. I’d dig it…
As a solo MMO player myself, my biggest issue with group content is when making a group is required rather than auto matchmaking. In something like OSRS some of my favorite multiplayer content are things like Nex, Zalcano, and Barbarian Assault as they are all bosses where there is a dedicated world that has auto teams where you simply show up to the world and get into multiplayer within a minute. If wanting something more serious, can easily just branch out from the main group into a more dedicated group. Raids 1, 2, and 3 in OSRS however are not anything like that. You can't simply just show up and have a competent team within a minute. It could take more time to find a team than to do a raid. Can't simply just go to a world, say nothing, and be in a raid within minutes.
Dude that Flyff music at 17:48 really caught me off guard. Blast from the past there...
FFXIV can be solo'd with NPCs now except I think the last trial of Endwalker which is like 300 hours into the game.
As someone who has been playing WoW since its inception, so much of this hits home for me. I'm in my mid-thirties now, have a full time job and a baby on the way. A lot of the people I used to play with no longer play the game, and I don't have the time, social energy, or desire to start fresh with new people in the game. I have made casual acquaintances here and there, but my play time is limited and what I want to use that time for is important to me. I saw another comment down below where someone said they prefer to play solo because it's difficult to find other people who want to play the same way at the same time as them. I 100% agree with this. I'm not a super hardcore player and when I take my limited free time to log on, I want to do what I want to do. I still love WoW, but it's a different gaming experience as a true adult than it was when I was in college.
An MMORPG is a millennial game. Most of its players are now in their 30s, which is why more and more MMO players play solo because of life commitments. I enjoyed grouping when I was younger and playing MMORPGs, but now with 2 kids and 2 jobs, I only get to play at certain times during the day or week. I'm guessing there are other players out there with a similar scenario.
Yep, I played like a no-lifer and high eusocial PvE interaction back in 2005-2010, but since then grad school, jobs, wife and kids, so 2019-2020 with the "Classic" vanilla hype, I just leveled mostly solo and did a solo self-found 1-life "hardcore" hunter challenge to lvl60. I could go at my own pace and didn't feel like I was missing out.
Millennials ruined MMORPG
I did not expect to see Idyl topless in this video... but then again, it's an Idyl video.
I really appreciated the way you tackled your sponsor in the video. It gave me a good laugh. I appreciate that you made it fun lol. For once i didnt fast forward through that section
I know very little about MMOs, and most of what i know is from your videos. This Runescape game sure does seem pretty great
This is why I love RuneScape. I can play with friends and when I don’t feel like talking just turn off chat and play by myself
I tend toward solo play in MMORPGS. But I like the option of engagement with others when im in the mood also. Oh and I wanted to add, awesome video. I think we may have the exact same psychology when it comes to gaming lol.
I play MMORPGs solo. When I play I want to have fun and play "MY Story". When you join a guild, you are no longer playing your story, you are playing the guilds story. When you join a guild you are no longer playing "The Game", you are now working a new job. Plus you must now put up with all the B-S krap from other guild members.
What if "my story" involves navigating the social metagame that is "integrating into a guild and cooperating them their goals as part of my own story"
Finally, an Idyl video for me to face a blunt to.
Preach. Went to light up and saw the idyl video and I audibly cheered in excitement.
@@lasjok3r97 we are the same 🤝
ngl, world of warcraft requiring 40 man raids made me meet so many people and some of them still one of my best friends ever.
When I started playing WoW I had a group of people I found that played with me...
I started it to play with coworkers but they were all too high level to play with me
and, for both of those players... eventually they stopped playing and I passed them up.
Now I play solo because I want to play the game.. and not wait on someone else to play the game with me. I still group up for things with other players in the area doing the same quest, but typically we only do this for single named npc's that take forever to respawn. We want all the experience and all the loot that drops for us.
I appreciate you bringing up the lack of time aspect of things. When I was younger I moved around a lot so video games were a good way to stay in contact with people and get me through the lonely points. Now I’ve got two kids and I barely can get 10 minutes uninterrupted so I don’t even attempt to be social in game because I just can’t give the game or other players my full attention. So when I do get to play I’m rocking out solo even though I really do miss it.
Unfortunately, people can end up in their 20's & 30's with a real need to be social, and we can't find an outlet in MMOs anymore because these games have become so antisocial. Nobody talks. If you see people talking, it's either that weirdo with zero social skills attempting to be edgy, or people talking in the shortest possible form of game jargon to get things done asap.
I've picked up and quit games quickly because the antisocial feeling is so strong, and when I read comments online about the games I'm interested in, I see other people saying the same thing. Players feel more comfortable if they have a reason to interact-- when they have to interact to progress. I like solo, too, but I wish SOME games prioritized the 'multiplayer' part of MMO.
SWTOR's story is so damn good it works fine as a solo game. Like holy shit, I have never felt the need to do raids. The story is just too interesting. I mean you can be a good guy Sith!❤😂
I'm starting to wonder if my difficulties getting into a MMO's community is mostly just the actual gameplay. I'm one of those people that want to take on challenging content with a group and make friends. But having deathly allergies to rotations and copying meta builds online might be holding me back more than just "MMOs are being more solo friendly".
W Sonic Frontiers soundtrack at the end
19:58 in case you were searching too:
Sonic Frontiers OST - "Undefeatable"
17:44 was a very pleasant surprise. I salute.
Being scared of letting other people down, even though it's a ridiculous thought, is a massive thing for me. Good to see I'm not alone
today i learned Fleetwood mac made a disstrack album.
it gives the album a whole new meaning when you know the background :O
12:01 , that was exactly what happened to me with new world , i was really enjoying the game for over month and a half , super casual super fun when i have time , but then the game impose a quest in a dungeon that you cant event enter alone , so as i could not continue my game and my story i just droped the game.
For me the selling point of an mmo is that just like in the real world , there are a lot of people doing their own thing , and you have the option of interact with them , but when the game push you to do it , is just like a mom pushing a boy to talk and to play with other random boy that is already playing with his friends, they will include you just to fill a space , but they are already a group , and you are just there , and be there in the group is not the same as being part of the team.
I hear that flyff music ;) Good video Idyl
Holy the flyff music near the end, the memories
Even solo players often interact with systems that have real people on the other side. For example EVE Online can be played solo but by taking part in the economy you are basically seeing the mmo aspect.
7:06 I think that the right answer... group content used to be a feature of the game since the mmorpg started as an escalation from 1 player videogames into a community oriented environment. But now, it's everyday more common to see that you star the journey surrounded by players in a starting point in which you're rewarded for group activities from the start. As weird as it may sound that became exhausting as people is tired of social interaction. Solo player in mmo is somehow a response from players tired of obligatory interaction with other players. This isn't a good thing for mmos in the end. But the answer from AAA companies to this phenomenon is to force even further all kind of group content into the main aspect of their games. Being this said, is ok to asume that the highest successfull version of mmos was that in which group content was only one of many features? Is there forcibly a mandatory need of separating solo player from multiplayer making it obvious as two separated ways of gameplay? Note this: all mmo so far has failed in exploring this question through development design.
there is no paradox, there are just people who think games should require people to interact with them. why? because no one would want to play with them if given the choice. its what I like to call, "the dog and porkchop paradigm". nowhere in the acronym MMORPG does it state that players are _required_ to play with anyone. Its massively multiplayer, meaning theres a lot of people playing at once but not necessarily with each other. its online, meaning it requires a continuous internet connection. there is RP, meaning you play a role in character or out of character. its a game, meaning there are systems in place for a form of progression like levels, skills and activities.
As for "the dog and porkchop paradigm", its the situation where you take the old saying 'youre so ugly, your parents had to tie a porkchop around your neck so the dog would play with you', which is a way of saying that playing with you is so unappealing there has to be a form of incentive to coerce people into interacting with you. which is what forced/required grouping is, its the porkchop. the game devs are the parents and other players are the dog.
This is why you have advocates for forced/required grouping in games like MMOs, the average player isnt wont to socialize often and I can say that most people in MMOs play solo as most people are independent in real life. Could you imagine that if you needed to go to the store, you had to contact four or so other people just to walk in and buy a gallon of milk?
I am not advocating the removal of group content, far from it, but the base systems should allow for solo play.
I remember in WoW when it came out there were elite monsters just wandering around, and you needed a party to take them down.
I've been playing Toontown Corporate Clash, and tbh I feel like it does such a great job at basically forcing you to rely playing with other people. You can solo if you want, but if you want to progress in the game, some things are practically impossible to solo.
I play alone because most people can't get immersed in a game. They want to play with me and then banter and talk about deep topics and I'm okay with that but their focus is only on that even if they say otherwise. I want people who will get engrossed in the game and want to go on adventures not escape or vent about life. I want to talk about our next mission I want to talk about what we may find I want to talk about our fears of losing in the game.
Yeah I hate it when people start talking about real life issue. I already know real people in real life to talk about that.
I swear there was a frame that flashed that said "More farts on my Patreon"
I like having the option to solo when i feel like it.
I just wish there were more cases where a big event happens and others could join in. That was like, my favorite thing ever in any MMO I played
Anarchy online is a "solo" game again and has been for a few years due to its low population and people running 6 account multi-boxes. I'm part of the problem as I can do everything I need with my accounts as a hardcore casual with little time to play.
Corepunk seems to be a modern attempt at nearly forcing group play. I can't say im excited to play it, but i am interested to see how it plays out
I used to play alone for the simple fact that when I'm playing a solo game I can go at my own pace. In some mmo guilds, people generally demand commitment and other things... This is usually tiring and many times we are not always able to actively participate in the guild's activities. However, recently I found myself playing T&L and in this game, playing alone is practically very difficult, since most of the content requires guilds. But surprisingly I managed to find really nice and friendly peoples who play at a calmer and simpler pace, just like me. After playing with them I just started having a lot of fun, my experience is much better compared to my experience alone. Currently I only play with this group of people, loud laughter and various confusions. This is the definition of playing with a group of friends.😂
I think content like the Inferno in OSRS is also important - where there are solo challenges that you cannot possibly get carried through. Then the endgame group content feeds into endgame solo content and so on.
Always a good day when idyl drops a new video
One of the design decisions of GW2 that I really like is making it so that there is no "mob tagging" in the game. This means that if you hit a mob, you get rewarded with xp/loot when it does, whether there was already someone else fighting it or not. I would love to see this design implemented in more MMOs, especially ones that use trinity class design.
This would allow players to work together on overworld content with practically no friction. You don't have to form a group, you don't have to talk to eachother, there's no pressure to stick together past the content that you're currently working on together. But, it allows you to properly play to your role in a multiplayer environment in a way that you don't really get to do if you're entirely playing solo.
This also helps solve the issue of players fighting over quest mobs which always always always sucks.
I think for this to work you would have up balance overworld mobs so that they aren't too easy to kill, but they can be killed solo if you're very careful. Something like how classic WoW was balanced. You can generally take on one, maybe two, mobs at a time and get through ok, but it would be a lot quicker and easier if someone else was there helping you.
honestly gw2 loot and mob system are god send ,especially for event like mad king's labyrinth
That's been in wow for almost 10 years at this point.
something asmon said recently applies pretty heavily to this, back when mmorpgs became popular there was more of a market for socializing, social media wasn't really a thing, discord wasn't a thing, you would log on to a game to talk to your friends, mmorpgs were literally chatrooms with gameplay, now the markets different and people arent using mmorpgs to socialize and make friends as much (as well as we've all become antisocial jaded adults but thats beside the point) but people still enjoy the gameplay
As a former social player, I've grown to enjoy solo playing on WoW. It reminds me of a time years ago when I first started the game leveling through dark shore all alone, taking in the music and the atmosphere. And yea, people right now say "Just play a solo game then!" But I want to play wow, the game I fell in love with and still enjoy despite all its problems. I don't want to go back to guilds and raids and having to min-max every peice of gear and having multiple extra addons on my screen to shout at me because Im doing something wrong. I just want to play the game like a game not a job and if tomorrow, Blizzard announced a fully solo server with a companion system baldur's gate 3 style, I'd buy it.
Thank you for speaking up and giving us solo players a voice that we otherwise wouldn't have had, Mr. President.
I'm normally too lazy to like videos regardless of how good they are, but that outro song caught me off guard so enjoy your shekels
I like being alone. I also like to be around like-minded people while I do my thing. I know that if I'm in a game where people share a common interest it will be easier to strike up a conversation because I know I have at least the game in common.
An example: If you placed me at a biker's convention I would feel awkward. I'm not a biker guy. Even though I think bikes are cool I would have little to contribute to a conversation and hoping someone has the same interests are considerably lower.
At least in an MMO I can feel like I'm at a gaming convention where I can mingle if I want and know I at least have one thing in common.
i think what makes gw2 (basically the only mmo i play) so nice is that yeah, it's solo-able. but everyone is also just so chill??? like unless you're doing PvP everyone's super nice in my experience. and there are ALWAYS people on the map, even in lower level areas, cuz they have metas that take place in those areas and they downlevel you to match. i remember being relatively new and coming across the shadow behemoth for the first time, for example
i also tend to just play with my partner, i've been replaying the entire story with him (first time for him) and it's been really fun. let's me work on that damn legendary necklace at the same time since you need to replay the story for that anyway. but it's really fun just running around in-game and talking while we level up n stuff too
i haven't touched dungeons or raids much even though i've played the game for like 8 years, but i recently joined a discord full of people that i know from tumblr, so i'm hoping to get more into that side of the game! i loved doing fractals with my dad and his friends but they don't play very much anymore. but in the rare instances i've done dungeons with complete strangers, they were still super fun
The best example from vanilla wow, i think, are cave quests. Quests where your goal is in a cave. You can technically solo these quests, but you have to work very carefully and quickly. One mistake and you die and have to deal with respawns. But if you run into someone else doing the same quest, it doesn't matter how much of a solo player you are, grouping up with them is your least bad option.
The vanilla wow questing experience was hundreds of these tiny implicitly incentivized interactions with other players that all created opportunities for communal growth. Combined with static server populations (no layers or shards), you started to recognize people around the server.
The quests themselves were objectively not fun (which is a problem), but they fostered socialization in the best way. No MMO since has ever tried to capture that again.
Very, very few have tried to capture it. Older ones captured it even better. EverQuest's Project 1999 or new Teek TLP server come to mind. Vanguard also comes to mind.
The main problem I have with getting into hardcore group play like pvp, raids, and sometimes dungeons is that it takes so much damn time to find the people, set up a time for these people to play and then gather all these people to whatever location they need to be to do this group activity. To make matters worse we then have to do this extremely difficult activity only for one, two, sometimes everybody messing up all the mechanics forcing everybody to restart. I hate it even when I had all the time in the world I felt like it took too much time and now I have a job so there’s no way in hell I’m doing another raid in my lifetime. Don’t even get me started on the idea that people need to record their dps and record how many times they finished a raid and all the bullshit. When I play a game I play it to have fun not stress over so many dumb details that stops from getting to play the actual game.
Remember that part in early (FFXIV) A Realm Reborn when the early main story quest makes you run three dungeon instances in a row? My social anxiety hasn't allowed me to forget.
I actually enjoy Guild Wars 2 group play. You see a map objective, go to it, other people also go there, and you do it together without joining a group etc.
Comin in strong with the Papyrus
Great work on this video! Keep it up!
I loved Ragnarok Online because all the challenging and group content was also solo content, that was the pinnacle of MMOs
I really like playing just on my own, because I can often enjoy the story and the world better and in my own pace.
On the other hand I do have problems in finding friends online and connect with other, what is very ironic, because I have no problems to connect irl with other people and I actually like to play with others.
I have this problem no matter the game.
It didn't work in MMOs aswell in Call of Duty and also other games, but those are the MP games I've put the most time in.
I played Maplestory since before Big Bang and I can say people have been upset that party play is no longer there. However, back then, the reason why party play was so popular was because it was the only viable method to level up as quests and mobbing was not optimal unless you were already high enough level to one-shot them quickly. Nowadays, mobbing as become a lot easier and with the constant 2x exp coupons we get from store or even ingame buffs and the revamps of classes to allow for bigger screen clears. The downside is that partying up with others is only viable when you want to do an end-game boss.
However, it seems that maple is doing event party quest that resemble how old party quests felt like so we'll see how this plays out in the future.