New Generation of Multiplayer is Solo?
-
Hello!
My reason for waiting for Fractured is to find a game i can play with others. Like i played Diablo 2 with a guild or random people back then and WoW Vanilla with and also Guild Wars Prophecies and.... that basically was it! After that i never again had the same multiplayer experience again!
Elder Scrolls online is basically a solo mmorpg except the dungeons but with a toxic community.
Guild Wars 2 is basically a solo mmorpg except the dungeons but with a toxic community.These are the reasons why i stopped playing those games. Because people told me how to skill because some guide or streamer said thats the best and nothing else matters which is absolute BS. There are a lot of topics around MMORPG's and the questions related to it "is the genre dying?" "why is it not fun anymore?" - i would say simply because people destroyed the fun of teaming up and playing together... in most cases! Obviously there are guilds and communities which have a blast together but those are rare to find or i can't find them.
I recently considered buying "Outriders" and i checked before the details. The game has a lot of technical difficulties. No problem, the devs seem promising enough and in a short time of 3 months they made already progress but you can't fix the community so i asked and i quote from the steam discussion:
"This game is really fun solo but the player base is pretty small now so finding people teammates may be a bit of a challenge. There are extreme levels of toxicity in the community and a few people who dont even like or play the game that spend there whole lives on the forums on a mission to stop people from buying it."
"In my experience, there's a higher level of toxic behavior in this game"
So i said to myself i won't buy it not because of the bugs and crashes but because of the community. I also checked steam groups and discords but couldn't find anyone to team up... still i exhausted my game library and wanted a new game. The next game i checked was the same and the one after that also... In the end i found a game i think which is good but still can't find anyone to play with, still on the search though.
Now this was quite a long "intro" basically but the question is: Why are so many people playing Multiplayer games solo? Do you think the same as me or would you say that i am totally wrong about the new Generation of gaming? What are your thoughts on this?
I would say the first problem is why people rather stick to themselves are trolls, griefers, gankers, cheaters, hackers. People who just try to destroy the fun of others for their own Entertainment so some people may say screw it i do my own thing.
The next one is the reason why i end up playing solo because i cannot find people with a similar playstyle. I like to look at the world that was crafted around me in a game. Look at spots where no quest will ever send you. I like to read quests if they are interesting and watch cutscenes like in guild wars but i wasn't allowed to, even before you land on the cutscene you can read in the chat "skip" and... no i don't want to, i want to know whats happening. I played path of exile for over 1500 hours and 1490 of it solo. Because everyone just wants to rush it. This rushing through dungeons and taking shortcuts in games is so annoying i don't get it! I want to play the game and so many people just want to do as less as possible to get the loot. I want to earn it! Rushing past enemies in dungeons in ESO and GW2... Jumping through lava in WoW to skip half the dungeon... This is the main reason for me why i end up solo.
-
I don't think that there's an easy answer to this, as there's multiple factors at play, but most likely because it's 'easier'. There's no commitment, since groups expect you to 'pay back' something and people usually want least effort for most 'fame'.
-
First off, you are starting with a misconception...MMORPGs aren't Multiplayer games, they are Multiplayer Worlds, there is a difference.
The very first graphical MMORPG, Ultima Online, was mainly played solo by its playerbase, as was the second, EverQuest. That doesn't mean people never came together and played, that was, afterall, one of the joys of the genre, the ability to play in a world where you weren't stuck just soloing if you wanted to interact with other live players, but not on a fixed screen multiplayer platform, like old 2 player arcade games.
MMORPGs are in fact, and always have been multiplayer community games that are supposed to be playable both as a solo player, and in groups both big and small.
The real reason that you may find more solo players than people willing to group is one of the joys of the game, and that's the ongoing world that progresses, whether a single player is logged in or not, BUT you are free to log in on your own schedule, do what you like, and log out, independent of the schedule of other players, unless you choose otherwise for certain short or long-term goals.
I love exploring where the quests don't take you, and I always read the cut scene dialogue (or listen to it) the first time I go through a quest line, because like you, I don't want to skip the story. I also play my game suboptimally in most people's minds, because I play the games like I used to play them, before there was internet legions giving away all the secret guides to the games. Shoot, I wrote one of the Plat Guides for EverQuest back in the day, doesn't mean I went and bought/downloaded everyone else's guide to figure out how to do something. I was, and am perfectly happy to grind away at the low to mid-levels if I can't find the time or mixed focus it takes to group raid the big raid bosses needed to really accelerate higher level play.
The game has always had a huge Solo following, it has absolutely nothing to do with the 'new' way of the gamer...it is just that different groups have always had different approaches. However, I will say that you are right in a couple respects, first the toxic community of ganking griefers is one thing that makes some want to just go back to playing by themselves, or only relying on very close, offline friends or long-term guildies to play with, and second, those internet gaming gurus out there that think they should tell other people how to play the game, and get all frustrated when you play the game your way, for the enjoyment are another toxic syndrome that kills the fun of the game, solo or group, but is even more likely to kill group play, as you have these gurus traveling with you for a quest-line/raid who are backseat mouse-captains and joystick jockeys trying to rush you through the dialogue, and are constantly trying to influence how you play the game....No, you have to do THIS quest first, and as a _______, you MUST be wearing THIS set of gear by THIS level or you just suck types.
Have fun in the game, for yourself. If you like to group primarily, the easiest thing for people to do is to in fact join a megaguild within the games you like to play, especially those megaguilds that span multiple games, OR get a group of close friends in real time to meet up with you and play along together with them, like your home tabletop group or the guys from work, etc...
-
Can you be more specific as to what your playstyle is?
I can say that the guild I ran with -Meridian- did not rush content, or pressure members to do anything they were not interested in doing, while at the same time giving them the support that they wanted.
I spent days just harvesting resources and farming crops with no pressures to be 'more optimized' and during that time never got harassed by any other group or individual at all. Meridian also welcomed many small groups of 2-5 players who wanted to try out the town experiences but without guild drama. They got access to the content they wanted and enjoyed playing at their own pace within their own groups and when they had done 'enough', left. Meanwhile they got to have the support of the guild should they feel the need for it (and other than lending some starting money and helping collecting stone they did not feel they needed any other help).It seemed to me that the 'toxic' activity was restricted to three areas on the map which could easily be avoided while still being able to progress should you not be able to get a group or be sneaky enough to avoid unwanted attention.
When there was the rampant pvp and roaming ganking groups I did die and get looted three times.
This was not a significant setback as the guild had sufficient resources to re-equip me had I chose that option. I did not and each time simply went to a different part of the map to harvest mobs where the gankers were not present -or- asked for others to join me in the mob harvesting and went in security and was able to recover my gear in short order.In addition there were significant sheriff forces out who would quickly go to where griefing had occurred to beat and imprison the evil players - as part of the game mechanics- and I was not griefed in the same place in succession due to this activity (when I did decide to go back immediately).
The city of Sproketon is a great case in point. Many individuals and small groups who were irritated by the pvp and ganking around the vale of shadows decided to go to the other side of the island, make a city, and farm the unique mobs there. They quickly gained individual followers and ranked up to a lvl 13 city providing just about all the comforts necessary for individual progression. To my knowledge the people of this city did not have any trouble from gankers, griefers, or pvp enthusiasts as they were distant enough from the 'activity center' of the map (goblin hills, big forest, shadow vale) that the toxic players just did not take the time to travel there (yay slow travel game).
I am sorry to hear you did not get the gaming experience that I, or my other guild mates, had but can assure you that my story is not unique or unusual and believe that if you were to be specific about what you are looking for in the game and what you want to do that you would be able to find a group that would support your playstyle.
-
@OlivePit Sorry for the misunderstanding. I wasn't talking about the Fractured Community but of the gaming industry as general. I only participated in one free test weekend more than a year ago.
"My reason for waiting for Fractured is to find a game i can play with others. "
When i wrote this as the first sentence i meant that fractured is my beacon of hope to relive this experience from the past
-
I hope that on release game will also be focused on teamplay and will not go do far on singleplayer content as AO did.
-
@Jacenson The promise from the Devs was to make the game equally appealing and balanced for both Group and Solo players
-
@GamerSeuss which is not so easy
