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| In a fantasy based MMORPG, what is your solo vs group preference? |
| I PREFER the game to be solo only with NO grouping available. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I PREFER solo play to be the PRIMARY focus with grouping available as a play option. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I PREFER solo play to be a STRONG focus but with limitations. Thus, group play should play an important and necessary part in the game. |
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62% |
[ 5 ] |
| I PREFER solo play to be available but significantly limited thus forcing group play to advance significantly in the game. |
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25% |
[ 2 ] |
| I PREFER group play to be the PRIMARY focus with very limited solo ability as an option. |
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12% |
[ 1 ] |
| I PREFER the game to be group play only with NO solo ability at all. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 8 |
Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
| Solo vs Grouping in Fantasy Based MMORPG |
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Please consider what you would prefer in an "ideal" MMORPG game (fantasy based such as UO or Everquest as genre examples). Do NOT base this on what IS being given to players, but rather what you would PREFER to see in a fantasy based MMORPG.
_________________
When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:16 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
I'll be kind of sitting on the fence here and say that I generally prefer solo play but recognize the inherent need and even necessity for game mechanics to promote group play. I think the best implementation I've personally seen of grouping incentives (incentives, mind you! I'm not saying it's the best grouping experience in any game) is in Anarchy Online.
You don't get more XP for each kill in AO, and you're not penalized on the number of players that are in the group. You rather get the same amount of XP you would for a solo kill, only you get it for every kill the party makes regardless of your participation in that kill. So, effectively that means that a group of 8 could each go kill one equal-level mob at the same time and every party member would get the full XP for all of these kills. So you're encouraged to group for getting fast xp, but you're not too penalized for being stuck on your own, and you can survive pretty well.
The thing I hate about most current games is that they are generally XP/class based and as such require specific ranges of level to play together. And because some players advance more rapidly than others, the friends you make today might not want to group with you tomorrow, and so you have to make new friends. Solo play viability is a must in those cases, although group play should always be more attractive.
_________________
=Proud Father of a new gamer GIRL!=
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word= |
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 3:14 pm |
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Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
quote:
Originally posted by Ekim
I'll be kind of sitting on the fence here and say that I generally prefer solo play but recognize the inherent need and even necessity for game mechanics to promote group play.
Fence sitting? Not at all. I presume you chose the third option, which IS the one I chose. It is not fence sitting, it is doing what I wanted people to do - express their true preference  .
quote:
And because some players advance more rapidly than others, the friends you make today might not want to group with you tomorrow, and so you have to make new friends. Solo play viability is a must in those cases, although group play should always be more attractive.
I agree. Personally, I fail to understand why some people (the purpose of this survey after all) "seem" to actually prefer group play (to the detriment of solo) - but I do want to here a good discussion of this (which is why I started this survey).
Personally, I think an MMORPG SHOULD give very strong focus to viable solo play for a variety of in game and out of game reasons (some of which you already mentioned). Group play should be added on top of that solo play. Grouping (if the software is conceived and executed well) provides automatic benefits (both in game and out of game benefits) and really need not be promoted to the extent that many current MMORPGs do. I do feel that some content (not just high end) should be directed at groups - just not the majority of the content nor only the meaningful content.
_________________
When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 3:51 pm |
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Kiff
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 27 Oct 2002
Posts: 257
Location: Indiana |
I enjoy group play very much every game I have played has had fun grouping options, but at the same time almost all of those games have also made it almost immpossible to solo
So times where I only have 15 or 20 mins to play I don't want to spend most of that looking for a group. I would like to just sometimes run out there and be able to do as good solo as I would grouped. |
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Wed Apr 07, 2004 1:23 am |
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NeverDark
Village Leader
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 91
Location: Virtual Reality aka Life |
Kiff, sounds like Guild Wars will be a game right for you. It's very easy to find a group in it, and missions are interesting (albeit mostly combat oriented) and you feel like you accomplished something after you finish one.
As for Ekim's comment on people of different levels not being able to play well together, isn't this the case in RL as well? Say after a high school you go to college and spend years in hard studies, while some of your school buddies do, well, nothing during those years, would you find it very compelling to maintain a close friendship with them after your graduate, since you'd have a very few common interests? Same goes for MMORPGs, your character advances and gains access to areas unavailable for weaker characters (as in Guild Wars), and you obviously are more inclined to explore those areas, which provide more challenge, rather than stick to the ones accessible for beginners only.
EDIT: btw, I chose Option #4, though for me it'd be something between 3 and 4. It's because lately I started noticing that I feel rather lonely in single-player RPGs. No matter how good a game is, I'm constantly reminded that its world is not a world in true sense of the word, as opposed to "worlds" spanned across multiple machines around the globe, with people of different backgrounds playing it simultaneously. Thus, I unfortunately have to admit that Gothic II, which I'm currently playing, will probably be the last trully single-player RPG for me  |
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Sun May 16, 2004 6:39 pm |
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Ekim
Eagle's Shadow
Joined: 27 May 2002
Posts: 2365
Location: Montreal, Canada |
quote:
Originally posted by NeverDark
As for Ekim's comment on people of different levels not being able to play well together, isn't this the case in RL as well? Say after a high school you go to college and spend years in hard studies, while some of your school buddies do, well, nothing during those years, would you find it very compelling to maintain a close friendship with them after your graduate, since you'd have a very few common interests? Same goes for MMORPGs, your character advances and gains access to areas unavailable for weaker characters (as in Guild Wars), and you obviously are more inclined to explore those areas, which provide more challenge, rather than stick to the ones accessible for beginners only.
Gaming doesn't have to be like real life... In all honesty, I'm fed up of people constantly comparing gaming with real life. Real life is boring when considering it in gaming terms. I don't want gaming to be like real life. I want to be entertained, and I want to have fun. Besides, you're comparing a situation that would take years to develop in RL, which in gaming I was mentioning something that happens often within a week, or a few days.
It's not fun for a casual gamer to have to find new "friends" to play with every time he can log on... This situation doesn't develop over a long period of time, we're talking about afew days here. And it happens quite suddenly for the casual gamer (from one log-on to the next). If you were to compare this with RL, you would leave school one afternoon, go home and read Homer's Iliad (I went to see Troy this weekend,... does it show?  ) and then come back the next morning and not hang out with your friends from the day before simply because they don't have as much "knowledge" as you... erm... right! That makes sense 
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a little realism in games. But not everything has to be realistic for us to have fun.
_________________
=Proud Father of a new gamer GIRL!=
=Member of The Nonflamers' Guild=
=Worshiper of the Written Word=
Last edited by Ekim on Mon May 17, 2004 4:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Mon May 17, 2004 4:25 pm |
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Joey Nipps
Orcan High Command
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 849
Location: Outer Space |
| Re: Solo vs Grouping in Fantasy Based MMORPG |
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Well, I started this because I am very interested in the general trend I see in MMORPGs (group base) and wanted to see what you folks had to say (not many people have bothered to respond which is very disappointing). Now I suppose I will post another query.
The real question behind my original poll question is this: IF you prefer a relative high degree of "forced" grouping in an MMORPG, then why? In other words, what is it you LIKE about grouping with other players in an MMORPG?
If I look at what one does in an MMORPG (primarily) - this is killing creatures - so how is this MORE fun in a group than solo?
I (for one) do NOT like group play very much (except with very close personal friends) - but then I don't like going to parties with lots of strangers either . Personally, I find much more challenge in figuring out how to best various creatures in an MMORPG by myself than hoping that one or more of my groupmates will have the right spell, etc. to do the job. In real life I prefer depending on MY skills and talents and knowledge - not those of others, so I extend this to my game play.
Is this in some way different for some of you (those who WANT some level of forced group play)?
_________________
When everything else in life seems to fail you - buy a vowel. |
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Mon May 17, 2004 4:37 pm |
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