WoW slowly turning into a solo player game?

[Narzok]

they should make mining ores and picking herbs only possible with at least 5 people klicking the node, cannot be that those filthy Solo-plebs go and gather dem mats, IT'S A EM-EM-OH!!!11

on topic: to each his/her own, but don't make them impede the other side.

[Deleted]

That poster should go play Skyrim, Doom, Bloodborne, Non MMO Final Fantasies, Dishonored, Fallout and many more if they want a single player experience. WoW is not that kind of game.

Theres a huge difference though. Even if you play mostly solo, it doesn't mean its the same as playing a single player game. You still have other players around doing things, sometimes helping you or attacking you. You can sell items to them or gank them.. and I guess these also include all group activities where you dont really have to interact with other players like LFR and BGs.

[Soeroah]

Yeah but WOW is not even remotely close to warcraft the RTS. Its two completely different genres.

WoW since its inception was advertised as an MMO, how come, in 2016, people actually start to complain about that? I'm all for warcraft 4 but WoW won't become that.

I'm not saying it should be Warcraft 4, all I'm saying is there are plenty of people who are somewhat sour that the story they enjoyed suddenly underwent a genre shift and became something heavily multiplayer focused when it had been single player.

It's a reason some people play WoW despite disliking the multiplayer side of things. The solution isn't just "play a single player game" because those wouldn't be Warcraft. Telling them to play another game misses the point.

Now, if they don't care about the story and are going for gameplay only, I'd tend to agree more that they could play another game, but then no game is exactly like WoW with the same systems, only single player.

[Sencha]

But again why playing a MMO when people just want to play alone and rely on themselves only.

I read a lot of "community is toxic", "leaders are elitist", "I want to play on my own", but they still play a MMO instead of single player games, for what reason? having other people doing their stuff in the background so that the world feels lively but avoid any interaction at all cost?

Yeah let's ruin the few successful MMORPG on the market by asking Blizzard to develop more solo content and transform these games into massively multiplayer open world RPG where everything can be done alone and other players are just living creatures moving around doing their own stuff. So basically Guild Wars, with even less group content.

[Deleted]

I think there's a fairly good balance as it is now, there are a lot of tools that makes it possible to do things solo, but it will always be better when done with (a group of) people you know.
Shifting to a more "social" game where you'd have to find a competent group for simple tasks such as dailies/WQs would just make it more time-consuming and frustrating.
Shifting to a more solo-focused game has its bad points as well of course, but so far what they've implemented are options. You're not forced to use the LFG/LFR tools if you don't want to.

Being able to do things on your own outside of the usual MMO-group-type content is a good thing.

[Sansnom]

I really don't get it. There are tons of single-player games out there and Blizzard is actually starting to cater to the people who ask for solo content in a MMORPG.

What's the point of playing a multiplayer online game if people are doing their stuff alone?

Not everything needs to be done in a group. If there were more things that needs a group, it means people will need to find a group, which can be increasingly more difficult as the game progress. One of the more problems with the groups quest of the past were they were skipped due to lack of players. Raids of previous tiers were also hard to find people before LFR.

The same could also apply with other group contents.

Besides, some time people just wants time to do their own stuff, like playing WOW in real life rather than spending 100% of their with their families etc.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Having more things to do on your own doesn't mean the game is going to be single player. Not making this connection between the two says a lot about the poster and post.

Good luck raiding, dungeon-ing and playing a battleground on your own.

Some single player content is always nice, but the main goal will always be group content.

This poster knows what's up! No, WoW is not "slowly turning into a solo-player game". Duh.

[Saucerian]

'Cus this is what it takes and how it is to be a raider.

Get the f...

You play Classic? I did. That is how it worked. And why I quit the raiding game pretty early on.

You were expected to show up on time every raid night, prepared with whatever consumables. If you didn't you were gkicked. Like a job. That was really healthy for real life friendships and relationships. "I can't go to that family gathering, I need to kill internet dragons for the third time this week." Loot and raid slot drama were ever present, and guilds poached players from each other all the time, and because of it, mid-tier guilds became feeder guilds and got forever stuck in progression despite all their effort.

The endgame was less a video game and more a realmwide power struggle between basement nerds with abrasive social skills. It sucked.

[Sencha]

You play Classic? I did. That is how it worked. And why I quit the raiding game pretty early on.

You were expected to show up on time every raid night, prepared with whatever consumables. If you didn't you were gkicked. Like a job. That was really healthy for real life friendships and relationships. "I can't go to that family gathering, I need to kill internet dragons for the third time this week." Loot and raid slot drama were ever present, and guilds poached players from each other all the time, and because of it, mid-tier guilds became feeder guilds and got forever stuck in progression despite all their effort.

The endgame was less a video game and more a realmwide power struggle between basement nerds with abrasive social skills. It sucked.

Every group activities, even outside of WoW, require schedule and some preparation (I know it's incredible). Why would raiding be different? Because it's a video game so it's ok to not show up on time?

[Saucerian]

Every group activities, even outside of WoW, require schedule and some preparation (I know it's incredible). Why would raiding be different? Because it's a video game so it's ok to not show up on time?

"On time" was for emphasis. Point being you were expected to show up on a schedule. A 10+ hour a week schedule, not counting farming for consumables and repair money. Part-time job hours. For a video game, which back then was even less an accepted social activity than now. And in most cases with a bunch of random people on the internet, not even real life friends.

[Sencha]

"On time" was for emphasis. Point being you were expected to show up on a schedule. A 10+ hour a week schedule, not counting farming for consumables and repair money. Part-time job hours. For a video game, which back then was even less an accepted social activity than now. And in most cases with a bunch of random people on the internet, not even real life friends.

Why not finding a guild that was raiding less than 10+ hour per week?

[Pantalaimon]

nobody said anything about instances, but MMOS are inherently social asking them not to be is silly.

I never said they shouldn't be social, but just because the game makes more non-grouped solo content does not mean the game still isn't social. You will still run into players in the world, can tag world mobs together with other players, see and talk in zone chat channels, and talk to other players when doing random stuff in the world. I fail to see how solo content that still allows all of that to happen as making the game unsocial.

- - - Updated - - -

So for some people, WoW is a single player game where everyone does their stuff alone in a same world? What's the point of playing with other people if they don't want interaction?

Why are solo players playing a MMO in the first place? It's like saying: "I like to watch movies alone, let's go to the cinema!"

Socializing and interaction is on a spectrum. It isn't black and white where you can say "That is socializing and that is not socializing, group content is interacting and world content is not." One of the biggest reasons that such things like cross realm zones were even added was so that those more subtle aspects of interaction were preserved on realms that had low player populations (ie Preserving the aspect of the MMORPG where you could see more players out in the world questing, farming, camping, etc). Think of socializing as being more of the indirect run ins, or background interaction of the game, where you can expect to run into players when doing world quests, farming, or rare hunting. Specific organized groups then represent more of that player chosen interaction. If you want to form your own group for something you go around talking to players to fill your group, if you want to world pvp you actively look for areas with high wPvP activity, and if you're in a guild you actively choose to take part in a mini-community within the larger game community.

In the end the broader socializing is what will always be present and is not chosen by players, they will always know that they will run into players when going out into the word. Interacting is what should be left to individual player preference. If a player just wants to do some questing and farming they shouldn't have to interact as much as other players for a completely different activity in order to quest and farm (e.g. if you just want to quest & farm you shouldn't have to jump through as many social hoops as someone who is putting together mythic+ groups, high end rbgs, or mythic raiding; the interaction is left to individual player preference.) The game is still social, you just need to make sure you aren't confusing the broad society, or social-ness, of the game with player directed and chosen interaction with the various types of in-game activities.

[Saucerian]

Why not finding a guild that was raiding less than 10+ hour per week?

Such guilds couldn't progress. People who played more hours would stay in just until geared, then join a guild that also played more hours. The poaching was real.

At best they became feeder guilds, with ever unstable rosters, forever stuck on the first couple bosses of MC or ZG. (Catching up to current tier raids wasn't a thing back then either.)

[Lochton]

Yeah, no. Far from solo player game still

[Golden]

I actually think WoW's sub numbers will be in trouble if some company produces a really good single player/co-op RPG that has regular updates and minor MMO features like maybe a multiplayer city to buy/sell, chat, look at other people's costumes, etc.

People are starting to catch on to the fact that internet people are vicious and aren't necessarily fun to hang out with for hours at a time.

[Sansnom]

I actually think WoW's sub numbers will be in trouble if some company produces a really good single player/co-op RPG that has regular updates and minor MMO features like maybe a multiplayer city to buy/sell, chat, look at other people's costumes, etc.

People are starting to catch on to the fact that internet people are vicious and aren't necessarily fun to hang out with for hours at a time.

I would like to see such a game and be commercially successful. People tried to copy WoW. Maybe it is time for a different approach to be an MMO. If WoW subs take a hit, a big hit. I think that is actually a good thing. Blizzard needs competition. Serious competition.

[Laqweeta]

In which crazy alternate universe u have been living in? Wow was never "solo friendly" from the start... max level end-game content was almost 100% group, other then solo signing up for a BG until you get bored of getting smashed by all the premade high warlord/honor farm groups.

On top of this, during leveling and quest progression there were many "Group quests" which are basically non existent now. You actually had to group to finish hard quests while leveling to continue the storyline. There were also not enough quests to level from 1-60 initially and many people had to grind the hell out of dungeons in groups for leveling exp.

Exactly this right here... Alliance (If questing in Elwynn Forest) had to start looking for a group immediately near level 10 for Hogger.
At about level 15 again for the Defias Traitor escort (You CANNOT do that solo with the amount of Defias Pillagers in Moonbrook)
Horde had to look for a group if questing in Durotar at around the same time as Alliance (Fizzle Darkclaw, goodluck doing that solo with the 6 other adds that pull)

[Girrag]

WoW IS single-player game for years.

[Himora]

considering all end-game progression is locked behind group play, i think you are kinda clueless. is it a good idea? no, majority of players are soloists and casuals, pissing them off into unsubbing = less funds for my raiding. so... treat those solo nubs nicely as they count more than the hardcores.

[callipygoustp]

I've heard patch 7.2 is going to include an "offline mode". That's gonna be sweet.