I'm a bit concerned about the lack of information about solo-endgame content.

[Schmilblick]

No, the definition of "MMO" hasn't changed at all.

Game developers tends to disagree, but, whatever.

[ellieg]

I'm very excited about the lack of solo play announcement. Almost every "solo" thing they add, has been required in some way by any competitive player. Take ZM for example. Had to do the campaign, and daily wqs to get the double lego and creation catalyst. As long as they are basically gonna make solo stuff a requirement, I hope 0 gets added

[Kallisto]

mage tower is amazing, WoW can do solo content very well.

Only in rose tinted glasses. For most of its life the tower was despised by the community as elitist content until everyone was antorus geared and the bosses fell over by themselves. Players don't want challenge they want epeen loots.

[Lodreh]

OP, I wouldn't worry about it right now. Solo/ small group content usually makes an appearance in some form each expansion. I feel as though they are intentionally holding back some news as they don't want to either oversell it or they may not believe they have enough time to ship it... so whatever it is may come in a later patch and not at release... like a Mage Tower or something similar.

[Aucald]

I personally like a lot of WoW's end-game solo content, but I don't think it should really be a focus when it comes to development. The core of the game, and its very genre, bespeaks to the idea of players playing together, using groups and raids to overcome challenging content. Solo content falls more into the "like to have" bucket for me, even though I'm introverted and often a silent partner when it comes to group content unless I'm in a group with friends and guildmates.

[Caprias]

You’re just an asshole. You know exactly why people would want single player content in an MMO, but you literally plug your ears and claim they’re beneath you just because you’re an asshole. You have a personal distaste of people who like something other than what you like. You’re like a child. Grow up.

You can invert that stance quite easily, it's silly to push for more SP stuff and force more resources on that than necessary when there are more than plenty of SP games already that are superior experiences due to not being a half assed stretch, I wouldn't touch this game if I had to play like that simply due to there being so much better stuff tailored to me out there.

And WoW never was about being a great SP experience, why should it be now?

[Loveliest]

MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online. It just means that there a a lot of folks online at the same time in a persistent world.

What you choose to do while online is up to the individual.

"Whats your Game?" Mr. T

It is a bit early and not much is known about the details of the expansion, but I bet there will be the same WQ and Dailys for faction and loot that will not be as good as raiding.

No. MMO means its strength and focus IS group play. Single player games don't have that and focus on solo content. MMOs do and that is what sets them apart. Single player content is there but will NEVER be its primary focus. Please accept the genre for what it is.

As a genuine question: why would you choose an mmo when you are in need of a strong solo experience and not mainly interested in group play? Why not a single player game? What does the existence of more ppl in this game that you're not interested in grouping up with do for you?

As a use case. How much would you pay for a single player game. Let's say a good one 60-70 euro. And then you play it for how many hrs? 100? 200 max? With any content updates sold as DLCs mostly.
Then you come to wow. Pay sub for server maintenance and updates and about the same price for initial content. And expect to have strong engaging content to last for how many hrs every day for 2 years or so? While also the game invests in group content a lot. You think it's possible? In usually less dev time than you would need for one of those good single player games?
It's not. What it does is create group content. Repeatable content. And a number of hours of story content. What makes it last is repeatable stuff. World quests. Farming stuff. Dungeons. Raids. But repeatable gets boring. How do you make stuff not boring? Involve ppl. Pve with other ppl or pvp against other ppl. So inevitably, if you go only for solo, it will be watered down and much worse than what single player games can offer and you will soon run out of it or get bored of the repeatable solo stuff. This is the genre you choose.

[Zardas]

Single player content is there but will NEVER be its primary focus. Please accept the genre for what it is.

Do you have data to back it up ? I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of players never set foot in a raid, or even in a mythic dungeon.

As a genuine question: why would you choose an mmo when you are in need of a strong solo experience and not mainly interested in group play? Why not a single player game?

Because there is usually way more solo content in an mmorpg than in a solo rpg.

What does the existence of more ppl in this game that you're not interested in grouping up with do for you?

Spoilers : you can both enjoy playing solo AND playing in group sometimes.

[CalamityHeart]

As a genuine question: why would you choose an mmo when you are in need of a strong solo experience and not mainly interested in group play?

This question and the mostly needless dissertation that follows it assumes that people who want to see more solo content in WoW must for some reason invariably dislike group play. While I can't speak for everyone, I generally think that this is a poor assumption to make. I don't play WoW because I'm "in need" of solo play, I play WoW because WoW is fun. Somewhere in that blob of "fun" that WoW is, along with other stuff that includes group content, is interesting endgame-level solo-friendly content like Visions and Torghast. I wasn't looking for that, per se. But it's there, and I like it. Is that bad? Am I wrong for liking the content that WoW has put in the game, maybe wanting a little more of that, done better, and being a bit concerned if there may or may not be less of that liked content going forward? Playing with others is fun as well, but that's not really the point here.

[jackofwind]

mage tower is amazing, WoW can do solo content very well.

What does that have to do with Island Expeditions?

[Zardas]

Data to back it up? Maybe the past 16+ years or so? SP content has never been the focus of wow.

I fail to see how the past 16+ years indicate that wow is and was not cattered towards solo players. Again, I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of players don't engage in any form of competitive activity and that most of them are solo players.

[Hellobolis]

solo endgame will probably be the same as it's always been: doing dailies in the latest zone to slowly get the same ilvl as you can get from queued content and/or entry level pre-made groups content.

[Aydinx2]

I can still give ideas how they should solve it.

And you chose a forum that they don't look at? Post it on the official forums buddy.

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, lets count the number of raid difficulties for solo / matchmade players and then lets compare them with the number of difficulties for premade groups.

soloplayers: 1 (LFR)
premade group players: 3 (normal+heroic+myhic)

Ok then, now lets find the components which offer a working gearing progression (means: gear rewards you need for higher difficulties/higher levels/challenges):

soloplayers: PVE: none, pvp: matchmade battlegrounds, skirmishes
group players: pve: dungeons, worldquests as catchups, mythic+ dungeons, premade group raids, pvp: matchmade battlegrounds, rated battlegrounds, rated arena

Now lets find the dedicated content for solo players and premade group players:

soloplayers: PVP: matchmade battlegrounds and skirmish arenas, PVE: matchmade dungeons, LFR, world quests
group players: PVP: matchmade battlegrounds and skirmish arenas, rated battlegrounds and rated arena. PVE: matchmade dungeons, LFR, mythic+ in 15 difficulties, raids in 3 difficulties and world quests.

Now tell me again there is a focus on solo players.

While group players can do everything solo players can do, solo players simply cannot play any kind of gearing progression gameplay.

You're purposely leaving out information to mislead people.
Normal and Heroic dungeons exist. World quests and World Bosses exist. You can even get Tier Gear without entering a dungeon or raid. Saying "solo players simply cannot play and kind of gearing progression gameplay" is a blatant lie.

Means: Solo players are locked out of a major part of gameplay in WoW.

Good. It's an MMO. And playing solo should ALWAYS be a worse option than playing with others.

- - - Updated - - -

Game developers tends to disagree, but, whatever.

What does that even mean? Is there a council of Game Developers that votes on what things mean?
I'm a Game Developer. Do I get to say what it means now?

[Ersula]

All in all, this announcement was probably one of the most conservative one. While i personally think it is good that blizzard don't use all their cards even in the last patch they have added, but really, there was far too little content. Beside of Dragonriding and maybe content they added to it, there is nothing about what endgame-content they will add with Dragonflight. What i'm afraid off is that they simply add the most basic content: Crappy World quests and time locked "Convenant"-quests, and that's all they add. Because beside of this, nothing was announced.

Crafting is the solo-endgame content. They detailed elevating crafting as the 4th pillar of gameplay beside Raiding, Mythic+ & PvP including the ability to "make the strongest gear in the game."

The problem I've seen is that they don't consider crafting "exciting" enough but seeming as they are basing it on FFXIV crafting: It's a lot of fun.

[rrayy]

Probably a bit early to be complaining about an expansion that's not out yet.

In addition, WoW is an MMO. They generally focus on multi-player content.

MMO does not mean what you think it means. What it actually means is many players in the same online world. It does not mean group content.

[Very Tired]

Yeah no, that's your very personal wishful thinking. MMO are meant to be played with other people, full stop.

Sure you can do some activities alone, but that will just never be the main point of an MMO. Just play the hundreds of thousand solo games out there.

Your post is at the same level as someone "being afraid they don't see any bowling mode in the next FIFA". You're just not playing the right game for your, period.

Might want to brush up on MMOs like Runescape before you make such sweeping generalizations. 99% of the MMO is solo content with other players existing in the world, no forced grouping for the sake of grouping like WoW seems to love.

- - - Updated - - -

MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online. It just means that there a a lot of folks online at the same time in a persistent world.

This is the correct answer, of course. Amazes me despite how many times this topic comes up, people still need to be reminded of this.

[Itisamuh]

As a genuine question: why would you choose an mmo when you are in need of a strong solo experience and not mainly interested in group play? Why not a single player game? What does the existence of more ppl in this game that you're not interested in grouping up with do for you?

Unfortunately most SP games have little to no longevity, no reason to play after beating them. MMOs are about the only type of game that can last a long time without PvP, just due to sheer scale if nothing else, and the group content is there if the mood strikes. For my part though there is a decent chance I will simply skip DF if nothing changes. Torghast was probably my favorite content ever in WoW, so to have nothing take its place is depressing.

[Shinchi Migi]

Okay, but then discussing new systems is kinda pointless if you expect the worst outcome every time.

I love how you have sooooooo much faith in Blizzard when they apparently been failing at it now for about 14 years. And yes I know WoW has been out for 18 years, but I shaved off some years cause most of the players loved Wrath and legion.

Keep that faith. Now that Blizzard isn't grabbing ass anymore and stealing breast milk, maybe they can make this expansion good.

[deenman]

I mean look at gw2 or ESO,those games can be played as singleplayer games,in fact mmo's have the biggest potential for solo play because of their scope and updates

those games are FULL of exploration incentives,meanwile in wow its mostly pointless,the world is dead,they tried to add rares to farm and treasures but they are more a chore than a fun engaging system

it's really tragic how much potential the wow devs squander,wow could borrow so many cool aspects from all those games,but that takes a bit of extra investment,and we all know if their imediate profits see any sign of going down,they wont do it

[RobertMugabe]

I've been playing WoW since Vanilla Beta, I have spent by far the majority of my time in game playing alone, and there's nothing wrong with that. I deal with people in my job and personal life all of the time, I play video games to be alone. I love being in a world with other players and randomly interacting here and there in the game, but I absolutely do not want to have to speak aloud or listen to other people speak to me while I'm playing a game. The vast majority of Multiplayer games, also function just as well solo, as they should. Being a multiplayer game implies the ability to play multiplayer, not the requirement.

THIS. /10char