WoW should go more solo player (new try)

[Cobman]

The only more solo content blizzard i wish could add would be magetower-like scenarios. Not raids or bgs, thats stupid, why even bother with mmo then if u wanna just "be in the same field as others" just go and play single player rpg where npc can crowd your areas lol.

[rhorle]

There's probably 3-6 people from the old core of the guild who've been together since EQ times and we'd probably play, run some dungeons and perhaps some Normals/Heroics if we could fill the team with bots for the roles we don't have.

There is no way AI could do normal or heroic raids in wow. The mechanics are to advanced for the computer to seamlessly pick up roles. Both Island and AI Arathi show the limitations of AI in regards to WoW. You wouldn't be able to concentrate on playing with your friends because you have to concentrate on playing with Bots. Bots that are scripted to react certain ways. You will have to learn to play with them, to work around there flaws, to game their programing for the easiest gain.

How would bots even decide who to target for certain mechanics? The current level of bots for games would never work for anything above LFR.

[Velerios]

Thats what Blizzard has done for many years now. Thats what the whole game is about now. Solo play. I have played since classic and I can tell you for sure, the last couple of years I have had no reason to group up for anything. With that I mean I dont need to communicate or reach out to anyone in order to complete content.

You can literally level from 1 to 120, complete every dungeon/quest/raid without saying one word to anyone.

I think you are here mistaking something: this is not an issue of solo-player-content; it's an issue that the old zones and the old world is simply not engaging. People simply want to go to 120 as fast as possible because before it there is simply no new content at all. Also the world is simply not really engaging for any high level player to go there.

Let's face the reality: with group finders requiring ahead of the curve archievement and gear that's ilvl is higher than everything in the raid drops; many people are simply not very interesting in the multiplayer-part. A returner with no experience have simply 0 chance to get there. And many people simply want to play a game where they play in a vibrant world with other players; but aren't forced to play with them. I think that both Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle showed that it's possible to have a solo-player experience but also a multiplayer-one both intermixing without forcing players to do anything: Heck: in the times in MoP where i had much solo-player-content, i actually played more with other players than i did in the expansion after.

Solo-player content does not mean that everything must be to 100% solo-playable. Idealisticly it's possible for example to farm some elite solo and also some elite-rare; but it's fricking hard and with a group it's much smoother.

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Or if they did, they tried for an hour, found no group or found a group that called them idiot noobs and kicked them and then did not try again.
People do not play games to experience rejection, they can get that in their life easily.

Exactly this. Everytime i see a group requiring ahead of the curve, i only shake my head. Exactly this makes people go away from this kind of content.

[Coldfrostzero]

I'm against the idea of making the game any more solo than it is.


I can see them making dungeons scale from 1-5 players. Probably not M or M+ though.

[crusadernero]

I think you are here mistaking something: this is not an issue of solo-player-content; it's an issue that the old zones and the old world is simply not engaging. People simply want to go to 120 as fast as possible because before it there is simply no new content at all. Also the world is simply not really engaging for any high level player to go there.

Let's face the reality: with group finders requiring ahead of the curve archievement and gear that's ilvl is higher than everything in the raid drops; many people are simply not very interesting in the multiplayer-part. A returner with no experience have simply 0 chance to get there. And many people simply want to play a game where they play in a vibrant world with other players; but aren't forced to play with them. I think that both Isle of Thunder and Timeless Isle showed that it's possible to have a solo-player experience but also a multiplayer-one both intermixing without forcing players to do anything: Heck: in the times in MoP where i had much solo-player-content, i actually played more with other players than i did in the expansion after.

Solo-player content does not mean that everything must be to 100% solo-playable. Idealisticly it's possible for example to farm some elite solo and also some elite-rare; but it's fricking hard and with a group it's much smoother.

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Exactly this. Everytime i see a group requiring ahead of the curve, i only shake my head. Exactly this makes people go away from this kind of content.

Oh yeah, I see your point. I have debated before on this site that it would be awesome if Blizzard put time and effort into all the old zones we now have. I hate thinking about all those dead zones just being there. Theres tons of possibilites in this area, but Blizzard is keen on creating content that only fits current xpac theme, so it wont really happen.

I would love it if Blizzard created a team that worked on developing content for the old zones. Quests or whatever, stuff going on out there in the huge world. I have left the hardcore dungeon/raiding/pvp scene long ago and content like this would keep me entertained forever lol.

And ofc - all of this could be done without cutting anything from the dungeon/raiding/pvp scene at max lvl.

[Velerios]

I'm against the idea of making the game any more solo than it is.

The game right now has compared to MoP or even WoD 0% solo player content. Blizzard only focus on Raids and Mythic plus before 8.2. There was simply no solo-player content outside of cringy faction war crap and world quests.

Mechagon might fix this; BUT i think this is far too late for it in this expansion. We would have needed this type of content after the release: some endgame-content that's not in relation with crappy world quest.

[Protean]

The MMORPG Genre has MMO in it for a reason. Go play a single player game if you want to have 0 social interaction.


Like honestly, I saw in another thread you stated you refuse to do any instanced content that has you interacting with another player. Why are you playing this game if you are so scared to interact with another person?

This game needs more group content, not less.

Making some content solo-able doesn't detract from your ability to do it in a group.

Having the option to do something alone, because you don't feel like waiting for a group to form, seems great to me. I loathe spending more time finding groups, than I spent inside dungeons completing them. It's a grand waste of time.

[Velerios]

And ofc - all of this could be done without cutting anything from the dungeon/raiding/pvp scene at max lvl.

Yes, but the biggest issue here is that for the sake of the crappy "faction war" blizzard already needed to invest far too much in the leveling-content. Having 3 zones for each faction seems interesting at the first glance; but for the player it's a curse. The zones are finished far too quickly and after them you are in the world-quest-palooza with boring world quests on your own continent and nothing interresting on the other continent; because you missed out most of the lore of the other one.

To make it half engaging, they couldn't also add some endgame-content at all; and left us only with world quests and tried to sell it to people as the solo-player-content, with disastreous success.

Naturally they are quite despaired of 8.2; because they realised they really f***ed up this time quite big.

To come back to your other answer: yes, making old world more engaging could really help making the leveling-content much much better. Even right now the legion-invasion were a good example how to make world events interesting for both leveling players as engame players. It has still the issue of world quests; but they are at least a good basis.

Maybe an event where a whole zone changes for a day, serving as a daily-questhub for all players: low and high level. You come into the old zones and see old npcs with new stories. This kind of thing won't work with the world-quest-system (at least not if they are the main source; as an addition as optional objectives they would still be quite nice to have); here we would need the old daily-system. This and maybe even regular quests that expand the story of the zones.

Blizzard wanted to make this possible with the micro-holidays; but the big issue of them is simply that they are too rare. Having a 1 day window of an holiday is simply too small. While i think that they could still expand them; we would also need something else: something that has nothing to do with an holiday; instead of having more dynamic content.

[Maudib]

WoW could be way more successfull probably if it would focus on the solo player part more than it does now.

What do you think?

Of course you are completely right... and if they continue to bleed subs like they have... there will truly be only one player left (probably you).. and it will be an entirely solo experience..

[crusadernero]

Yes, but the biggest issue here is that for the sake of the crappy "faction war" blizzard already needed to invest far too much in the leveling-content. Having 3 zones for each faction seems interesting at the first glance; but for the player it's a curse. The zones are finished far too quickly and after them you are in the world-quest-palooza with boring world quests on your own continent and nothing interresting on the other continent; because you missed out most of the lore of the other one.

To make it half engaging, they couldn't also add some endgame-content at all; and left us only with world quests and tried to sell it to people as the solo-player-content, with disastreous success.

Naturally they are quite despaired of 8.2; because they realised they really f***ed up this time quite big.

To come back to your other answer: yes, making old world more engaging could really help making the leveling-content much much better. Even right now the legion-invasion were a good example how to make world events interesting for both leveling players as engame players. It has still the issue of world quests; but they are at least a good basis.

Maybe an event where a whole zone changes for a day, serving as a daily-questhub for all players: low and high level. You come into the old zones and see old npcs with new stories. This kind of thing won't work with the world-quest-system (at least not if they are the main source; as an addition as optional objectives they would still be quite nice to have); here we would need the old daily-system. This and maybe even regular quests that expand the story of the zones.

Blizzard wanted to make this possible with the micro-holidays; but the big issue of them is simply that they are too rare. Having a 1 day window of an holiday is simply too small. While i think that they could still expand them; we would also need something else: something that has nothing to do with an holiday; instead of having more dynamic content.

Yeah, a event that last longer for a day. Think like the world Events(brewfest etc). They could add zone specific daily quests were we gotta clear out some mobs or collect stuff for a nearby town. Whatever, the ideas are endless. In this they can put in mount, toys, tmog and much more as rewards. Kind of like Timewalking dungeons already work.

I would love it if they did something like that and it would give us a incentive to travel out in the world. With this Wpvp would occur on many new places, not just in BfA zones like now.

[Coldfrostzero]

The game right now has compared to MoP or even WoD 0% solo player content. Blizzard only focus on Raids and Mythic plus before 8.2. There was simply no solo-player content outside of cringy faction war crap and world quests.

Mechagon might fix this; BUT i think this is far too late for it in this expansion. We would have needed this type of content after the release: some endgame-content that's not in relation with crappy world quest.

Emissary quests...world quests...? You can basically get as geared as a HEROIC raider on the next update. You're kidding right? Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't available to you, sorry. Be happy with what you get. Raid heroic BoD every week and do a 10-11 M+ and someone is going to be able to catch up within a week if emissary turn ins line up and give out gear left and right.

[Kpmk]

I agree. Basically the only reason i resubbed later into legion was the mage tower. Leveled up and geared all my characters through pugging just so i could get those sweet sweet skins.

[Bodonius]

I vote no, its a MMO, but for me personally I would love wow to be solo player

[Velerios]

Emissary quests...world quests...? You can basically get as geared as a HEROIC raider on the next update. You're kidding right? Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it isn't available to you, sorry. Be happy with what you get. Raid heroic BoD every week and do a 10-11 M+ and someone is going to be able to catch up within a week if emissary turn ins line up and give out gear left and right.

What does this have to do with solo player content? You are talking about gear. We are talking about engaging content and something to work on to. Gear is nice to have; but it isn't content!

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

What would it even matter if I did or didn't? I don't care if it can outperform actual players. I'm saying that there is no heart (ie. no human factor) involved when fighting an NPC. No mind games. Nothing. Just an algorhythm made to respond to every single one of your moves perfectly. I don't care for that, and PvP (battlegrounds, arena) is not the place to implement something like that. After Blizzard destroyed the game' soul with LFG, CRZ, and sharding (effectively killing the soul of world PvP), it's all PvPers have left.

I don't care if they have the best response time. I don't care if it becomes a 'soulslike' experience. I want to fight other players god damnit. How hard is it to not understand that from my post?

I was just attacking misconception like players who fight ai don't want a challenge. I never criticized you for your opinion just the parts about what you state that were wrong. League has bot matches but isn't dead at all they're just practice modes.

[Celista]

No thanks. There's a reason why the game feels dead/antisocial lately, the game was far better off when servers had communities and you had to band together to complete content.

Mage tower and brawler's guild challenges for cosmetic rewards are fine, but that's where it should end.

[schwank05]

WoW could be way more successfull probably if it would focus on the solo player part more than it does now.

What do you think?

I would never come back to the game if that were the case the reason I don't play retail and am eagerly awaiting classic is I miss the community that the game not only encouraged but basically forced you into. I had the most fun playing the game from BC-CATA raiding with my old guild in 10 mans just hanging out in vent and killing bosses. With the removal of most of these features and more focused on the individual player than the group, which has killed the game for me.

[MatadorMedia]

Legion's success supports your claim about solo play being successful. The class campaigns were a breath of fresh air, and the artifacts a great addition to make your character really feel alive in your hands. BFA just made everything dull and homogenous again, and forced players into groups to do anything worthwhile.

[tmamass]

I would like AI battlegrounds, dungeons and raids.

If you want a SOLO player game, then why do you play WoW?

[Rampant Rabbit]

I was just attacking misconception like players who fight ai don't want a challenge. I never criticized you for your opinion just the parts about what you state that were wrong. League has bot matches but isn't dead at all they're just practice modes.

My bad. I'm sure there is a rewarding feeling coming from killing an NPC with well-designed AI and did not mean to dispute that. I guess the post you quoted me on didn't clarify that enough. I do like to fight a challenging AI, as I imagine nearly any player would. I just don't think this ever belongs in a battleground, an area of the game designed specifically for players that wish to fight other players, not AI.

LoL has a decent vs AI mode, and if they must insist on bringing this to WoW, I would hope the rewards from this mode are next to none so that it is purely what you say it is. A practice mode.