I am just contemplating a post from Alternative Chat, pondering the mixed messages from Blizzard. I could go off on a tangent about Blizzard and mixed messages, but I would rather concentrate on the idea of a single player MMO.
I sometimes see people in groups and raids who are dressed head to foot in LFR gear, and wonder why they would put themselves through that kind of agony, when you can go to Timeless Isle and grind for Burden of Eternity. On the whole this is better gear than LFR (it is in terms of iLevel) and it needs no interaction with the proletariat.
The question is could WoW become the new Baldur's Gate? A solo MMO with minions running quests in the Garrison, how long before we can do group or raid content on our own?
When we say that we only stay in game for the online social interaction? or are we deluding ourselves and that we prefer to spend time in a fantasy world acting like a hero than taking out the trash. I prefer Gaming to Television, but I particularly like to play when nobody else is online. No waiting for mobs to appear, everything is like a swimming pool before somebody dives in and causes ripples in the water. No need to check the chat log simply switch on Arnie mode and Terminate Azeroth.
I used to love doing dungeon crawls in Baldur's Gate with four other AI characters. Not totally depending on AI, but being able to position characters to best kill the boss. As long as you can tun off the speech of the the companions that drove me to distraction in Diablo III.
We can keep the MMO aspect for Auction House, but ultimately I think that a solo MMO is actually quite tempting. Blizzard could introduce a 4th type of Server with PvE, PvP, RP, and Solo. We play with other people but on our own, we could even have a sub class with a Diogenes server, where no chatting is allowed. No Barrens or Trade Chat, tell me that is not appealing.
I too would prefer to play alone. It is my number one complaint about the cross realm zones. If I wanted to see people out in the world while questing I would go to a heavy population server. I hate they have given me no choice.
ReplyDeleteIt is odd that they are trying to push us all together to make the world seem bigger but then they are making the garrisons basally our personal capital where we are to play and be alone at all or most times.
Blizzard needs to just jump on the solo play bandwagon and make everything for the solo player. In the end I think it would be better for the game as a whole. Then have everything have the ability to be played in groups for those that wish to do so.
Interestingly, I also enjoy my alone time in game, even though I admit that it is the social aspect that keeps me here. The garrisons was going to fill the void of alone time for me (I thought) and I think many people may spend time there too - though of course there are many things outside I still want to do. Occasionally I have a really great interaction with a stranger - but I also have a lot of duds too. But I like being friendly to strangers - sometimes lonely people and solo people don't mind a friendly hand and I do ask first before I party (actually that's not entirely true - I ask them if they would like to party and I invite them without waiting for a reply. If they decline, that's my answer!).
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