I’ve had a bit of self-imposed isolation over the last couple weeks. Work/school has been stressful and my brain tends to make me shy away from human contact when I get like this. Coincidentally, I’ve been reading Wolfy‘s great posts in response to Syl‘s comments about solo players asking for solo content in MMOs. For me personally, I like MMOs to have compelling and rewarding solo content so that I can get through these mental down times. Sure, I might be hiding from my friends list and avoiding group content like the plague right now, but solo content lets me still make some sort of progress on my characters. It also helps me stay connected to the world, and feel a little less alone just by seeing random strangers going about their business in-game. Without solo activities, I’d be more likely to completely take a break from the game when I feel like this. Instead, I’m still around and still invested, and ready to slide back in fully once I get over my mental funk. So I’ll happily “demand” (ok maybe politely request) that devs keep providing solo content for me and folks like me, who might waffle from time to time about how much they want to engage socially.
In any case, I can feel the isolationist fog starting to lift. I’ve started getting the urge to run dungeons again. Over the next few days I want to get back into the swing of things in WildStar. I also suspect it is only a matter of time before I fire FFXIV back up so I can heal butts. The cycle of introvert life marches onward.
Moonshine Mansion 
I guess ‘playing alone together’ is something that appeals to a lot of players these days, I can certainly connect with those that have busy workdays and other obligations and therefore need MMOs to allow for spontaneous and short-session gameplay. On the other hand, a certain balance must be maintained; it’s not an MMORPG for me personally if it doesn’t cater to and ask for a degree of interaction and cooperation. There it’s not a question of what but rather how – for example, how is something like a forced dungeon run implemented? Is it easy enough for a non-guilded solo player to find a group? Does the game provide means to find a party and make setup flexible? Can you do other things while waiting?
I think it’s a sad day when MMOs don’t have any type of coop and server community any longer, but only players who run solo and regard everyone around them as nice window dressing.
I agree it is sad to lose the sense of server community (I say this knowing full well I’m part of the problem). My time and priorities have changed a lot since my days of being super active in community stuff though. But I still like being able to play in a world with my friends. I love FFXIV even with its forced grouping. I think it strikes a nice balance since it really rewards grouping and being nice to new folks, but there is still plenty to do in the down times when I don’t feel up to being around people.
Pingback: Recap: Playing Alone Together |