He speaks wisely. People solo for a wide variety of reasons and it is certainly a playstyle that should be supported. Back in the olden days of EQ, you played one of the few “solo classes,” you found a group, or you did nothing. Time is a valuable commodity these days. People don’t enjoy feeling that they’re wasting their time for no benefit. Whenever you take a degree of control from the player, you increase the likelihood of dissatisfaction.
More and more the MMO genre appears to be moving in a direction of accessibility and away from the “alternate reality” scenario where even the simplest of tasks require a herculean effort. I personally always found WoW to be less immersive than EQ, but I played one for a year and the other for about four years. Guess which was which?
If Bioware keeps this up I may be forced to renege on my vow never to return to the trough of Lucas.
September 21, 2009 at 11:42 am
He speaks wisely. People solo for a wide variety of reasons and it is certainly a playstyle that should be supported. Back in the olden days of EQ, you played one of the few “solo classes,” you found a group, or you did nothing. Time is a valuable commodity these days. People don’t enjoy feeling that they’re wasting their time for no benefit. Whenever you take a degree of control from the player, you increase the likelihood of dissatisfaction.
More and more the MMO genre appears to be moving in a direction of accessibility and away from the “alternate reality” scenario where even the simplest of tasks require a herculean effort. I personally always found WoW to be less immersive than EQ, but I played one for a year and the other for about four years. Guess which was which?
If Bioware keeps this up I may be forced to renege on my vow never to return to the trough of Lucas.