Is anyone out there?
or "Is World of Warcraft too Solo Friendly?"
When the World of Warcraft MMO was first announced, Blizzard fans around the world rejoiced. A MMO made by the masters of Real Time Strategy Games, based on all the background they had created could be an instant success. Blizzard does not take game design lightly and each and every game they have created has been a huge success. Players waited anxiously for the release of WoW and it became a run away success.
There is no questioning that World of Warcraft is a brilliant game, from the amazing graphics to the amount of back story and questing involved in the game. There is one thing that seems to be lacking in WoW though. To understand it you need to understand that MMO is really short for Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game. Now I could go into the fact that very few role-play in the World of Warcraft, but I'm not that kind of player.
The part that bugs me the most is that the game is meant to be a multi-player game. This should not just mean that multiple players are in and playing at the same time. Part of the appeal of an MMO is that you build up a friend base in it and quest and adventure with them to mutual benefit, and that's the part that I really see lacking in WoW.
Now before everyone jumps on me and starts yelling "Well what about end game raids?" and "My guild groups together all the time for quests", I am talking generalities. I know that you must belong to a large guild to do the end game raid content and I do know that some guilds do complete quests together, but in general questing just doesn't happen as a group in WoW.
I am in several large end game guilds and the only interactive play that happens in them is related to end game content. This means farming for crafting ingredients, reputation or doing raids or PvP. There are very few times that questing with alternate characters or finishing quests happen in these guilds in my experience. I have also been a member of several guilds that did do questing and adventuring together, but these were generally only small guilds and as soon as characters drifted apart in level this cooperation ceased.
Cooperation and Grouping Skills
There have been more times than I can count where I have been working on quests in an area and asked others to group and not even received a response. Generally you would want to group so that we could complete quests that we normally could not alone or to work through quest chains more quickly. Also no character can do everything and parties are generally more fun because you can chat and interact on a social level instead of just clicking away by yourself grinding through monsters.
I view these early grouping attempts as critical to learn three basic skills in the game. It is import so that you learn about other classes, how you interact best with them and basic cooperation and communication skills in the game. If you do not learn these skills early you can be at a huge disadvantage later in the game. I also believe it is important to learn these skills early and well, before attempting difficult content later. However very few people attempt to group or interact in the early game unless it is for instance runs.
Instances
Instances are about the only thing that I find most players look for groups for. Even here a ton of people bypass instances entirely to "grind" faster and reach level 60. Instances start at a very low level (15ish) and I believe they start early to help prepare you for groups of all sorts throughout the rest of your gaming experience. Players should take these instances as a chance to learn.
Too often however I see two things happening. The first is that players just do not do the low level instances, and the second is that when they do they ignore group tactics. How can they do this you ask? Easy. Instances are meant to be fairly difficult and challenging to a group of players at the correct level. Players have been bypassing this by only accepting people into groups that are at the very top end of the range that the instance is meant for. Then when they are in the instance tactics, skill and cooperation are almost not needed at any level. Instead of taking the low level instances as a way to learn to work in a group, players are using them purely as a way to get loot or gold.
End Game raids
The end game raids are the only place that cooperation and communication are really needed in the World of Warcraft. It is easy to spot the people capable of this as they are all decked out in epic gear and belong to the elite guilds on each server. Sure it's possible to beat MC without Ventrilo or Teamspeak, or even in a PUG, but it's not nearly as likely, and you will never farm it successfully on a consistent basis.
Conclusions
Too many players think that end game raiding is what the game is all about. For some it's about the loot, to others it's about proving that you can beat the hardest thing the developers can throw at you and to yet others it's about a sense of community and belonging with your group.
To me the end game raids are also the only place in WoW that you can truly experience everything that an MMO should be. You should "HAVE" to rely on your group to survive, you should feel it is difficult, you should have to communicate with others, move slowly and plan your advance.
In almost any other MMO, Guilds evolve as you level and play together. Guilds in many cases become like a second family. For this to occur you need to learn and grow with your guild members, and in WoW that only seems to happen in the end game. By that point many players are already ingrained in the "me, me, me" solo attitude. Raiding is about the loot that it is in for them, not for what the gear can do for the guild as a whole. You can see this in almost any guild through players that only show up for the raids that they need loot from, and then stop attending once they have what they need. I feel that if the game relied more on grouping at an early level and it was not quite so solo accessible, then a lot of the end game raiding and grouping issues would not exist.
To be fair, there are those that do not want to do end game raiding, or even grouping in the game at all. Blizzard has done an amazing job an making sure they can do that, however I feel they have done to well at it. If all you want to do is solo in a game, why are you playing an MMO? Why pay a monthly fee? Why not just play an RPG on your computer.
Maybe it's just me, but I think Blizzard may have pushed the ease of soloing a bit too far in the World of Warcraft.
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