The Fellowship of the Ding:

Encourage Grouping; Support Soloing

by Shayalyn

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When it comes to being able to
solo in a massively multiplayer online game, you’ll see two schools of
thought: One preaches that the very term “massively multiplayer”
precludes solo play, while the other suggests that it should be
plausible to play alone in an online world full of other people if one
so chooses. I subscribe to the latter.



While Turbine is slaving away at developing Lord of the Rings Online,
I’ve been playing a lot of that other little game by Turbine, Dungeons
& Dragons Online (DDO). I enjoy the game itself, for the most part,
but I’m not crazy about forced grouping. You can’t really accomplish
anything in DDO solo. Not that this comes as a surprise; it’s exactly
how Turbine said the game would function. Still, that doesn’t mean I
have to like it.



I’m one of those types of people who work and play well with others on
a very selective basis. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with my
guildies and friends, but I’m generally averse to dungeon diving with a
pick-up group (PUG). Call me antisocial, but when it comes to
adventuring I’d much rather head out with people I know (even if I know
them only through the magic of the Internet) than people I don’t. And
if the option to head out with the people I know is unavailable, then I
prefer to spend time by myself. And during that time alone, I’d like to
both be entertained, and to feel like my character has made progress.



But all in all, I’ll submit to the idea that group play is really the
way to go in a MMOG. Online gaming is about community, and you can’t
build community without encouraging grouping. (Although WoW players
soloing their way to 60 might say otherwise.) Upcoming games like LOTRO
will need to implement systems that encourage grouping without cramming
it down their players throats and making it impossible for a player to
spend a little solo time advancing his character when he doesn’t have
enough time to devote to finding a group and joining a full scale
adventure.



Fortunately, it looks as though LOTRO has a few plans in place to
deliver just that sort of group-based yet solo-friendly dynamic. In a target="_blank" href="http://lotro.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=116">March
2006 developer diary, LOTRO content designer Allan "Orion" Maki
revealed information about how the game would facilitate group play and
yet still appeal to the occasional soloist.



Is soloing going to be possible in LOTRO? Maki’s answer:

src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/Minstrel.jpg"
style="width: 124px; height: 250px;" align="left" hspace="2" vspace="4">Although
how soloing will work is still a bit of a mystery. Maki spoke of solo
instances where, for example, a player might walk alongside a quest
NPC, simultaneously learning more about the quest storyline while
protecting that NPC from danger (we can only assume hobbit-eating
monsters). Similar quest experiences would await groups, although the
group instances would, naturally, be more challenging.



So, we know that players will be able to solo in LOTRO, and we know
that the solo quests won’t consist of the sort of tedium we’ve seen in
other games, specifically the “Collect 2,500 flesh-eating fungi spores
for Alchemist Fiddlesticks” sort. The ability to enjoy meaningful solo
experiences, if even on a limited basis, is music to my antisocial
ears. But what is Turbine doing to facilitate grouping, the core of a
game designed around the tale of a Fellowship’s cooperative efforts
toward victory over evil?



A well-designed social system would be a definite step in the right
direction. Allow me to hold up DDO as an example. With DDO, several
things are possible. A player is able to put up a highly visible (and
searchable, through the social console) flag when looking for group
(LFG). That’s pretty standard among MMOGs. But a few other innovations
make DDO’s system more useful. For one, players can now be forward
enough as to invite themselves to an existing group that’s LFM--Looking
for More. Oddly, that scenario seems to work better in DDO than the LFG
tag. On any given night a player can open up the social console, scan
the available groups, and choose one they’d like to join. The player
can then send a request to join; or click a button and easily initiate
a private conversation asking to join, or to find out more about the
group’s plans. And, of course, all this information can be filtered by
class and level. Groups and players can also add notes to indicate
which quests they’re interested in, or whether their group wants a more
leisurely roleplaying pace, or is the kind that wants to tear through
quests at light speed in order to maximize their exp gain.



My guess is that LOTRO will implement a similar social system, perhaps
tweaked as a result of lessons learned by the DDO team.



Aside from making it easier to find groups, LOTRO will also need to
find ways to make grouping more appealing than the available solo
adventures. Generally, incentive comes in the form of being able to
score better loot in groups than as a solitary player, and that’s as it
should be. It’s only href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=LotRO_Screenshots&id=Turbine_LOTRO_E3_2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt=""
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/LotRO_Screenshots/Turbine_LOTRO_E3_2.thumb.jpg"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 150px; height: 110px;" align="right"
hspace="2" vspace="4"> natural that groups should be able to take
on bigger challenges, and that bigger challenges should reap bigger
rewards. Players should also be able to make faster progress in groups.
Watching the exp bar expand in leaps while grouping instead of minute
increments while soloing is another great way to encourage group play
(although if soloing is too pointless in LOTRO, then there’s really no
reason to include solo content at all, is there?). And finally, players
will likely be able to explore certain areas only in groups--if you
want to see more of the world and experience more high-powered
adventures, you’ll probably have to do so with friends.



Soloing shouldn’t be the best means of progressing through a MMOG
(after all, experiencing the world together with a lot of other people
is what makes these games “massively multiplayer”), but games that
offer soloing as a viable and enjoyable alternative will be one step
closer to winning the hearts of gamers. LOTRO, it seems, has taken some
positive steps toward offering the best of both worlds.

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