Soloing in World of Warcraft
Oakroot makes a very interesting point in this thread
. What is that point you might ask? Well, for those of you too lazy to click the link or are caught behind a firewall at work, I shall tell you. Oakroot contends that he, as a primarily solo player, has limited options come endgame. The forums being what they are (and we all know what they are) the first few responses were what you'd expect, that being "this is a MMORPG, noob. Go play Oblivion".
To be honest, that was my first gut reaction as well. If you want a rewarding solo experience, and don't enjoy grouping or the social aspects of WoW, perhaps Oblivion or Final Fantasy XII would be more to your liking. Then I started thinking...Blizzard made the game 1-60 entirely soloable. Not a lot of MMORPGs do that. In fact, I can't think of any beyond possibly City of Heroes or EVE. Group play is a requirement in nearly every game in the genre. But Blizzard decided to go for the more casual crowd, and created a good experience for them 1-60. Then at 60 they basically get told to group or reroll. Yes, they can gain some faction here and there, but if they dislike grouping, they are pretty much stuck.
So they get sucked into this solo friendly game with great lore, interesting quests and lots of areas to explore, then the door gets shut in their face. Now granted, no game can last forever, but maybe Blizzard could do something for the solo folks at end game. Throw them some sort of bone, as I imagine there are a bunch of guys out there like Oakroot. However, and I hate it when I can see the point of the forum trolls, this is a MMORPG. You are supposed to want to play nice with others. I really can appreciate both sides of the argument.
What do you guys think? Does Oakroot have unrealistic expectations? Or should Blizzard provide a little more for solo players?
