Massively Single-Player Gaming? 209
Massively is running an article discussing the trend in recent MMOs to enable and encourage solo play. Where the genre's early offerings, like Everquest and Ultima Online, were heavily dependent on finding other people to interact with, it's common for today's games to allow players to experience most of the content by themselves. Quoting:
"It is human nature to want to be the center of attention or at least feel like the hero on some level. It's also not too far of a stretch to call members of our species generally selfish. How can you really deliver this experience if you force your players to ask for help all the time? I think this was simply a natural progression of the genre in trying to appeal to our natural traits. ... Finally, I believe it all comes down to the mighty dollar. Audiences grew and so followed the market and competition. Suddenly, you couldn't make MMOs on the cheap anymore (though a stalwart few still try). Not only are game studios focused on appealing to the solo casual gamer to maximize earnings, they also want to build in artificial time sinks to make players stick around."
Diablo II (Score:3, Informative)
An online multiplayer RPG without most of the MMO horseshit. You can group up, play solo, or mix the two up.
In this game, the fun is the journey more than the destination. There are always monsters along the way that your character will have trouble with, regardless of your "build."
Re:It's the D-Bags... (Score:1, Informative)
Xbox Live is five bucks a month. In the CompuServe days, you paid six bucks *an hour*.
Any annoying high-school kid can scrape up five bucks per month. XBox Live is about the cheapest form of non-free entertainment available.
But who would pay six bucks per hour for an online service if they just wanted to be a dickwad on it? That's right, nobody.
Of course, nobody would pay that much for an online service nowadays, anyway. Might as well take that money to the local strip club for a night out. Fifteen bucks a month for World of Warcraft is only marginally more expensive than Xbox Live (many players get 100+ hours a month out of their subscription). So its not high enough to weed out the D-bags.
I think Everquest used to have a sort of 'elite' server which you paid 3x as much for as normal server access, but it was policed by more humans and most of the D-bags would not bother to pay so much to play on it. It was a nice way for the rich folks with more money than free time, to get their hassle-free gaming experience. Blizzard should set up something similar.
Re:I hate time sinks (Score:3, Informative)
In City of Heroes, unless you personally know someone in the game who already has a major supergroup (guild) built up, getting anywhere is going to be a chore.
That is not entirely true. I have several characters (both heroes and villains) who are doing quite well while not being affiliated with any super group. Specifically, I set up characters on two servers with the intention of not creating my own group at 10. These are:
:) She is currently level 46, and I sorta have her competing with Kilderon [photobucket.com], My Ice/Radiation Controller to become my second level 50 hero and my third level 50 character (second was my first level 50 villain, Sonnenblume [photobucket.com] - Fire/Dark Corruptor. She made the journe
Screamsicle [photobucket.com] - Sonic Blast/Cold Domination Corruptor
Full Metal Duck [photobucket.com] - Assault Rifle/Energy Melee Blaster
Impact Event [photobucket.com] - Earth Control/Thermal Radiation Controller
Polar Peregrine [photobucket.com] - Ice/Storm Controller
Willowpaw [photobucket.com] - Fire/Electric Blaster
Willie Whompem [photobucket.com] - Triform Warshade
Spring Flurrie [photobucket.com] - Triform Peacebringer
And on Guardian, I have Bow Chicka Bow Wow [photobucket.com] - Dark Melee/Electric Armor Stalker.
As I said, these characters are all operating without a supergroup (though if I get an invite to one, I will consider it.) Additionally, most of these characters have operated solo, and I have plenty of others who have progressed through the game mostly on their own. These are in small super groups, which is why they are listed apart from the above examples. My prime examples (since I will admit I like showing off here...) are:
Twilight Dream [photobucket.com] - My first Warshade on (Dual form Human/Dark Nova). She mostly soloed her way to 30 on Virtue. And her villainous incarnation on Protector (a Ninjas/Dark Mastermind) has also soloed primarily so far.
The Virtue incarnation of Polar Peregrine [photobucket.com], an Archery/Ice Blaster primarily soloed her way to 50. I think it took me about 3 months of casual play with her to get to 50. Sure, she did do some teaming, which was a real blast, but the majority of her career was solo.
The Virtue incarnation of Stellar Jay [photobucket.com], a Plants/Energy Dominator, has also mostly soloed, and he is in his 30s now.
Sparkle Swan, my Broadsword/Shield Defense Scrapper made it to 32 mostly solo in about 4 days time.
Never-Moore [photobucket.com], a Mercenaries/Pain Master Mind is 37, and has also soloed most of his career.
And finally, we have "Crimson Duck, a Fire/Energy Blaster on Liberty. Actually, come to think of it, her career has been a pretty even mix of solo and team play. Sadly, she got knocked off her high horse when she got thoroughly spanked by the Envoy of Shadow in her 30s. That was when it was discovered that she was not as invincible as I thought she was.
Re:I hate time sinks (Score:3, Informative)
Trying again...
Sparkle Swan [photobucket.com] - Broadsword/Shield Defense Scrapper.
Crimson Duck [photobucket.com] - Fire/Energy Blaster.