In the game: solo vs. groups
by C.K. Sample, III 
Dec 11th 2005 at 3:00PM
Since it's a slow weekend, I thought I'd throw up a post about our gaming. Earlier today, Damien and I were questing through Azeroth together. We're building up our Undead Warlock characters and just bought a guild charter so that we can start a WOW Insider guild for everyone to join in on. Damien will post later with more details on that. In any case, this shot was taken while I was waiting for him and I decided to start dancing. I had just helped him get his VW, as the day before someone else had helped me get mine. I've been playing a lot on my own, and, so far, I haven't felt the group pull. It seems like every time we go to group quest, we're all at slightly different points in the game from our solo gaming. This means that some of us have to repeat quests we've already done and we have to ask help from others. In any case, thanks to Damien, I finally finished The Family Tomb, which is the quest that I currently hate the most. I died so many times. Anyway, do you prefer parties or solo? Let us know.
Filed under: Undead, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Fabian Dec 11th 2005 3:27PM
I really like group best. If I'm solo all the way, I don't need an online game - I can go play an offline RPG just as well.
Unfortunately the server I'm on seems to lack a decent number of players on my level. Meaning I solo most of the time. I'm even beginning to get frustrated sometimes, because it's just not fun if you are going to stand somewhere, shooting spells at some mobs for hours. It gets pretty boring after a while. So far my group experience where (even though one was a complete desaster when it comes down to accomplishing anything quest-wise) so much more fun than solo'ing...
mancko Dec 11th 2005 4:40PM
I'm really of two minds about this one.
There are times when grouping is the best thing about WoW, and ultimately, the reason we're all playing this game rather than something similar like Knights of the Old Republic.
I have had some great times with groups, when it works right. This means that I've found a group of characters who may or may not be the absolute pinnacle of efficiency (my current group, e.g., is 3 mages, a rogue and a druid... no tanks, no healers or rezzers), but everybody has the same goal: to have fun and help everybody move forward. So sometimes I spend a few hours helping the group get a quest I don't need, but thats okay, because I'm having fun and some of the pressure of high-yield questing is off.
But sometimes I just want to solo, and take on challenges on my own, concentrating on my own strategies for questing rather than trying to make complex plans via the chat interface.
Ultimately, I think it's a case-by-case basis, and obviously there are quests where you can't avoid grouping, but the WoW interface seems to work really well, so oftentimes it's not the pain that I've experienced in other games.
mancko Dec 11th 2005 5:43PM
I'm really of two minds about this one.
There are times when grouping is the best thing about WoW, and ultimately, the reason we're all playing this game rather than something similar like Knights of the Old Republic.
I have had some great times with groups, when it works right. This means that I've found a group of characters who may or may not be the absolute pinnacle of efficiency (my current group, e.g., is 3 mages, a rogue and a druid... no tanks, no healers or rezzers), but everybody has the same goal: to have fun and help everybody move forward. So sometimes I spend a few hours helping the group get a quest I don't need, but thats okay, because I'm having fun and some of the pressure of high-yield questing is off.
But sometimes I just want to solo, and take on challenges on my own, concentrating on my own strategies for questing rather than trying to make complex plans via the chat interface.
Ultimately, I think it's a case-by-case basis, and obviously there are quests where you can't avoid grouping, but the WoW interface seems to work really well, so oftentimes it's not the pain that I've experienced in other games.
Gnolly! Dec 11th 2005 11:27PM
I usually play either solo, or paired with a friend of mine. Those characters are kept pretty much in sync, so we're usually just doing the quests at the same time. This way, I can play when I want (solo, with one of my many alts), and we have our regular sessions together. This does mean I haven't done many instances, though.
Fabian Dec 12th 2005 11:56AM
Oh yeah one important thing that makes group'ing even more fun for me is voice chat. When you have the whole group in TeamSpeak or a Skype-conference its so much more fun, as you don't have to deal with the messy typing while in an instance...
I can only encourage everyone to try it, if you haven't already...
syco Dec 12th 2005 1:26PM
Solo, except for my "group" of two others, and we play in basically the same room.
Otherwise I only group up when I want to take on something I'm incapable of by myself, which would include instances.