Guild Wars 2

That’s it. Just…holiday events are a pain in the donkey, if you don’t particularly like joining up with a random group of people and your guildies are offline. Not saying they’re bad, or unenjoyable; I’m sure the instances are more fun if you have a group, or don’t mind hopping in with a random group.

As it is, I’m finding Toymaker Tixx’s thing in the Grove honestly kind of boring – hordes of enemies and double-digit objectives don’t make a segment fun. They make it take forever – doubly so if, for example, you started with help, and then the help had to head to work (poor planning on our parts, I’ll admit).

I’d like to see a holiday event that works more like a Personal Story section than a dungeon, or perhaps a holiday event that adapts depending on how many people are in the group. Anybody else?

I also prefer to play solo, but tbh I have no problem with the group instances during holiday events. I thought this one and the Mad King one were simple enough that I could pop in and get it done. If we’re talking about our perfect world, yes I would prefer a solo option =)

Disagree completely with the OP. What I like about this game is that as a solo gamer it is easy to find randoms.

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

Have you played GW2 before posting this? The forced multiplayer takes up about 10% of the game, if that.

I agree with the OP. Its a pain in the rear to find pickup groups, who squabble and quit halfway. Give me the normal GW2 style “jump in and have a go” ‘solo multiplayer’ anyday.

Anymras.5729:

They make it take forever

To get a random group takes 1 min + 15 to finish dungeon.
16 min on a random group is to much of your time?

Ze Dos Cavalos.6132:

Anymras.5729:

They make it take forever

To get a random group takes 1 min + 15 to finish dungeon.
16 min on a random group is to much of your time?

But they want a 3 minute coordinated run. /whine

Palleon.1657:

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

Have you played GW2 before posting this? The forced multiplayer takes up about 10% of the game, if that.

I agree with the OP. Its a pain in the rear to find pickup groups, who squabble and quit halfway. Give me the normal GW2 style “jump in and have a go” ‘solo multiplayer’ anyday.

My thoughts exactly.

What I’m asking for is not for new content to be single-player – it’s for it to offer a single-player option, or to scale with the number of people. Currently, Holiday events seem to emphasize group play more than anything, to the point where it’s borderline impossible to do them alone – and a slog through hordes to find out that the boss is just too much.

I know a lot of people like playing in big groups, or going and just joining a random party – I just don’t. I prefer to group up with people I know (generally met elsewhere, or through mutual acquaintances), and if they aren’t around, then I’d still like to be able to do events like Holiday things without joining group #5632, -and- have fun. I’m also a big fan of more options, thus my suggestion of having things like this scale.

I realize that this is perhaps a strange issue to have as far as an MMO goes; it just so happens that I am terrible with people, for a variety of reasons I’m just not going to go into, but like playing games.

Edit: Also, when I say “They make it take forever?” I’m not being a speed-snob, if there is such a thing. I actually like taking my time and examining things. I just happen to also find “Now go destroy eighteen turrets, in the midst of hordes of enemies,” incredibly uninteresting after the first, I don’t know, five? Doesn’t matter if there’s five people in the group or just me – hordes of enemies and a high objective count doesn’t seem like fun, just padding.

Anymras.5729:

What I’m asking for is not for new content to be single-player – it’s for it to offer a single-player option, or to scale with the number of people. Currently, Holiday events seem to emphasize group play more than anything, to the point where it’s borderline impossible to do them alone – and a slog through hordes to find out that the boss is just too much.

Think about it. The current "instance’ is so ridiculously easy(and that comes from smb who’s afraid to run TA), that if they were to make it scale…they’d either have to make the already sort of soloable content even easier thus everybody will be roflstomping it(and then people will complain that xxx is dead, nobody to do this or that). Or they’ll have to increase the 5men difficulty making what should be a fun holiday activity into a pain in the…kitten(and then we’ll have the fotm fiasco again). I find the current arrangement pretty good. You can solo it if you really really want. You can do just fine with 2 people and you can roll over it with 3-5.

Oh, is the boss not some ludicrously tough thing? I know the random Skritt (particularly the Veterans, but they at least were Veterans) were giving my level 80 Engineer trouble, and that was before the toys went Chucky.

The toy event took about 20 minutes with a random pug group that formed in 3 minutes in lions arch. What is your complaint exactly? Do you just not like playing with others at all?

The Tixx instance is soloable I have done it 3 times by myself sure it takes longer than with a group but there really isn’t anything else to do in game right now

I’ve already finished the grove instance with a 2 man team… it’s not that hard.

And as quick as the dungeon is over… if you want to play it finding a group of people is easy as can be… my first run I had myself and my girlfriend… a quick lfg had more than 20 whispers hitting me at once asking for an invite. 15 minutes later we were done. HARDLY a painful experience.

After that… we did it just the two of us.

I bet there are plenty of people out there who could do it alone… I might try myself later today.

This is an MMO… the emphasis is on group play… you don’t log into a social game to be alone. That’s counterintuitive.

Random PuGs are not for everyone. Take my situation, for example. I’m a caregiver. As such, I can AFK with little to no warning, sometimes for extended periods of time, to deal with the person I’m caring for. I’ve often gotten kicked from teams for doing so, so I learned my lesson, and stay solo, or if they are around, with my small group of friends. This isn’t very often, though, and they’re mostly WvWers.

So yes, I feel the sting a bit.

A friend and I found a random pug group in less than a minute. Our first run took ~15 minutes.

???

ur doin it rong

I like playing with people I know. I don’t particularly enjoy playing with random groups. I’d still like to be able to play Holiday events and have fun if people I know aren’t around, without having to join up with a random group or brace myself for a slog, neither of which I find particularly fun.

I actually got through eight of the eighteen malfunctioning turrets in the event before quitting, in light of the likelihood that there was A ) a boss and B ) the boss would hit harder than the Veteran Skritt that could already keep me running at low health.

Would’ve done the event with my girlfriend, but she had to go to work a little after we started – we had just enough time to do the tar elemental bit. Would do it later, but I work nights and she works days; when she gets home, I will have already left for work.

I also wish there were either a solo option, or that it the dungeon were more like the Mad King’s Labyrinth. I happen to be a very social person, however, that side of me is usually something that is strongly integrated into my RL. I deal with tons of people at work and in my career, and though I enjoy it, it drains my reserves.

As an introvert, I recharge my energy, which includes my energy to be social, by being alone—and a big part of that is through gaming. I am not an anti-social person, nor am I a completely solo player; I’m an officer in a small guild, and I have friends. Holidays, though, are times when I’m over-exposed to social events in RL, and I especially feel the need for some alone time while gaming.

One of the things I love about this game is that you can be alone, but still be around people. That’s something it seems some folks have a hard time understanding. I don’t mind being in-game with people, but I don’t always have the energy to directly interact with them. I’m friendly and helpful, and I love the mob-type grouping because I can assist folks without committing to engage further with them.

Funnily, when I do have the energy to engage with folks in-game, I’ll RP rather than do raid/operation/dungeon/pvp/WvW content.

To be honest, I haven’t even done a single dungeon yet in the regular game, though the story seems to push me to it, and my main is level 49. I probably wont do it either. I don’t mind that, even if it means I never complete the story. Similarly, I haven’t even touched the WvW content, and am unlikely to.

The holiday events are fun, and I really did enjoy the labyrinth—I even did a little bit of the pvp stuff for that event (the fun of the labyrinth made me willing to try it), but found it pretty boring.

Sadly, I logged in today to play a little of this event before going about my day, but when I encountered the ‘a group of 5 is recommended’ notice, I went elsewhere then logged out. It’s not the type of energy or content I was hoping for, so I’m skipping GW today. I’m sure there are other players like me/us out there, too.

Yea, 20min is the long end of the range of time it takes to run that instance. I did it back to back with 2 different characters in 30min…both with PUGs that formed as soon as I said “LFM Tixx” in Grove standing next to entrance…

For solo players and holidays: Jumping puzzle is solo. WvW requires no talking to jump in with a Commander, Snowball Arena is random, just jump in and play. Bell game is solo. I could keep going. Heck, you can go farm presents solo. You know the big ones that spawn. The only thing that requires a party is the dungeon which takes 5 minutes top end to find a group for. I think calling it a pain for solo players is not true. There are TONS of things to do solo that I just listed.

Palleon.1657:

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

Have you played GW2 before posting this? The forced multiplayer takes up about 10% of the game, if that.

I agree with the OP. Its a pain in the rear to find pickup groups, who squabble and quit halfway. Give me the normal GW2 style “jump in and have a go” ‘solo multiplayer’ anyday.

That’s because a huge chunk of content is leveling, which is always designed around solo play these days. Once you get to the end game, MMO’s have always involved a lot of grouping aspects. If you dislike this, then I don’t know what you’re doing playing MMO’s.

Even Kirito couldn’t be a beater forever. You’ll always have to team up with people eventually. Can’t do everything on your own.

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

I live in a multiplayer world and the word solo exists. I wouldn’t mind a LFG tool though. I’d also prefer scaling to team size, just to cover all the bases.

The problem with this argumentation is that one can easily reverse the words and it will still make sense and seem right.

“As a group gamer, timed jumping puzzles are a pain”

Iason Evan.3806:

For solo players and holidays: Jumping puzzle is solo. WvW requires no talking to jump in with a Commander, Snowball Arena is random, just jump in and play. Bell game is solo. I could keep going. Heck, you can go farm presents solo. You know the big ones that spawn. The only thing that requires a party is the dungeon which takes 5 minutes top end to find a group for. I think calling it a pain for solo players is not true. There are TONS of things to do solo that I just listed.

Well, that would be great, except for the fact that the only way to get the holiday minis (unless you want to pony up real cash for gems) is to run that dungeon.

“But that’s no different than dungeon armor now” you might say. Except it is. Normal dungeons are permanent content. If I decide I want the armor, I can get to it in my own time, waiting to do them with my choice of people. The holiday dungeons are limited time access. People who want those minis can’t wait very long. If they miss out, they have to wait a whole year and hope the same content is offered.

All ‘tangible’ rewards for any limited access content should be obtainable via both solo and group play.

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

“Multiplayer game” doesn’t mean forced grouping. Many multiplayer games require no groups whatsoever.

Tim.9850:

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

“Multiplayer game” doesn’t mean forced grouping. Many multiplayer games require no groups whatsoever.

How is it forced? You can easily solo the dungeon.

Whether you want to play solo or not why would you buy a multiplayer and expect to never have to group up…

SpelignErrir.4263:

Tim.9850:

Mobott.5908:

You’re playing a multiplayer game and you’re asking for new content to be singleplayer. Why?

“Multiplayer game” doesn’t mean forced grouping. Many multiplayer games require no groups whatsoever.

How is it forced? You can easily solo the dungeon.

Whether or not I can solo the dungeon is irrelevant. So long as at least one player cannot solo the content, it is an instance of forced grouping. Limiting rewards to forced grouping content for any limited time event should not happen.

This thread is a joke right???

Holidays are pretty much made for solo players, as a grouped player holidays are a pain- I can’t do any activities with friends, it’s all solo queue.

kirito’s a solo gamer! look at him! he can dual wield, can you????

Killing mobs in wild for gifts – Solo
Picking up presents in the wild – Solo
Bell Choir – Solo
Jumping Puzzle – Solo
Building Snow Men – Solo
Crafting Wintersday Items – Solo

PVP/Snowball FIght – Puts you in a group automatically

The only things you absolutely need a group for (that I know of) are the Tixx events.

my only problem is since i deleted my main thanks to recent patches , now im stuck at low levels and higher levels simply ignore me when i ask for group.

Vanecrox.5094:

Killing mobs in wild for gifts – Solo
Picking up presents in the wild – Solo
Bell Choir – Solo
Jumping Puzzle – Solo
Building Snow Men – Solo
Crafting Wintersday Items – Solo

PVP/Snowball FIght – Puts you in a group automatically

The only things you absolutely need a group for (that I know of) are the Tixx events.

And hey, it’s also the only way to get the 5 minipets, unless i want to spend gems. Rewards for limited time content should not be restricted to a single gameplay type.

These events are soloable by any 80. Deal with the time it takes to complete them solo …you choose to run solo. (Tixx is soloable)

M M O R P G #DealWithIt

Playing with other people in a MMO go figure it out.

What do you mean I have to spend a few minutes (and it seriously is only a few minutes) of “effort” to earn in game rewards? What a crazy concept, why isn’t everything in this game handed to me just for existing. Now I actually have to deal with the hassle of playing the game, man what a drag that is!

I agree with the OP’s basic sentiment. There’s nothing I hate more than being forced into group play. I like it sometimes, but not all the time. I certainly don’t want to be part of pugs filled with snarky jerks.

For those people who say, “but it’s an MMO, why play?” My answer is: because there are few decent solo PC games these days. All the game companies want to make a mint in MMOs. That said, the thing I like MOST about GW2 is the run and gun, constantly merging and disbanding events-based groups.

Kromica.2831:

The Tixx instance is soloable I have done it 3 times by myself sure it takes longer than with a group but there really isn’t anything else to do in game right now

For all the people claiming to solo it quickly and easily, please give us your secret. I tried several times, but at level 80 with non-legendary/uber/leet gear, it was impossible to kill the tar elementals fast enough to fill the machines before they leaked them right back out again.

Really now.

-Type “/s lfg” at the dungeon entrance.
-Accept the invite.
-Run into the dungeon and carelessly rip through the objectives.
-Get your rewards.

It’s an extremely easy dungeon that takes 10 minutes with the average joes. You don’t even have to converse with them.

If Anet wanted to push you into another easy but needlessly long challenge, they would’ve slipped in a reward for doing it solo. But they didn’t. I’m all for taking on extra challenge for challenge-sake, but I fully understand that the fault is on my part if I’m taking the unintended approach.

Aside from boarding the airship, practically everything else will reward you for solo-efforts. The ensemble, the jump puzzle, the masses of presents scattered in PvE/WvW areas. Even the team snowball fights if you consider randoming to be solo.

Should be enough to juggle unless you want to be distracted from the vanilla content entirely.

Only hard thing to to solo are the big gift boxes around the world with that overpowered mobs you need to kill for the monthly achievement. Other stuff seems easy. I don’t like dungeons but I even did the Tixx dungeons. It is nice and not that long and not that hard. Normal veteran mobs. Only the champ a bit harder but only 1 champ and easy to kill with 5 people(some people even solod I read).

bwuki.2175:

kirito’s a solo gamer! look at him! he can dual wield, can you????

He used to be. He teams up now because he realized you can’t do everything alone nomatter how OP you are. .-.

I don’t get the inherent hate displayed here for people who want to do things solo. Many have valid reasons to why they would like a way to enjoy the content at their own pace and time without being affected by others. Taking care of children and elderly, job, real life issues, etc etc. How in the world does giving them an OPTION to solo possibly ruin your gaming experience so much to inspire such contempt and sarcasm?

Even in this case, it’s nice to know these holiday dungeons are small and doable in a short time so even those who have irratic playtimes due to responsibilities have a decent chance to go at it without being disturbed, but what about normal dungeons that take an hour or more to do? They are effectively barred from that content since no one wants to do dungeons with people who go afk frequently.

Man, it’s weird how so many people seem to confuse “I don’t particularly like playing with groups” with something involving time, or not knowing how to find a group. It’s not like I’ve seen “lfg [ac/hotw/se/fotm/etcetera]” in map chat just about everywhere, or like I know that there’s an LFG tool in the Contacts section, really.

That was sarcasm, if you’re planning on missing the point there, too. No, I’m not going to re-explain the point; go read the original post if you’re having trouble. Carefully. Same goes for people who seem to think I meant it took too long to get together with, and do the dungeon with, a group, though you might have to read down to my second post, where I clarify the comment about time.

I kind of agree but as a solo player I understand I won’t be able to do everything in the game. So the holiday events with group dungeons is disappointing but I am still enjoying the content. The option for a solo play of the dungeons would be nice. I always like a challenge when I play solo. So of course I tried to solo these dungeons which I have been successful. Took me almost an hour with breaks in between to figure out the best way of doing it. Will have to see what the other days will bring. I also was able to solo the Halloween dungeon so I have been happy with the holiday events.

These dungeons will be around for a few weeks so it should be easy to find a group of friends or unknown people to finish it anyway. I don’t have much of a problem with it either way.

Recreant.3192:

Iason Evan.3806:

For solo players and holidays: Jumping puzzle is solo. WvW requires no talking to jump in with a Commander, Snowball Arena is random, just jump in and play. Bell game is solo. I could keep going. Heck, you can go farm presents solo. You know the big ones that spawn. The only thing that requires a party is the dungeon which takes 5 minutes top end to find a group for. I think calling it a pain for solo players is not true. There are TONS of things to do solo that I just listed.

Well, that would be great, except for the fact that the only way to get the holiday minis (unless you want to pony up real cash for gems) is to run that dungeon.

“But that’s no different than dungeon armor now” you might say. Except it is. Normal dungeons are permanent content. If I decide I want the armor, I can get to it in my own time, waiting to do them with my choice of people. The holiday dungeons are limited time access. People who want those minis can’t wait very long. If they miss out, they have to wait a whole year and hope the same content is offered.

All ‘tangible’ rewards for any limited access content should be obtainable via both solo and group play.

It’s a 15 minute dungeon. 20 tops. With a PUG. Run it at the end of the day when everyone and their brother has done it a ton of times. Me and some guildies 3 manned the one in the grove yesterday after doing it a bunch of times and realized we didnt have to get a group. With your logic we can say everything is a pain. You want an item you can only get there. Guess what? Just decide what is more important to you: the mini or not doing the dungeon. It’s simple. Then go enjoy all the content after 15 MINUTES of your day is taken up for the ONE SINGLE RUN you need to get the stuff you need.

EDIT: Also, you had to know when you bought this MMO that you would have to do SOME multiplayer, right? The rest of the holiday event is 100% soloable.

I agree with OP, I’ve come to find holidays totally suck in this game and are not fun what so ever!

Just the thought of armor getting damaged from a holiday event sickens me.

I strongly disagree, I love playing solo and I completed the dungeons in a couple min after it started. Said “invite please”, did it and that’s it.

ddoi.9264:

How in the world does giving them an OPTION to solo possibly ruin your gaming experience so much to inspire such contempt and sarcasm?

That’d be basic human nature. Most people when given the choice between looking for a group or running the dungeon solo will opt for soloing. Which in turn reduces the amount of player available for a party. Take it to the extreme. Let’s say at any given time there are 5 people who want to run dungeon A. Right now, those 5 people will come together and do it. With dungeon scaling, at least 1 of them(from my experience with MMOs who had that feature, it’d be more like 3-4 of them) would rather do it solo than bother looking for group. As a result there are 4 people sitting somewhere shouting “lf1m dungeon A”. Until another one decides to run it solo, cause it’d be faster. And them another one. Until there are 5 people soloing dungeon A and nobody is running it in a party. And that’d be how the option to solo affects those who’d rather go with a party.

PS: You want the minis without having to group up? Here’s a wacky idea: go farm gold solo, buy gems and then buy the pets. If you set your mind to it, you can buy 1 pet/day. Or 1 pet/2 days without trying too hard.

I was just in the first Guildwars checking out what was there.

I picked up a quest, something to do with finding and saving some reindeer. It occured to me that some kind of thing like the personal story which of course can be done alone would have given you what you are asking for. That or maybe scatter some NPCs about for you to find in the world like that we already have, something like the white moa thing in GW1, but not sure if that would be any better than those giftboxes all over the place for you?

TWMagimay.9057:

ddoi.9264:

How in the world does giving them an OPTION to solo possibly ruin your gaming experience so much to inspire such contempt and sarcasm?

That’d be basic human nature. Most people when given the choice between looking for a group or running the dungeon solo will opt for soloing. Which in turn reduces the amount of player available for a party. Take it to the extreme. Let’s say at any given time there are 5 people who want to run dungeon A. Right now, those 5 people will come together and do it. With dungeon scaling, at least 1 of them(from my experience with MMOs who had that feature, it’d be more like 3-4 of them) would rather do it solo than bother looking for group. As a result there are 4 people sitting somewhere shouting “lf1m dungeon A”. Until another one decides to run it solo, cause it’d be faster. And them another one. Until there are 5 people soloing dungeon A and nobody is running it in a party. And that’d be how the option to solo affects those who’d rather go with a party.

While that is true, if dungeons were to scale to the number of players it would easily solve that problem. Maybe even increase the cap to 10 players and give better and more rewards for larger number of players to encourage group play. But there will always be an option to solo if desired. Give people the freedom to play however they want.