Guild Wars 2

Many of us enjoy soloing MMO’s. There is a school of thought that if you don’t like to group up and party with others than you shouldn’t be playing MMO’s and that is simply false. I love MMO’s, I enjoy interacting with other people, trading with them on the TP, engaging in group events and just seeing other real people move about in a living breathing world…I just don’t like to structured group up with them. I know that I am not alone in this.

The Dungeons and Fractals make up a large chunk of this game and after 2 years I’ve still never seen any of them because I truly hate grouping. Hell I only recently completed the Main Story line because of the Arah grouping wall.
But that got changed and they made a soloable story mode for it. This is what I am suggesting be done with all of the Dungeons and Fractals. Offer a solo mode with significantly reduced xp and loot rewards. I don’t think anyone actually does the story mode on dungeons anymore so why not just change those to the solo mode?

The people that like to group should be rewarded for their efforts, and I perfectly understand that, and the great thing about a change like this is it would have zero impact on those folks. Hiding a huge chunk of the game behind the grouping wall is silly and alienates a rather large number of your players.

CIndeR.3479:

Hell I only recently completed the Main Story line because of the Arah grouping wall.

I totally get enjoying playing alone (which is what I do a vast majority of time), but you’re saying that in 2 years of play, you hate grouping so much that you refused to group up for a mere half hour to finish a story mode dungeon?

I’m floored.

Id like solo dungeons too with a choice of heroes!

Land of Cheese.2584:

CIndeR.3479:

Hell I only recently completed the Main Story line because of the Arah grouping wall.

I totally get enjoying playing alone (which is what I do a vast majority of time), but you’re saying that in 2 years of play, you hate grouping so much that you refused to group up for a mere half hour to finish a story mode dungeon?

I’m floored.

Count me as one of those people. If you’ve had the grouping experiences I’ve had, you’d wait two years or more too. Long story short, I ended up soloing anyway because my groups ended up dead and waiting for me to carry them through.

So . . . yeah. I also hate grouping that much. Even for half an hour. Again, your experience may vary . . . but mine certainly didn’t.

CIndeR.3479:

Many of us enjoy soloing MMO’s. There is a school of thought that if you don’t like to group up and party with others than you shouldn’t be playing MMO’s and that is simply false.

the great thing about a change like this is it would have zero impact on those folks. Hiding a huge chunk of the game behind the grouping wall is silly and alienates a rather large number of your players.

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

Therefore, if you hate grouping so much you outright refuse to try it, you should either leave GW2 as the game was never designed, nor advertised for people like you or accept there will be content that you cannot do, and focus on enjoying the things you can.

Secondly, there would be a rather significant impact on others. By segmenting the dungeon player base further, there are even fewer people available in the pool to group with. Which will kill off dungeons even more than they already are. This will have a really negative effect on the people trying to find others to play with.

Additional points to think about with the suggestion are:
- The development needed for this. This would take resources away from new content, and would require total reworks for mechanics in some dungeons. The cost will be high, and the returns are likely to be small in terms of revenue for Anet to take an approach which is opposite to their vision for gw2.

-Anet has stated no more work will be done on dungeons in GW2 from now on. It is for all development purposes, dead content.

-The majority of dungeon paths CAN be solo’d already with practice.

-NPC party mates will never be able to be added to GW2 due to the active combat system and the poor AI. In particular things like jumping and dodging are impossible for non player controlled party members which are needed for many dungeons.

So yeah, I am against dugeons becoming easier through a solo mode. I feel there is enough soloable content in the game already and resources would be better spent on other content.

zombyturtle.5980:

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

I stopped reading after this because it’s so untrue for Guild Wars 2 it’s almost humorous in its irony.

Edit:

Therefore, if you hate grouping so much you outright refuse to try it, you should either leave GW2 as the game was never designed, nor advertised for people like you or accept there will be content that you cannot do, and focus on enjoying the things you can.

Excuse me. But can you please tell us what game you’ve been playing because it’s most certainly not Guild Wars 2.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

zombyturtle.5980:

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

I stopped reading after this because it’s so untrue for Guild Wars 2 it’s almost humorous in its irony.

Really? Then please send me a development post that says GW2 is intended for solo players. Because EVERYTHING from the very first launch advertisments has said GW2’s aim is for players to work together to complete content. In fact a Q and A even once answered that it would only be possible to level to 80 and do the personal story solo and group events would require working with people.

Just because some players choose to play solo and casual doesnt mean that was the intention for the game. Anet has always pushed open world and casual grouping through their design decisions. And HOT design only shows this further by encouraging people to work together.

Hmm, no matter how it was advertised, I would like this change. Would not even be hard to accomplish since dungeons are instances, meaning you can scale them up or down to meet the number of players in a party.

Although I think Story paths should be put as part of the personal story and scale to party size like Arah, I’d rather keep the explorable paths for parties.

Albadaran.1283:

Hmm, no matter how it was advertised, I would like this change. Would not even be hard to accomplish since dungeons are instances, meaning you can scale them up or down to meet the number of players in a party.

What about mechanics that require 4-5 people to complete like the flame legion gate in cof p1 or the lasers in coe. It may seem simple to change on the face of it, but could require an entire rework of each event depending on how its coded, which would be alot of work.

zombyturtle.5980:

Really? Then please send me a development post that says GW2 is intended for solo players. Because EVERYTHING from the very first launch advertisments has said GW2’s aim is for players to work together to complete content. In fact a Q and A even once answered that it would only be possible to level to 80 and do the personal story solo.

I can show you experience instead: Every heart in every zone can be soloed. You can map the entire known world solo. You can level every step of the way solo.

Those parts you could not got nerfed . . . like the WvW map. But, even then, you could solo it if you desired. There’s a reason why dungeon content and much of the fractal content is dead.

Sorry you missed the memo.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

zombyturtle.5980:

Really? Then please send me a development post that says GW2 is intended for solo players. Because EVERYTHING from the very first launch advertisments has said GW2’s aim is for players to work together to complete content. In fact a Q and A even once answered that it would only be possible to level to 80 and do the personal story solo.

I can show you experience instead: Every heart in every zone can be soloed. You can map the entire known world solo. You can level every step of the way solo.

Those parts you could not got nerfed . . . like the WvW map. But, even then, you could solo it if you desired. There’s a reason why dungeon content and much of the fractal content is dead.

Sorry you missed the memo.

Please at least read my posts before you reply. Yes levelling to 80, through map completion was always an optional solo experience and this was stated in the FAQ’s and development posts before release.
‘You will be able to advance your character to the maximum level without ever joining a group, if you so desire.’

However Anet has pushed events and instanced content as GROUP experiences. Right from the start. They have said time and time again that coming together to complete content is part of GW2, in particular for meta events.

‘At the same time, it is important for an MMO community to join together to overcome challenges. Guild Wars 2 will feature challenges that require players to join forces.’ The unofficial FAQ references group events as ‘Any dynamic event listed as a Group Event will also be difficult or impossible to complete alone’

Again: experience shows this. HOT content heavily encourages grouping. Guild content is heavily developed through guilds halls and raids, while solo remains only as an option, rather than a strong development focus.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Those parts you could not got nerfed . . . like the WvW map. But, even then, you could solo it if you desired. There’s a reason why dungeon content and much of the fractal content is dead.

Soloing WvW Map? What are you talking about?
You can’t take any keeps and castles for sure and even if you manage to get trough the tower door you still have to fight a champion

Also your thing about fractals is wrong. People are not happy with the fractal rewards currently but a lot of people still do fractals daily working towards certain collections. At higher tiers fractals have more people than they did before and thats due to them being more acessible and having their time requirement reduced. Fractals are far from dead. Population wise they are better than before.

Well now that the rewards have been nerfed and dungeons are going to be overshadowed by Fractals and Raids for the foreseeable future, it would be nice to have, since the interest level in doing them is likely only to decline more over time (making it harder to get groups to do them).

If rewards are a concern, just nerf the drops a bit for solo mode runs.

I am with you OP. I do like grouping up with others, but it’s only in a PvP/WvW style environment.

For PvE, I’d much rather run solo. I like to go at my own pace, take breaks, plus I prefer the challenge. I don’t want to have to rely on others, nor do I want them relying on me.

Yes please. The more solo PVE stuff, the better. I’m really not bothered about the loot so scale it down to suit. More ways to play = more happy players.

zombyturtle.5980:

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

That’s completely false. GW2 has always been advertised as a game you can play your way, grouped or not. Further, for grouped content, it was specific parts of the game, like dungeons or fractals.

For basic PvE, it’s always been such that you can solo anything other than group events. And, even those you don’t need a formal group for; you just have to have enough bodies present. They go their merry ways after the event is done.

You CAN group, and nothing prevents it. But, we’ve never been forced to, until HoT.

C Gunner.9406:

Id like solo dungeons too with a choice of heroes!

Heheh +1

To the OP, I’m with you Cinder. Forming groups sucks. Not because the game mechanisms, but because of the people.

Yes, there are many people who play well and aren’t abusive. But, when you are with 5, there is almost always one jerk who acts like he’s a god’s gift to the game.

And I hate people who try to gate grouping by equipment. I believe the game should auto-perma-ban anybody who requires certain equipment on other players to join their group. Half of my main characters have their ascended gear. But, I would never be so crass as to demand that of others. It’s taken a LONG time to gear them up; I can’t expect that of others. If I see it in a group, I leave, regardless of whether I have the gear or not.

The number of bad groups I’ve been in greatly outnumbers the good ones. I hate the idea that I am forced to join with jerks in order to complete basic content.

This is something I been somewhat anxious about… I only been in a fractal once upon a time, years ago… Then RL happened and I only recently came back.

Looking at the LFG thing, I know I’d probably be auto rejected because I don’t have ‘gear’..

I’d love a way to solo dungeons/fractals. So what if it takes twice a long or longer to complete by yourself, that should be the price for soloing. My biggest anxiety in group activities is 1. I’m super shy, 2. I’m new to most of the game’s instanced features and from many posts.. I don’t think anyone would be really compassionate or patient of someone new..

YES! I want to get some dungeon tokens and also work on the dungeon achievements but I have absolutely ZERO interest in grouping. I choose to play solo. When I tire of solo content in a game, I quit playing. I am about a week away from that with GW2.

EDIT: let me clarify… I have a legendary weapon, I have a level 80 of every class, I have 100% map completion on my main and 100% minus HoT on 4 others. I have 3400 unspent gems, roughly 477 gold and probably 5000 worth of mats stored in the bank. I love the game but hate fractals, dungeons and anything else that forces me to rely on others to complete.

zombyturtle.5980:

Albadaran.1283:

Hmm, no matter how it was advertised, I would like this change. Would not even be hard to accomplish since dungeons are instances, meaning you can scale them up or down to meet the number of players in a party.

What about mechanics that require 4-5 people to complete like the flame legion gate in cof p1 or the lasers in coe. It may seem simple to change on the face of it, but could require an entire rework of each event depending on how its coded, which would be alot of work.

Wouldnt be hard to change, they did the same thing for the solo story arah dungeon already. Rather than requiring triggers to happen simultaneously, simply change them to not be timing dependent so that a solo player can just complete each part himself at his own pace.

zombyturtle.5980:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

zombyturtle.5980:

Firstly, your argument about grouping and MMO’s would stand for the MMO genre as a whole. However GW2 has ALWAYS been advertised as a game where grouping with people is necessary to complete and achieve content. If you dont like grouping you can still play plenty of MMO’s but maybe not GW2.

I stopped reading after this because it’s so untrue for Guild Wars 2 it’s almost humorous in its irony.

Really? Then please send me a development post that says GW2 is intended for solo players. Because EVERYTHING from the very first launch advertisments has said GW2’s aim is for players to work together to complete content. In fact a Q and A even once answered that it would only be possible to level to 80 and do the personal story solo and group events would require working with people.

Just because some players choose to play solo and casual doesnt mean that was the intention for the game. Anet has always pushed open world and casual grouping through their design decisions. And HOT design only shows this further by encouraging people to work together.

group events do not mean grouping up in a pug or otherwise, it meant open world events where a bunch of people come together and do the same event.

dungeons however are ENCOURAGED to play with some friends or guildies, sure, but it never was stated that we can not do it solo. I think it is rather fair to ask for this after the release of HoT to at some point in the near future to have an option to be able to solo the dungeons with reduced rewards (more reducing sigh). would it hurt you if we got that option? do you feel the need to tell me to leave the game as well?

I think this is a reasonable request, conceptually speaking. There’s no reason dungeons shouldn’t be solo-able, though grouping up should still probably reward you more.

Speaking practically, though, this is never going to happen. Too much development time would have to be spent tweaking the dungeons for dungeon mode, and I can’t imagine there are all that many people who’d be interested in this.

For what it’s worth, I solo’ed HotW p1 earlier today, so it is possible to solo some dungeon paths. Not very lucrative, though: you have to deal 5 times the damage and don’t get any group buffs, so it takes way longer.

It’s going to get harder for the average player to find dungeon groups as time goes on. I feel like it’s kind of inevitable that something will be done to facilitate solo/small group play.

Hmm. Actually, let me rephrase. They should do something to facilitate solo/small group play, but I don’t actually know whether the current dungeons will ever get any more updates.

That’s kind of sad. Moment of silence for dungeons, please.

Alchies.1984:

It’s going to get harder for the average player to find dungeon groups as time goes on. I feel like it’s kind of inevitable that something will be done to facilitate solo/small group play.

Hmm. Actually, let me rephrase. They should do something to facilitate solo/small group play, but I don’t actually know whether the current dungeons will ever get any more updates.

That’s kind of sad. Moment of silence for dungeons, please.

You hit on a great point I didn’t cover. Dungeons are already rarely played as it is and that will only get worse as time goes by. This would be a great way to bring them back with very minimal effort on the devs.

I’ll add my vote to this option. Like the opening person I am not keen on content that requires organised grouping. I started playing at launch and like some others still haven’t finished the personal story, once i found out it required a group for the last part I lost interest and even now I know it can be soloed I’ve never gone back to do it. I’ve pugged a few dungeon paths specifically for my legendary, but its because I have to not because I want to. I’ve yet to go into fractals. However I do love the big open world events and join in whenever I come across one, but don’t tend to join the trains to farm them. Even HoT I tend to wander around solo and just join in with what I come across.

I don’t think my dislike of organised groups means I shouldn’t play MMOs, there are plenty of other things that include other people that I do like.

I think it would be a good thing to have an easy (solo or duo) mode for a dungeon, you could still have the standard mode and then a hard option could also be added for those who want the more challenging content. Adjusting the loot would be an easy way to try and keep the standard mode popular but an easy mode dungeon could give less loot and a hard mode give better loot.

Fengzhou.9853:

This is something I been somewhat anxious about… I only been in a fractal once upon a time, years ago… Then RL happened and I only recently came back.

Looking at the LFG thing, I know I’d probably be auto rejected because I don’t have ‘gear’..

I’d love a way to solo dungeons/fractals. So what if it takes twice a long or longer to complete by yourself, that should be the price for soloing. My biggest anxiety in group activities is 1. I’m super shy, 2. I’m new to most of the game’s instanced features and from many posts.. I don’t think anyone would be really compassionate or patient of someone new..

In reality the GW2 community is a lot nicer than most communities out there. I’ve run a LOT of fractals since HoT (compared to before), and the extent of “gear-checking” is just having your character walk into a little orb in the waiting room to see if you could survive the level of agony in the fractal. And if you’re in a level of fractal that you cannot survive the agony in than that’s your fault and not anyone else’s. And I only had that happen once in all of my 175 fractal runs since HoT. Other than that, I’ve had one instance where a group I was in had two idiots that started shpieling toxicity at me after a casual comment. So overall those are pretty good statistics. Most of the time, you join a group and the conversation never passes a “hello”, so you should be fine.

mcwurth.2081:

dungeons however are ENCOURAGED to play with some friends or guildies, sure, but it never was stated that we can not do it solo. I think it is rather fair to ask for this after the release of HoT to at some point in the near future to have an option to be able to solo the dungeons with reduced rewards (more reducing sigh). would it hurt you if we got that option? do you feel the need to tell me to leave the game as well?

Why reduce loot? The loot is balanced for 5 now. Just give the exact same amount. The solo player should get the same loot as if it were divided by 5. 5/5 = 1

As for soloing dungeons… I don’t know. If we start making all group content soloable this will turn from “Guild Wars 2” to “Solo Duels 2”.

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

Most dungeons can be soloed as they are now. Only exception is ones that have mechanics that require multiple people such as CoF1/3

mcwurth.2081:

group events do not mean grouping up in a pug or otherwise, it meant open world events where a bunch of people come together and do the same event.

dungeons however are ENCOURAGED to play with some friends or guildies, sure, but it never was stated that we can not do it solo. I think it is rather fair to ask for this after the release of HoT to at some point in the near future to have an option to be able to solo the dungeons with reduced rewards (more reducing sigh). would it hurt you if we got that option? do you feel the need to tell me to leave the game as well?

Yes it would hurt. Segmenting the player base is always harmful in the long run. Reducing the number of players to group to form dungeons will make actually doing them as a group even harder than it already is. And its hard due to the reduced rewards.
If you cant enjoy the game without dungeons, and cant bear to group up then yes id say leave.

I wish people would stop trying to change every aspect of the game to suit THEIR playstyle and instead understand that some people like it the way it is and dont want it to be destroyed.

Regardless, noone has bothered to address the many talking points I raised at the beginning of the conversation which will prevent this from ever happening.

Altair.8402:

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

It’s not that we don’t like playing with other people, on the contrary I love playing with others. It’s the fact that we don’t like organized grouping. I love group events, trading, talking with others, and generally playing in a game where others are playing with me. What we don’t like is depending on others or (often even worse) having others depending on you. Rather than a carefree, enjoyable, go-at-your-own-pace adventure you are now in a stressful go-go strike team of people who are all there to get loot and get out and you better hold your own or you’re getting kicked. I understand that that is a pleasurable experience to some but certainly you can understand how it might not be pleasurable to others.

Zombieturtle I feel you may have misunderstood me. I’m not suggesting they change anything. I don’t want them to dumb down dungeons or increase or decrease the loot or anything else that would effect the way you yourself play the game. I am asking for them to add in an additional feature that would be relatively easy to add and would allow those of us (a very large number of GW2 playerbase) who very much dislike that aspect of the game, to actually enjoy it. This change has no impact on you at all, but increases the rest of us’ enjoyment of the game.
Do remember that this game belongs to us all. I respect that you don’t want anything changed and that’s why I’d never ask them to do anything that would effect your own enjoyment of the game. But can you perhaps see how your fighting a change like this WOULD have an adverse effect on how people like me might enjoy the game?

CIndeR.3479:

Altair.8402:

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

It’s not that we don’t like playing with other people, on the contrary I love playing with others. It’s the fact that we don’t like organized grouping. I love group events, trading, talking with others, and generally playing in a game where others are playing with me. What we don’t like is depending on others or (often even worse) having others depending on you. Rather than a carefree, enjoyable, go-at-your-own-pace adventure you are now in a stressful go-go strike team of people who are all there to get loot and get out and you better hold your own or you’re getting kicked. I understand that that is a pleasurable experience to some but certainly you can understand how it might not be pleasurable to others.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Daddicus.6128:

That’s completely false. GW2 has always been advertised as a game you can play your way, grouped or not. Further, for grouped content, it was specific parts of the game, like dungeons or fractals.

For basic PvE, it’s always been such that you can solo anything other than group events.

We are not talking about open world basic PVE we are talking about a specific part of the game. Which has always been advertised as requiring grouping. And to add to your original point, solo play has been an option for basic PVE, but never the intent of Anet.

Again, I will reiterate their intent was for players to come together to do events, even in the open world through casual grouping. Ive even included quotes in an earlier post if you still dont believe me.

Daddicus.6128:

I believe the game should auto-perma-ban anybody who requires certain equipment on other players to join their group.

This attitude is honestly just toxic and has no place in any game. How rude of you to criticize others way of playing and to be so intolerant of their seeking like minded people to play with.

Why are you requesting soloable Dungeons while nearly all of emm are soloable

ironfrodo.7625:

Why are you requesting soloable Dungeons while nearly all of emm are soloable

They are soloable by very elite highly-geared individuals. Yes they CAN be solo’ed and I applaud them for that. But those of us who will never get to that skill/gear level will never be able to do it.
I want to preface this by emphasizing that I am not asking them to make dungeons easier. I am asking for a solo mode in exactly the same way they did for Arah personal story. Thos people who can solo group dungeons will still be able to be just as proud because nothing on that side will have changed. All we are asking for here is a Solo mode in addition to whats already there.

CIndeR.3479:

Zombieturtle I feel you may have misunderstood me. I’m not suggesting they change anything. I don’t want them to dumb down dungeons or increase or decrease the loot or anything else that would effect the way you yourself play the game. I am asking for them to add in an additional feature that would be relatively easy to add and would allow those of us (a very large number of GW2 playerbase) who very much dislike that aspect of the game, to actually enjoy it. This change has no impact on you at all, but increases the rest of us’ enjoyment of the game.
Do remember that this game belongs to us all. I respect that you don’t want anything changed and that’s why I’d never ask them to do anything that would effect your own enjoyment of the game. But can you perhaps see how your fighting a change like this WOULD have an adverse effect on how people like me might enjoy the game?

I understand and I sympathise with you and your dislike for grouping. I have had many bad experiences with grouping myself, as well as many good ones and I can see how people may be put off if they have a few bad in a row.

I understand your suggestion but I think you are minimising or not fully understanding the impact your suggestion would have on the grouping playerbase for dungeons.

The state of dungeons currently is not good. Rewards have been decimated to the point where its not worth players time to repeat them after they have got enough tokens for whatever goal they are trying to achieve. Most players have already reached that goal and therefore getting a group is a challenge all in itself, as most players will only do a run for the enjoyment once or twice a month.

If a solo option WAS added. Many players, even those who dont mind grouping, would probably choose the solo option simply for the convenience, rather than go through the hassel of waiting for a party from a limited pool of available players.

This leaves people who want to do the dungeons with a group, for enjoyment, with noone to play with. The pool of dungeon players would be so segmented it would take unreasonable efforts to make and play as a group and I would end up playing solo.

I bought this game, and have continued playing it for 3 years because I enjoy dungeons and I get satisfaction for compleing them with other people. I dont want the thing I enjoy most in the game to be taken away moire than it already has been and if solo runs were ever implemented, it would be the final nail in the coffin for gw2 grouped dungeon runs.

zombyturtle.5980:

I understand and I sympathise with you and your dislike for grouping. I have had many bad experiences with grouping myself, as well as many good ones and I can see how people may be put off if they have a few bad in a row.

I understand your suggestion but I think you are minimising or not fully understanding the impact your suggestion would have on the grouping playerbase for dungeons.

The state of dungeons currently is not good. Rewards have been decimated to the point where its not worth players time to repeat them after they have got enough tokens for whatever goal they are trying to achieve. Most players have already reached that goal and therefore getting a group is a challenge all in itself, as most players will only do a run for the enjoyment once or twice a month.

If a solo option WAS added. Many players, even those who dont mind grouping, would probably choose the solo option simply for the convenience, rather than go through the hassel of waiting for a party from a limited pool of available players.

This leaves people who want to do the dungeons with a group, for enjoyment, with noone to play with. The pool of dungeon players would be so segmented it would take unreasonable efforts to make and play as a group and I would end up playing solo.

I bought this game, and have continued playing it for 3 years because I enjoy dungeons and I get satisfaction for compleing them with other people. I dont want the thing I enjoy most in the game to be taken away moire than it already has been and if solo runs were ever implemented, it would be the final nail in the coffin for gw2 grouped dungeon runs.

You are exactly right. Though this is why I also suggested that the solo mode result in significant reward decreases to the point where grouping will be significantly more profitable. Group dungeons should always be more profitable because they are a simply harder, and I am perfectly ok with that. Honestly I would be fine with zero rewards because I just like playing the game, but I know most people wouldn’t like that much lol. Something like, oh say, 1/4 the rewards probably would suffice I think.
I’ve been playing the game causally for 2 years now and I’ve been behind most players the whole time as a result. I don’t own a single legendary and I have little gold, and I’m perfectly ok with that! I wouldn’t expect to get more than I’ve earned. My complaint is that I don’t get to see some of the games coolest looking areas without having to group, which to me, would kill the experience, especially during a time when dungeons are dying as it is.

Altair.8402:

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

• Played Skyrim until I couldn’t play it anymore. Then came back and played it a bunch more. Have basically played it out with mods and everything
• Dragon Age and Witcher 3 – too graphic intensive. Don’t want to fiddle with upgrade costs at the moment, so buying games like that is on stand-by
• FO4 – checked reviews, seems to be “Fallout made mainstream.” Far too expensive for a game that probably won’t give me the kind of RPG experience I’m looking for in that genre

That said, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
1) I like playing games with other people.
2) I don’t like committing the time and social obligation to doing that on a regular basis, at this time in my life.
3) I play MMOs anyway (if they’re good enough) for the same reason that you go to the cafe to work, instead of sitting at home. Sometimes I want to be around people while I’m playing a game, even if I’m not playing with them in a strictly engaged way.

Case in point, the primary content I play in this game is open world PvE (drop in / drop out events) and EotM. Both very casual atmosphere that can have some extemporaneous interaction, but has no obligation of interaction or commitment. I’ve been down the commitment road and, frankly, I’m bad at managing it without a strict schedule I can use as an excuse to back out when needed.

I have no interest in being the guy who says he’ll do X and then can’t. Or the guy who says he’ll do X and then does, at the expense of his personal life.

It all comes back to time commitment for me. I’m not actually that asocial.

“the grouping wall”

Is having to walk a gravity wall? Is having to use your hands to play the game a motor function wall?" Is needing to be corporeal an existence wall?

I have no opinion on this either way, but hearing regular parts of the game people don’t like being referred to as hard limits is getting extremely annoying…

CIndeR.3479:

You are exactly right. Though this is why I also suggested that the solo mode result in significant reward decreases to the point where grouping will be significantly more profitable. Group dungeons should always be more profitable because they are a simply harder, and I am perfectly ok with that. Honestly I would be fine with zero rewards because I just like playing the game, but I know most people wouldn’t like that much lol. Something like, oh say, 1/4 the rewards probably would suffice I think.

I would be FULLY behind you if there was a guarantee that it would not destroy the grouping aspect of dungeons. I even think though that 1/4 of the rewards would still mean solo would become the dominant way of earnign tokens and gear. If tokens were removed from solo mode, and only gold were given at 1/2 of the current rate then that might be a solution that doesnt harm either side. I would be behind that.

There are still many issues though that I think means this is really unlikely to happen. The biggest being Anet hates dungeons and has declared them dead for development purposes. They wont even touch them to fix bugs anymore.

Kormeg.2469:

“the grouping wall”

Is having to walk a gravity wall? Is having to use your hands to play the game a motor function wall?" Is needing to be corporeal an existence wall?

I have no opinion on this either way, but hearing regular parts of the game people don’t like being referred to as hard limits is getting extremely annoying…

I can understand that, and I’m sorry to have referred to it in such a fashion. But its hard to explain the way solo’ers like me see things like that without explaining them that way. A Grouping Wall really get the point across. It’s an entire section of the game that requires you to do something particularly unenjoyable just to get to it, and the act of performing the unenjoyable part is bad enough to us that it ruins the entire experience.
The only other way I can explain is is a carton of ice cream covered in dog poop. From my viewpoint I can’t help but wonder why it needs to be covered in dog poop in the first place?

zombyturtle.5980:

I would be FULLY behind you if there was a guarantee that it would not destroy the grouping aspect of dungeons. I even think though that 1/4 of the rewards would still mean solo would become the dominant way of earnign tokens and gear. If tokens were removed from solo mode, and only gold were given at 1/2 of the current rate then that might be a solution that doesnt harm either side. I would be behind that.

There are still many issues though that I think means this is really unlikely to happen. The biggest being Anet hates dungeons and has declared them dead for development purposes. They wont even touch them to fix bugs anymore.

True story. But there is still Fractals.

zombyturtle.5980:

I would be FULLY behind you if there was a guarantee that it would not destroy the grouping aspect of dungeons. I even think though that 1/4 of the rewards would still mean solo would become the dominant way of earnign tokens and gear. If tokens were removed from solo mode, and only gold were given at 1/2 of the current rate then that might be a solution that doesnt harm either side. I would be behind that.

There are still many issues though that I think means this is really unlikely to happen. The biggest being Anet hates dungeons and has declared them dead for development purposes. They wont even touch them to fix bugs anymore.

Why do you think the grouping part would go downhill? I mean, more downhill than it is already. Something as low as 1/4 would be brutal to do over and over, even with being able to solo it. The incentive for partying up if you want to be efficient would be readily apparent.

CIndeR.3479:

Altair.8402:

I’m not trying to attack anyone for their preferences but I’m honestly surprised there’s so many who don’t want to play with other people. I’m genuinely curious, what draws you to MMOs? There’s so many good RPGs out right now that offer an amazing single player experience (Witcher 3, Skyrim, FO4, Dragon Age, etc.)

What we don’t like is depending on others or (often even worse) having others depending on you. Rather than a carefree, enjoyable, go-at-your-own-pace adventure you are now in a stressful go-go strike team of people who are all there to get loot and get out and you better hold your own or you’re getting kicked. I understand that that is a pleasurable experience to some but certainly you can understand how it might not be pleasurable to others.

I do hope you realise that there are many go at your own pace groups forming where noone is expecting anything of their teammates other than to have a welcoming attitude. Its sad to see people having this view of instanced content when loot farming groups are only a small part.

If you inherintly dislike grouping just because then there isnt much I can do, but if you dont like it because of the pressure or expectations then there are many ways around that.

I think many people misunderstand how to use the LFG tool, which is not their fault, as its badly explained. Creating a LFG with the description ‘casual run all welcome new to path’ should always be sufficient to find the type of group you would seem to prefer.
Also just because you create a group doesnt mean you have to lead or take charge in any way.

Labjax.2465:

Why do you think the grouping part would go downhill? I mean, more downhill than it is already. Something as low as 1/4 would be brutal to do over and over, even with being able to solo it. The incentive for partying up if you want to be efficient would be readily apparent.

I explain in a previous post why it would kill grouping. heres a TLDR:
people only do dungeons frequently now for tokens. If they can get tokens in solo mode they wont go through the effort of grouping even if they dont mind it because the extra challenges arent worth it.

Anyway the purpose of a solo mode wouldnt be to get rewards easy. It would be to give people who hate grouping a chance to experience the content in a way they find fun. I still think it would be necessary that rewards are harder to earn in solo as many of the challenges are removed by being able to do it alone.

zombyturtle.5980:

I do hope you realise that there are many go at your own pace groups forming where noone is expecting anything of their teammates other than to have a welcoming attitude. Its sad to see people having this view of instanced content when loot farming groups are only a small part.

If you inherintly dislike grouping just because then there isnt much I can do, but if you dont like it because of the pressure or expectations then there are many ways around that.

I think many people misunderstand how to use the LFG tool, which is not their fault, as its badly explained. Creating a LFG with the description ‘casual run all welcome new to path’ should always be sufficient to find the type of group you would seem to prefer.
Also just because you create a group doesnt mean you have to lead or take charge in any way.

True, and on the handful of times I’ve gone through a dungeon those have been significantly more enjoyable. But there is still an aspect of dependability that really kills the experience for me. A feeling of everyone needing everyone or you aren’t going to make it. I’m a pick up and put down kind of player because like most of us, RL gets in the way and I need to log off. If I’m by myself this is no big deal but if I’m with a group suddenly I’ve let the group down. They now need to put everything on halt to find a new player to join them since proceeding will likely result in death because casual players are also inherently weaker players. I feel bad doing that to people so really the only responsible thing is to not play dungeons.

It’s that double sided dependability that solo’ers dislike. We don’t like depending on people and we don’t like people having to depend on us. A Psychologist would probably tell you it has something to do with self-esteem and lack of trust in others but meh, there you have it lol