Kendricke wrote:
"The reason that SOE is unlikely to change this in any significant way doesn't have to do with lore, or anything along those lines. It primarily has to do with money. Players in guilds who have established social ties within the context of the game are much more likely to maintain their subscription and continue playing. Players who have no such ties and are "lone wolves" are more likely to hop around from game to game, cancel their subscription, etc. because there's little or no social aspect which ties them to the game beyond the game itself. SOE will do everything they reasonably can to reinforce those social ties, to make it so that leaving the game isn't just pressing the cancel button, it also means walking away from your (virtual) friends and encouraging guilds is a great tool towards that end." -Kordran, September 10, 2008
Do you remember saying that, Kordran? Because it's a great post. It sums up my thoughts regarding folks who have trouble finding groups outside of guilds, who are here to be around other players but not to necessarily bond with other players, who are here to primarily solo without putting in the effort to group or find guilds.
Sure, I remember it and I think it's true. What I said about soloing and APs was an observation, not a statement that it was wrong. I was simply commenting on Atan's post where he said that after 12 hours of soloing in MoY he had barely scratched the surface -- my point was that, in terms of solo content in TSO there's not much surface to scratch. The solo quests are basically in line with the RoK solo quest lines in terms of difficulty (read: not difficult at all), they're just significantly fewer in number.
Also, by extension, I don't think that people who group should have access to the same kind of gear that people who raid can get. I'm absolutely fine with the tiers of itemization in the game, and I'm also fine with the few exceptions to the rule. In other words, I have no problem if one or two long, involved solo quests have a fabled reward. And I have no problem with a fabled item rarely dropping in a group instance. But I think those should continue to be the rare exception, and not the norm.
I am one of those people who think that it is in the designer's best interest to encourage grouping as much as possible. I don't think soloers should be excluded by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think that the social aspect of MMOs is what makes the game greater than the sum of its parts.
In these serveral posts that discuss the issue of TSO's difficulty, you'll not find a single post from me stating that I think soloers should be able to complete group content, or that they should get the same rewards as those who group. Nowhere have I stated that I think soloers should even have the ability to get a single void shard, nor have I stated that I think there should be solo adventure instances. I believe that decision, in particular, would be a destructive force in the game because most players would naturally follow the path of least resistance.
The only argument that I have made is that in recognition that there are players who want to group and want to run the instances in TSO -- but they are experiencing frustration due to a variety of issues -- perhaps it would be a good idea to provide easier content for them. Something on the same level of difficulty of CoA or VoES. I have also said that they should not be given the same rewards as those running the current TSO instances, and that nothing should be taken away from the current instances that many players are enjoying, such as your friends and the folks in your guild. I have never asked for anything to be "nerfed" here. I've simply suggested that it may be in SOE's interest to add some new, easier instances for those players who simply aren't up to running through the group content as it is now.
In summary: I don't think soloers should have the same rewards as groupers. I don't want instances nerfed. I don't want existing content removed or simplified. I do think that adding even easier content to TSO, with lesser rewards, would provide an additional path of progression would encourage more players to buy the expansion. Telling players to run through the RoK instances to progress does not make SOE additional money. Players buying TSO does. And no one is going to cancel or choose not to come back to the game because easier content has been added.
In the end, it'll come down to how SOE decides to manage their developer resources. How many players have returned and are enjoying the new content, versus how many are feeling frustrated and leaving or deciding not to buy the expansion. None of us, not you, not I, know the answer to this. The most we have is anecdotal evidence from the servers we play on, and the extremely skewed feedback on these forums. Hopefully everyone does complete the in-game survey, and that will give SOE the information that they need to make a decision. But when in doubt, I always tend to fall on the side of giving players more options unless it's completely time/cost prohibitive. And the only people who can make that decision with any kind of intelligence work for SOE. I'm sure we'll find out which way they're going with the next few game updates.