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I am tired of this arguement. Its one arguement that every MMO community has and its tiresome. Its been done already and everything that can be said to support either side is finished. Next page please. So lets have it all out right now.

First off I am a solo player. Before you groupies start to flame me let me get rid of some urban legends here. Most solo players love to group just as much as you groupies andin alot of cases even more so. We just like to group on our own terms. We dont like being forced and most of us hate PUGs (pick up groups) even worse. Most of us find forced groups or PUGs to be detious at best and at worst, the best chance to see the inside of a cloning tube.

Now every groupie loves to say MMORPG means you have to group. Lets dump this arguement right now. MMO means alot of people playing on the same server in a persistant world. Nothing more and nothing less. If it was Massive Multiplayer Grouped Online Role Playing Game then I would agree. But it isnt so get over it.

The fact is human nature in itself. People hunger for human contact. They need to be social. But most game companies that put out MMOs dont realize this so they try to put in all sorts of things to force grouping or force social interaction. Not needed. Even the most ardent hermit type player (me) will seek out contact with other players and group alot. I have yet to see any solo player say that they dont want to group.

Now onto the missions in JTL and the reasons for posting this. Some hate having to group to do the higher tier missions. In defense of the groupies, trust me here, grouping in JTL is a hell of alot more fun then going it solo if you got a good group. But in defense of the soloers I have to say there is one thing I am starting to notice. When you got 20 friends that all have to do the first tier 3 mission then you have to go through that mission alot. It gets more then boring quick.

I have done the Storm Squad Tier 3 Mission 1 and it was more then boring the first time. Now two of my friends are ready to do it and I have to help them as they helped me. Needless to say I am less then thrilled.

So back to the main topic. All the groupers need to learn that soloers love grouping too. And in fact you can take the most solocentric game and you will see alot of grouping. Case in point is Lineage 2. Probably the most solocentric game out there yet I saw so many groups it was nuts.

The problem here isnt that soloers would never group if this game became a solocentric game. In fact they would still group just for the social interaction it gives. The true problem is the game companies that believe if they dont force grouping or force social interaction with stupid things like AxP, that the game will go totally solo. And it definately would not.

Thanks for your time.

Tyranus

Yoda: "When I die, the last of the Jedi, you will be!"
Luke: "Really? what about those 50,000 Jedi Masters outside comparing Saber Size?"
Yoda: "Sorry I am, My Bad it is"

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All rite boyz, da plan iz: win. An' if we looz, it's yer falt, becuz ya didn't follow da plan

Not so sure every solo person would group if not forced to. Many would, but, there are some solo players who wouldn't go near other players unless they had something to gain from them.

Perhaps the answer isn't so much as to do away with forced grouping, but to redefine how it works with mission objectives.

For the Kessel PvP missions, forced grouping is actually done really well. For the 30 kills part, everyone with that mission gets credit for every kill regardless of their role in the kill. While grouping isn't necessary for this mission (except to avoid being ganked by hostile players), it makes the mission go a heck of a lot faster because everyone is going after different targets.

The corvette strike I have mixed feelings on. It really sucks trying to find people to come with you, about 10 or so, and being able to keep them interested and not leaving midway through the corvette search. There is nothing to gain by taking out the corvette unless it is your mission. So while some people have been really nice and donated their time to help others with it, it can take hours just getting a sizeable group together to do the mission. In the end, people without the mission risk losing ship condition, money, and time, with no compensation back to them.

Forced grouping in the Corvette mission sucks. It's really cool when you get it all together and take down the vette, but the setup and the location process is a nightmare.

The worst part about forcing grouping on the previous tier 3 and 4 missions, is that even if more than one person in the group has the same exact mission, you have to do it more than once. They should allow for grouped players to complete missions 1 time for all the players in the group (if they are on the same mission). Rather than repeating the same boring escort multiple times, one time should cover it.

This wouldn't do away with forced grouping, but it would reduce the repetitiveness of some of the missions.

-Alymon Lightflier
Master Pilot, Shipwright, Droid Engineer
RSF Squadron
Nu'Maoi Naboo