Gonna have to agree with this one more than any other gripe I have with current MMO's. I think EQ2 has a very nice mix between having things to do solo and needing to group.

Heh. I feel just the opposite, Jason. I love the solo stuff.

The one thing I most hate in MMOs is wasting precious game time in LFG and then eventually having to ditch instance/dungeon quests because finding groups is too much of a pain in the tail.

It's not that I opposed to group content, I just want it to be more marginalized and optional for them that wants it.

The ideal MMO is/was Guild Wars, which allowed players to group and/or solo the content, quests, and most missions. We need more -- not fewer -- MMOs like that, imo.

Each questing zone in AOC you can play in an "epic" mode that is tuned for groups with better rewards. I've had the most fun in AOC with a group but found that I could solo whenever I wanted just as effectively.

@Tom: I'm assuming you're talking about WoW, because that's the only MMO I've ever played with that problem. In WoW's case, the problem is actually there ONLY because of the solo-push that Jason was talking about. Nobody wants to group, because you don't have to, so that nobody bothers grouping, so when you do want to group you can't, because nobody wants to group because nobody has to. The solution to puttering around in LFG for hours is to make a game where you have to group for much of the content. Of course everybody disagrees because they've only ever played a game where grouping is hard as hell because of the above reasons.

So now we've got a standard-setting MMO that's made it difficult and unreasonable to group with people, so that when people think "grouping," they immediately groan and opt for solo content. The other standard-setter (Guild Wars), has made it again unreasonable to need to group with people. This is not the way it should be, and its not the way it was, and its certainly my biggest gripe with MMOs.

I want to play an MMO because of the people in-game; not because I want to play a game beside thousands of others, but because I want to play a game WITH thousands of others.

I always notice that the people advocating forced-grouping tend to be members of large or dedicated gaming guilds, powergamers from EQ1 or something.

the thing about grouping these days is for alot of the cases it is boring as hell.
no one wants to chat. you know socialize with others in the group. its all go go go kill kill kill level level level get shiney get...well i think you got it...

the way most groups go you mite as well just be with some computer controlled bots. so many just group up..get their shiney or finish quest and they off.. slam bamm thank you mamm.

everyone is in such a hurry these days. must get to 80 in 5 days(or what ever top level is) then complain on the games forums how bored you are.

also i think alot(me anyway) just cant play like they used to(RL issues)
I cant just sit playing for 10hrs+ straight anymore. i may be logged in for 5hrs but probably only actively play for 2hrs..the rest i am afk
most groups would get peeved if someone kept going afk every 20min for 5+ min at a time.

then there is the lie that soloers want and have it easy if they want a challenge they need to group. when in fact its the other way around. Exp in groups fly by. things are easier to do. a soloer doing same content takes much longer or has to green/grey out the content. getting to 80 solo is a challenge. grouping is easy mode.