18.1.9 Why do developers try to keep solo play to a minimum, stressing the virtues of grouping?

I am not going to comment on whether "strongly encouraged" grouping is right or wrong, or whether or not we are going to do this in our game. But, I thought I would give you the rationale, as I understand it, behind the idea.

It is thought, and I think this is correct just based on my own experience, that when people are strongly encouraged to group, they form relationships with people that they would never have met if they hadn't been "forced" to group with them. I think this is especially the case for people, like me, that are less social. And, it is also believed, these relationships keep people playing because they want to continue these friendships that have formed. I know of several people that played some MMOGs much longer than they normally would have just because they had a whole community of friends (or at least a few) in that MMO that they wanted to sign in just to talk to, or adventure with. Aside from that, adventuring with other people, at its best, is much more fun than soloing.

That said, I am fully aware of how long it takes to get a group together in other games, and that it can be almost impossible to make any forward progress in the game if you only have an hour or two here and there to play. I, personally, have frequently been that player that has to log out shortly after getting a group together and starting to adventure because just getting to the point where the exp starts rolling in can easily take an hour or more. This makes people, including me, more inclined to solo.
I can't comment on what we are going to do in our game, except to say that we realize these things as a dev team, and we are going to do our best to make things better. - Steve Clover, Senior Programmer

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