is grouping that bad?

[Norsalith]

I played from launch on the Fatman server. One of the bigger servers with one of the biggest population imbalances too.

 

Finding a group was a nightmare...on LAUNCH week.

 

Can't imagine how bad it is now, I wouldn't dare log on to this mess of a game.

You apparently quit. But you are still willing to come around and throw in your opinion.

 

You have the makings of a fine troll upon you.

[TheSwamper]

I'm not so much anti-grouping as I am anti-waiting-around-not-playing. I'd much, much rather skip a 2man or a 4man than wait around trying to form a group or while others wrap up whatever they're doing and get themselves to the instance.

[ArtMonster]

I 'CHOOSE' not to group or guild.

 

and I thank this game for letting me do my own thing successfully without having to rely on others that I either wont or dont get along with anyway.

 

This evolution to supporting the single player, as well as groups, has been happening lately to a majority of mmo's recently released.

 

Yes, people suck....and mmo's are a good way to get away from them IMO. I'm glad the demographics have shown them the way to most contemporary players' styles.

 

and yes....they have accurate demographic data that trumps your 'enduser' assumptions and speculations.

.

Edited February 9, 2012 by ArtMonster

[archifikoss]

If you ask me, if you're playing an MMO and don't want to group, you're in the wrong genre.

 

We didn't ask you, and we'll play any way we like. Who are you to tell me how I'll spend my time in the game?

 

I don't group in games because my game time is essentially the only time of day I have to myself. Also, I could up and leave my house in favor of a nice coffee or night out with my friends at the drop of a hat, so why risk to let down fellow players?

[DarthMarisa]

i dont know if i am on a island to myself or what? i feel like i picked the snob server and asking people to group is like getting punched in the face. one problem i see is that so many are like "dude i got to get 17 lvls in one sitting and get 12 tomorrow". COME ON!!!! Maybe its spilled milk and i am losing my touch. but for me this is for me the first online game i never have much luck making friends. Bash me if u want but i wish people would get a little more friendly.

 

I don't have any issues grouping but I am on a heavily populated server, Jedi Covenant. I have one character I play with my husband so I'm always grouped (I can't play this char without him at least till we both hit 50 - he doesn't like it when I outlevel him) and alts I solo with. I'll group with them provided I don't have rl interferences. There's not much that needs grouping (though I won't deny it's fun!) and I often wind up telling my guildmates who ask, that I'm not in need of help atm. I'm looking forward to my alt being in the near 50s so I can do HMs etc with them.

 

The problem I have grouping outside the guild (for Heroics specifically) is that if you're not in the area of the Heroic, it's a pain in the arse to get everyone there for it. Even worse if you're on another planet. I personally wouldn't mind going back and doing some of the Heroics I passed up but honestly, who wants to wait for me to get through 6 loading screens and a speederbike ride?

 

Even grouping I don't level that fast but I do love group dialogue. The story doesn't always turn out like I wanted it to but it's fun to see everyone else's reactions.

 

It may seem like a trite response to say find a guild like so many do but honestly it DOES make a world of difference. I have so many offers of help I feel bad for declining but it also means that if I want to tackle something with a group, I have friends that will do it in a heartbeat.

 

I DP join PUGs on occasion but as I said before, the main reason for not doing it often is because of travel time. People want to get their quest done, not wait an hour for everyone to assemble. Quite often I don't have that kind of time myself. I may have to leave for work soon etc so if I joined a random PUG, I'd need it to get started pretty quickly. I don't like rushing people through things so I simply avoid grouping if I know I don't have the time to wait.

 

I don't know which server you're on and I hate to sound snarky but until they allow transfer, maybe try an alt on one of the other servers? I'm not claiming mine is the only one with lots of people but it's the only one I've played on. You can try Jedi Covenant, both factions seem heavily populated though admittedly I don't play in our Republic side guild very often, I'm Empire at heart. I know it sucks when you've invested a lot into your character but you might find making friends easier and then it wouldn't be so bad. Especially if you join a guild that will help you get to the point you were at pretty quickly. We have a couple people in our guild that had 50s on other servers and are having a blast with us. =) And I'm not just touting my guild, there are tons of guilds on Jedi Covenant. Very active raiding guilds, casual based like mine and lots of new guilds being formed and looking for members in GC. You'll easily find a guild that suits your tastes. =)

[Luewen]

I've come across more people willing to group than are unwilling. People seem to be picking on up the fact that grouping allows you to move through quests and level up much quicker.

 

This whole solo aspect that is creeping into MMOs is a carry over for WoW as it was one of the first MMOs to be solo friendly. If you ask me, if you're playing an MMO and don't want to group, you're in the wrong genre.

 

How about the peeps that dont want to lvl up faster? Game already gives lvls like no other...

 

And by the time i find group for lower lvl instances i already overlvl them greatly.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Luewen

[VorpalK]

For me it depends on the activity. I find most people willing to group for FP's and Heroics, but for simple leveling and grouping of that nature, it's much harder to get groups as people can generally get more accomplished solo.

 

Well, if someone didn't log in and plan on grouping, because they were planning on doing the solo content, they're unlikely to change their plans because someone wants to group up for the solo content.

 

I'll blow through some of the solo stuff with friends on occasion, when our schedules match. I'm highly unlikely to join what I think of as a "grind group" under any other circumstances. I want to do what I logged into do without waiting on other people or backtracking to things that I've already done. That was my plan for the evening.

 

Now if I'm PLANNING on doing flashpoints or heroics for the night, it's a different story, but it's very rare that I have enough uncommitted time to devote to doing that with people I don't know.

[Claymaniac]

There's a number of problems I feel that exist that makes grouping difficult:

 

1. No real LFG tool, which forces people to have to stay in 1 spot LFG. After a while, people stop doing that cause its boring. So at any given time, its hard to have a decent sized group of people looking to do the same group content.

 

2. Its a level based game. In order to get certain group content done, you need a pool of people at the specific level range to be online and willing. The level restrictions makes that pool smaller.

 

3. The game is very solo friendly. Humans will always take the path of least resistance. Its way more accessible to solo at your own time and pace than to LFG. Grouping doesn't seem to have enough of an incentive.

 

4. When forming groups, most people don't like being leaders. Including me. I'm ok with joining a group, but really don't want to start a group. And I'm sure many others feel that way. So seeing someone LFG, doesn't really make me want to invite him and try and find 2 more people. I'd rather be doing something else.

 

Kinda brings me back to Point 1. If a tool formed groups automatically, people would join. it works with warzones. I gurantee if warzones didn't have a auto join and form group system, and instead required players to actually form their own groups, participation would decline rapidly.

[Xenich]

i dont know if i am on a island to myself or what? i feel like i picked the snob server and asking people to group is like getting punched in the face. one problem i see is that so many are like "dude i got to get 17 lvls in one sitting and get 12 tomorrow". COME ON!!!! Maybe its spilled milk and i am losing my touch. but for me this is for me the first online game i never have much luck making friends. Bash me if u want but i wish people would get a little more friendly.

 

I see it as two groups that are gamers today predominately.

 

You have one group which are MMO vets, already have a pool of friends they play with through many games and don't care for the average personality of players today. They rarely add random people to their groups because they do not need to and their experience with them has generally been horrid in past games. So they avoid them and keep it in house.

 

Then you have those who are the socially immature. They have tons of baggage with them such as immature looting ideology (mine, mine, mine), impatient, poor social skills, and have a problem following directions or working with others.

 

 

My friends and I stopped random grouping around the time of early WoW. The player base just isn't mature enough to handle social interactions and most of my friends and I are older gamers who do not feel like raising children when we play.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Xenich

[ThiborF]

i dont know if i am on a island to myself or what? i feel like i picked the snob server and asking people to group is like getting punched in the face. one problem i see is that so many are like "dude i got to get 17 lvls in one sitting and get 12 tomorrow". COME ON!!!! Maybe its spilled milk and i am losing my touch. but for me this is for me the first online game i never have much luck making friends. Bash me if u want but i wish people would get a little more friendly.

 

I used to welcome grouping with random strangers back when I first started playing mmorpgs back in Dec'02 in Asherons Call 2. And over time in that game and into SWG it waned as I found I had increasingly more fun and less frustration mostly playing with just guildies. And then WoW became pretty much the nail in the coffin with the types of poor attitudes I frequently encountered in random groups.

 

Perhaps I'm just unlucky when it comes to random people coming together for groups but it seemed for the last couple months of SWG and then mostly in WoW I was averageing about 50% of the time getting a person in the group seemingly hell bent on being a jerk or causing drama. And since I don't run into that in the guild I'm in, that's the primary reason I rarely group up with random folk.

 

But, the other main reason is that aside from group-only-content (heroics, FPs, etc) I'm often not 100% focused on my gaming. The TV on the wall near my desk will have some sports/movie/show/concert I'm at least partially interested in following along and so if there's something on the tube that I want to focus on for 5, 10 or more minutes, I don't want to be holding up somebody else. "AFK ... great part in this movie I've seen a bajillion times" generally doesn't go over that well.

 

Which leads to the last is that similar to the jerk/drama-queen quotient, the folks I tend to wind up with when I have agreed to quest with a random person is the "Go Go GO!" mentality that's in a mad dash rush to get to level cap. I don't approach this or any game that way and I'm not going to have the pace at which I enjoy the game at dictated by some drill sergeant/fitness coach wannabe.

 

But, to each their own.

[VorpalK]

There's a number of problems I feel that exist that makes grouping difficult:

 

 

3. The game is very solo friendly. Humans will always take the path of least resistance. Its way more accessible to solo at your own time and pace than to LFG. Grouping doesn't seem to have enough of an incentive.

 

.

 

 

This is not a problem. If this were not the case, people would simply play another game. The hypothesis of "if we don't let people solo, they'll group up" hasn't been true since EQ was the only game in town. It will never be true again. The path of least resistance now becomes "some other game".

 

Incentive is code for "require" and any game that seriously tries to do that will watch its subscriber base evaporate to below-"hit"-level.

 

It can be done, Fallen Earth is a good example, but it's far from a rollicking success.

 

I don't think EA or Bioware is shooting for Fallen Earth subscription levels, really.

[Claymaniac]

This is not a problem. If this were not the case, people would simply play another game. The hypothesis of "if we don't let people solo, they'll group up" hasn't been true since EQ was the only game in town. It will never be true again. The path of least resistance now becomes "some other game".

 

Incentive is code for "require" and any game that seriously tries to do that will watch its subscriber base evaporate to below-"hit"-level.

 

It can be done, Fallen Earth is a good example, but it's far from a rollicking success.

 

I don't think EA or Bioware is shooting for Fallen Earth subscription levels, really.

 

Oh I agree. I didn't mean to imply that forced grouping is the solution.

 

For incentive, I think you need more than just loot. When I am leveling I really don't worry about loot cause my mentality is eveyrthing will be replaced till the level cap anyway, so why put too much effort into it? Earning some nice lv25 loot isn't going to make me want to do lv25 group content more.

 

Thats specially true on alts. Once I've seen the story and done the content, I really have no interest waiting around looking to join strangers to do group content till the cap.

 

I think Bioware tried to offer different incentives with the social points thing. But it isn't really good enough. To be honest, I don't know what is. What would make me want to not progress and do solo content, but wait around for a group that may or may not even be competent?

 

I think its just the reality of MMO's and MMO players today. Trying to do pre-level cap group content will always be a pain. Just gotta accept it. MMO's nowadays are predominantly solo expereinces to the cap.

[asbalana]

This is not a problem. If this were not the case, people would simply play another game. The hypothesis of "if we don't let people solo, they'll group up" hasn't been true since EQ was the only game in town. It will never be true again. The path of least resistance now becomes "some other game".

 

Incentive is code for "require" and any game that seriously tries to do that will watch its subscriber base evaporate to below-"hit"-level.

 

It can be done, Fallen Earth is a good example, but it's far from a rollicking success.

 

I don't think EA or Bioware is shooting for Fallen Earth subscription levels, really.

 

 

Although I enjoy playing in a group and most of my grouping experiences have been good in swtor, I do not group much for two reasons. First, the quests can take from five to fifteen minutes and if I am in the middle of a quest, I will not answer a lfg in chat because it would mean either giving up the quest in the middle or making people wait until I am done (which I hate to do). The second reason is that travel to different points on the planets can take a good deal of time and some of the group locations (even with map) are hard to find a path to (walls everywhere). Usually when I see - want to to do heroic - in chat, I am accross planet and it would take me ten minutes or more to get to the locations, so I don't bother.

 

Also, even though I am on a server with a good population, when I play Republic there are never a ton of people around and it is hard to find a group just based on critical mass.

[Ykeasha]

i dont know if i am on a island to myself or what? i feel like i picked the snob server and asking people to group is like getting punched in the face. one problem i see is that so many are like "dude i got to get 17 lvls in one sitting and get 12 tomorrow". COME ON!!!! Maybe its spilled milk and i am losing my touch. but for me this is for me the first online game i never have much luck making friends. Bash me if u want but i wish people would get a little more friendly.

 

No this is a snap shot of the swtor community any one who says otherwise is a liar. If you want to play a group based game play wow/rift/lotro. This is a good single player game end of story.