Finding a group may not be hard for many people, but that’s not the issue.
The issue, in my opinion, is that one has to do the dungeons to progress in the main quest (hence: forced grouping) whether that persons wants to or not.
We don’t have the option to progress the main quest otherwise and that is a problem for anyone who dislikes doing dungeons or who simply doesn’t want to group or only groups with certain people.
A groupfinder wouldn’t solve that. I’m not even sure how a groupfinder would work here, since we don’t have fixed classes like most ther MMORPGs.
Just because I hate dungeons doesn’t mean I don’t play with other people.
I think you should be forced to do the dungeon to progress the main story. It incentivizes people to do the content which others cannot do without the help of another player.
The dungeons are a strong offering of the game’s potential and make the game’s mechanics come together for a full pve orchestra. Expeditions are the patty of the game’s pve combat content, if you don’t experience it how are you going to progress to any of the later game content?
There are plenty of reasons to do the dungeons without forcing players into them by the main quest like dungeon gear, special crafting components, etc.
And no, getting forced into doing dungeons only incentivizes one thing… avoiding the later stages of the main quest. Do you honestly think I’d be inclined to ever go into Amrine again just to help somebody? If I do a dungeon. it’s because I want to and not because I’m forced.
You’re going to have to run armine again anyway for xp and more importantly to farm repair parts when it becomes unsustainable 55+ to salvage everything you pick up.
I strongly doubt that due to my prefered playstyle. Quite frankly I don’t give a damn about endgame gear or getting BIS items.
My endgame is housing, RP, exploration and crafting (and playing alts but that’s not really an option in NW) … certainly not PvP, dungeons or raids or similiar things. I can’t really see me running any dungeons more than once, if I run them at all.
What is the appeal of the game then if you don’t do any of those things? How will you even repair your gear or get gold? How would you even accomplish those endeavors without participating in the basic progression models in the game?
I don’t get how “forcing” people to group up is any different than “forcing” them to do anything else in the game. The facilities for grouping with players are the issue here. Spamming global chat for a group is ridiculous. Need an LFG chat.
Like I said, I roleplay, craft and explore. Those are the only reasons I play MMORPGs.
Gold comes from town board or faction quests mostly, it’s not much admittedly but I get by. I’ve little need for constant repairs, since I mostly fight normal overland enemies.
As for my level… currently 37, close to 38. I wish I could level slower or even better lock my exp, but unfortunately that’s not an option.
I’d say it’s not a matter of not playing with other people or not doing dungeons, for me it’s more about choice. As in IF I want to do dungeons or IF I want to play with other people. Sometimes yes while sometimes no. Choice is what I prefer, not someone else’s but mine. Having bought the game I now decide how I want to play it and with whom.
Also throwing my thoughts of agreement in. Dungeons should be optional, or solo-friendly.
Look at FFXIV - you can join the dungeons solo if you want, you just don’t get XP. No worries there. Solo players are about exploring and story content - not grinding gear or farming xp.
SWTOR is another great example. They give you an NPC support bot (plus a companion) to let you solo through group content that they deem important to the storyline.
Why do solo players play MMO games? Story. Game play. Almost guaranteed expansions adding more content to the game. You can only play Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age, or Skyrim so many times as there is no new content for them. MMO games keep breathing fresh life into their games, typically. So here we are, solo players looking for a good MMO home. And this could be it. Couple tweaks in the near future to make dungeons scale for solo, eliminate some group mechanics… and tada.
Could be a good influx of cash in it, too. Because solo players need a good MMO home. So, please, powers that be, at least consider it.
Hey. I am sorry from my last comments. I do agree that we need a matchmaking system for the dungeons. Would be a great idea if they were shared between the world sets. Not gonna lie, but seeing the chat filled with LF this and that, it doesn’t need to be like that.
I don’t mind dungeon quests to progress because people often have to return to them for gear or money grinding, but trash like the health sponge anti-heal DoT Well Guardian inside of a tiny cave where you have to fight the camera needs to be fixed. I can’t even progress the main quest anymore because nobody wants to deal with this poorly designed fight on my server.
In my case I’m disabled with neuropathy related issues that cause pain severe enough that it requires I get up from the computer or go lay down. Doing a dungeon or other group content simply does not work because of this, both because of how long it takes to form a group and how long the actual content takes as well as the frequency of my pain issues not being predictable.
I hope the developers understand that these decisions, my personal issues aside, are not healthy to new players on established servers. They were enough of a road block for me to quit the game.
If you read my earlier comments in this thread, you know that I don’t want to remove group content. I just want it to be optional, so that people who enjoy/don’t mind doing it can still do so.
I spend my time in game doing activities I enjoy, just like everybody else. It just happens that doing dungeons or PvP are not among them. But I don’t want to see either of them removed.
What I want are options, nothing more (and for the record … I hate forced soloing just as much as I hate forced grouping).
No, what I want is an option to progress through the main quest without doing them.
That doesn’t make them unimportant, it merely makes doing them optional. Whether it is done via a pop-up message like “You are about to accept a group quest. Do you want to continue or skip it?” or by creating an optional special solo instance that is used only for the quest (no other quests can be completed within, i.e. you can’t use it for the Barkimedes quest(s) or faction missions, and no dungeon rewards are available from doing it.) I don’t care. Either method would be acceptable to me.
That way people would still be required to do dungeons in a group for those side quests/faction missions and to get dungeon gear.
Now I wouldn’t mind a general soloable version of course, but I don’t think it’s really needed or should be created since dungeons are meant as group content.
It’s forcing because you cannot continue the main storyline of the game without completing that quest. It would be same as having that quest require you to participate to a war or something. It should definitely be optional side quest instead. What does it matter anyway if it’s made optional. It’s not like you cannot do that dungeon anymore after that.
What really mystifies me is how so many people were practically seizing with joy over the return of a game that pretty much crushes the player’s spirit with time-wasting, low-reward activities at every turn and raids that couldn’t even be completed by a lot of guilds. Every person I’ve talked to about it said “Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m excited! And there’s so much nostalgia!”
In all of the games I’m nostalgic for, I don’t wistfully long for the tedious parts. When I go back and play something like Morrowind, I mod QoL improvements into it, because while I love the game, I don’t have any fond memories of having to open the plants like containers and transfer the ingredients by hand every time.
There are a lot of things in New World that really feel like Amazon is trying to make a modern game that follows tenets from the days of Everquest and WoW Classic.
I think this is a mistake. Though I don’t understand the nostalgia for WoW Classic myself, it does keep people hooked. But nobody has nostalgia for New World, and nobody will have nostalgia for it for at least a couple more years.
Unless I have grossly underestimated just how badly the hardcore gamers want to have their time wasted, I really don’t see the ‘old ways’ keeping very many people hooked for long in a brand new IP.