RoP

[Dhalin]

On another hand, such quests in a MMORPG aren't meant to be soloed easily. The basis of a MMORPG is to work together with other players in order to achieve such goals. RoP isn't just a quest to go and kill a few low-levelled mobs. If some really want to do it alone, then they should wait to get enough levels before trying. RoP can be finished at lvl 30+ with enough help. We should not forget Istaria is an online multiplayer game.
It is sad your girlfriend left the game... I remember I have had to wait several months before gathering enough people to go and kill Shaloth the queen, myself.

MMORPGs are usually about "Endgame" -- most grouping happens there, and for logical reason: The majority of the playerbase are max-level players.

Grouping there works fine, because since the majority of the playerbase is max-level, finding equal-leveled people is easy (well, easier than finding someone near your level earlier in the game).

When you have forced grouping mid-game like RoP (and the scads of group quests in other MMORPGs mid-game), trying to find people who will help you, or who need the same thing you do, is much more difficult.

A lot of people have to work full-time jobs, some people have to work two jobs. Very few people these days have time to waste, and they like to put their time to good use. Playing an MMORPG might not be the best use of one's time, but if that's what one enjoys, that's what one is going to do. However, time in-game is usually spent to the best (or at least they try to), and to go help some random stranger, usually takes some motivation.

If you need the same thing the random stranger does, hey that's cool! But how often is it going to happen that you're going to find several people your own level who need the same thing? Not often, especially if the content is either out-dated or mid-game like RoP. Back when RoP was first put in the game, everyone needed it. Fast-forward years later, there's a dragon here, a dragon there who need it. Nowhere near enough that they could band together and go out and do it, at least not at Level 50.

Thus, they need other people, people who don't need it. But with the Death Point system the way it is in Istaria, people aren't too quick to waste precious DPs unless they know that their attempt is going to work (or at least be reasonably confident they'll succeed) because it takes days, maybe weeks to shed off a dozen DPs in some failed attempts. Also, there needs to be a Reason to go help.

This community has a lot of nice, charitable people, but there are limits. I wouldn't expect any sane person who has a finite amount of time in the in-game (and on this world!) to spend hours for the sole benefit of a perfect stranger, and you certainly can't expect that in the communities of lots of other games, where people are a lot less charitable. That's the problem of trying to find high-level help; in other games they usually want ridiculous amounts of money (to them it might sound reasonable for their Time vs Reward, but to the poor lowbie, it might as well be a million bucks) for paid help.

This sort of thing never does a game any good. Grouping should stay at Endgame, several other MMORPGs out there have taught us this. Endgame is when everyone is max-level (or near it) and everyone has something to gain, and finding players your level who need the content is a lot easier. That's why grouping works so much better Endgame than it does early-to-mid game. So let's keep early-to-mid level progression solo/duo friendly (but yet ALLOW grouping if desired), and give us fun things to group up for once we reach max level.

It just works.... better.... that way.

And btw, the thing where I said "Allow Grouping" ... they really really need to fix monster aggro. Being 1-2 levels behind shouldn't force you into being Main Tank for everything. Did they fix that yet? I haven't seen anything in the patch notes, and I remember the #2 reason my GF left: Every time we went out, she was main tank because her dragon was 2 levels below mine. No amount of gold rages or silver strikes would keep mobs off her, and everything made a beeline straight to her and everything ignored me pretty much. Yet I was the melee dragon and she was trying to be a spellcaster dragon, lol.