10 Reasons for a Solo Play Option

Warcraft is a MMORPG, we all know that and we know that the other players are required, even if some people can play the game mostly alone by avoiding certain parts of it.  But what if there were options for solo play in dungeons and raids?

So here they are, 10 reasons for a solo play option... followed by the 3 reasons it will never happen.

1) No Loot Drama
Who are you going to argue with, yourself?  While there very well might be a few people out there that would indeed argue with themselves that is their problem, not ours.  Solo play means if something drops, it is yours.  The only argument you might really have with yourself is if you should make that character an enchanter so it can disenchant that junk.

2) No Group Requirement
Lets face it, getting a group of people together is sometimes hard.  It is the reason the 40 man raids where lowered to 25.  It is the reason that many guilds decided to run 10s instead of 25s even if 10s are usually harder on most mechanics.  The more people required for the group the harder it is to get it set up.  Solo play means you are a group of one.  If you are ready, you go, if you aren't, you don't.  Simple isn't it?

3) No Group Dependancey
Can't find a tank?  Don't need one.  Can't find a healer?  Don't need one.  If someone isn't pulling enough DPS that someone is you without a doubt.  So step it up you slacker.  You are the only person you can depend on and this means you no longer need to worry about someone else not pulling their weight.

4) No Need to Explain
Is there anything more annoying than spending 10 minutes explaining a new fight to someone that has never done it before and then they screw it up as soon as you pull?  Some people learn fast, some learn slow, some are just brain dead and you have to beat them with a crowbar in the head a few times before they will remember anything, or at least it feels that way.  No need for everyone to know the fight, only you need to know it.

5) No Being Held Back
If only our DPS would pick it up, if only our healers could heal through that, if only the tank had a little more avoidance, they are all things you probably heard people say.  It doesn't mean anything bad about the players.  People all move at their own pace and at their own gear level and skill level.  No need to worry, the only skill level that matters now is yours.  The only gear level that matter now is yours.  So you can clear the content in 380 gear while the other person needs 395 to do it, good for you.  Now you do not need to wait for him to play catch up.  You are the only person that can hold yourself back now.

6) No Being Boosted
Some might call this a drawback, I call it a plus.  There is nothing worse than seeing someone that is doing their role horrible in amazing gear.  I see it all the time.  The warlock in spirit gear that has nearly all heroic gear has to be getting boosted because there is no raid leader in the world that would allow a warlock to roll on spirit gear.  The hunter that had all BiS months before me and was only doing 12K DPS, which is what my newly minted 85 hunter did in his first ever random heroic with all quest gear and nothing enchanted and nothing gemmed.  Call me jealous if you want to because I am.  I hate seeing people with awesome gear that have no idea how to use it.

7) No Looking For Feature
The biggest addition to ease of game play ever added could easily be the looking for feature made for grouping to do dungeons and now raids.  It is also the biggest addition to the game to cause frustration, annoyance, and general ill will toward our fellow community members.  The looking for feature just festers hate.  I often say most people that play this game suck and it is because of the looking for feature that I feel that way.  Back in the old days we had a bad player here and there and they just did not get invited to our groups any more.  Now, that bad player gets to infect group after group after group and it starts to make everyone grumpy, not just me.

8) No Instant Access
If it is solo play there would be a gated system and it should not be an issue.  There would also be no lock outs.  You run dungeon one as often as you like to get enough gear to handle dungeon two.  Then dungeon two enough to handle dungeon three.  So forth and so on.  No more people hit max level and want into the current raid.  Nope, work your way up, the way it should be for an RPG.

9) No Rage
Okay, not no rage, people will still rage after dying on a boss they know they can beat.  They will still scream at the screen and yell at this boss and beg for the RNG to love them just once.  They will still pull their hair out, they will still wake the neighbors with their battle cry but the difference is now the reason for that rage is their own doing.  No longer will people rage because someone else did something wrong.  Nothing worse then going for and achievement where everyone needs to avoid something and one person gets hit by it and ruins the achievement for everyone.  Now it is all on you alone.

10 ) You are the Hero
This is the biggest one in my opinion when it comes to solo game play.  One of the true hallmarks of a good RPG is that you are the hero.  In warcraft, you are a nothing.  You battle along side the heroes, in a group with others.  You are just a piece of the puzzle but a replaceable piece.  You are nobody special.  While I agree that most of the people in the game should read that last line and take it as me saying something to them directly because they are nobody special even if they all think they are, the whole idea of an RPG is that you are someone special.  Solo play would bring that true RPG feeling to the game.  You will be the hero.

Now for the three reasons it will never happen.

1) Player vs. Player
Redesigning things so every class can do it solo can be done two ways.  One would be make each fight class specific which would be a crap ton of work and the other is to balance all classes so they all had everything needed to do it which would be easier.  If they did it, they would do the later.  This would mean that every class would have tank type cooldowns, every class would have sufficient healing and every class would be able to do enough damage.  This would mean in player vs player it would change the complete face of the game and as blizzard has showed over and over they care way more than they should about player vs player to ever do anything that might mess with it even if in the end it might actually be a good thing for it.

2) Redesigning the Game
Like I just mentioned, there would need to be a huge overhaul to the game if they where going to add a solo play option.  If they make all classes viable to do it which would be easier to design solo play for then they run into the problem of group content would now be completely different and need to be redesigned as well.  If they made the fights class specific, which I think would be best, it would mean having to design each fight 11 times for each class, more if you want each spec to be on a level playing field in being able to do it.  That alone could be a super massive under taking and this late in the game it would not be worth remaking every single fight capable of being soloed.  Look at how long it takes them to do things now, solo play would increase that tenfold.

3) Stuborness
As we have seen again and again, blizzard thinks they are always right.  This is their design and this is how they want to do it and it is the only right way.  Just ask them, they will tell you.  They will never accept the fact that the looking for feature has hurt the game more than it has helped it.  They will never accept that gating content make the game feel like a more epic ongoing adventure.  They will never accept that each person wants to experience the game in their own way because their way is the only right way.  They are stubborn and being the number one MMORPG for such a long time has made them believe that they can make no mistakes, hence the reason they gave us the biggest mistake ever, cataclysm, and still think it was an amazingly huge success.

Th... th... that's all folks.