Any Solo Friendly MMORPGs?

I'm poofed with guild/clan play with various MMOs. Tired of all of the politics (why pay for it online when it's everywhere offline??).

So anyone with a suggestion of a good MMO that's solo/rogue friendly, and not too heavy into PvP? That, knock on wood, has a good craft/trade system?

Really want to explore and craft more than fight (rather fight with a FPS instead).

Multi-player means multi-player, it doesn't mean you're required to join a Guild/clan to play. Too many MMOs are requiring being a Guild/clan member, or be penalized severely.

If you're paying, you should be able to solo/rogue if you wish, just like many an adventurer has done before. Prefer joining small bands for tasks at hand if need be, than join a formal Guild/clan with all it's rules and petty backbiting ways. It's suppose to be a game, not real life afterall.

Lord of the Rings Online has alot of solo-able quests

Lord of the Rings Online has alot of solo-able quests

puffydogg

Does it have caps? And does it have a good crafting/trade system?

You can easily solo any and all character classes to max level in World of Warcraft.Johnny_Rock

Not interested in playing WoW. The "cuteness" factor is a major turnoff for me. Why I avoid Starcraft and any other game that goes that crayon colored/anime route.

I can tell you what's no good...

-WAR is a great game, but unless you're guilded with a good active group... You're not going to have any fun with the PvP world.

-EVE may be a good game for some, but I get very bored very quickly playing solo.

-WoW, well you know all about that one already.

-Tabula wuh? Oh it's gone? ok, nm.

I've almost given up on all new games, because they seem to think that the only way to make a successful MMO is to take after the WoW model.

People who say you're missing the point of mMo don't understand that Multi-player doesn't have to mean Teamwork multiplayer... What's wrong with competitive multiplayer? I'm a fan of city builder games as well, and I'm happy to see that MonteCristo is taking that genre into the MMO world.

What someone needs to make is a game like, maybe, shadowrun (Oldschool) and make it a world of survival. Where it's you against the world (PvE or PvP) but where your solo skill is more valuable than the massing of 15 button mashers or macro makers. I like to play with my wife too though, so making it a scalable world where your encounters scale to the size of your group would be smart too. A world where it is more difficult to travel in a group than go alone and there is more XP for doing something alone than with a twink team is something I would like to see.

Old MMOs like Project Visitor allow you to play solo in a Multiplayer world... But sadly that game is old.

[QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]You can easily solo any and all character classes to max level in World of Warcraft.Deus_Ex_Fan

Not interested in playing WoW. The "cuteness" factor is a major turnoff for me. Why I avoid Starcraft and any other game that goes that crayon colored/anime route.

I face the same problem as you. I love MMO's for their sheer scope and I like some interaction in terms of economy and events but I absolutely hate raids and guilds. So far I have been unsuccessfuly at finding a good MMO that is designed around solo play. Of those that I have tried only two really have any chance of winning me over, feel free to use my observations for your own reference:

WoW- You will never accomplish anything exciting playing solo. Leveling is a joke because it is too easy, just click a button and win every time. Crafting is not a big focus because dropped items are much better than anything that can be made and to make high end stuff you need a guild to help you gather the materials. PvP is crap because of guilds playing together against pick up groups. Its like an NBA team playing against a high school team. The game is not bad but its not for me.

WoW on free servers- Much better than WoW because they typical cater to certain types of gameplay but unfortunatly they were unstable and are generally unmonitored so people tend to run amok and act childish. If I went back to WoW I would try to find another free server but like you I also dont like the cutey feel of the game so I stopped playing.

EQ2- A huge step up from WoW but still very dependant on raiding if you ever want to accomplish any big goals like getting high end equipment or defeat any major foes. Combat is much better than WoW because there is more variation in your characters and in enemies. Crafting system is light years ahead of any MMO but like other MMO's, high end materials will be nearly impossible to get without major help. The game offers you a home that you can decorate and show off to other people. By far this game was better than WoW on almost every front except PvP (non-existant), and server population. In the end I dropped it too because I hated raiding and guilds but if i wanted to go back to anything this is my frontrunner.

Eve- Just plain boring at the start. I flew a few missions and decided I just couldnt get into it. Im sure it gets better as you move on ahead but it wasnt for me. Just a lot of space and stuff flying by with nothing really interesting to see.

LotRO- Just plain boring. Combat is mindless like WoW, & crafting is even less useful than WoW. Its just WoW in a shiny new package with less features, players and potential. Nothing makes it unique and it sees the same problems for soloers as the other MMO's.