Recent bad news for SWTOR has spurred some discussion about the state of the MMO industry. Specifically, whether or not the focus on the solo game has contributed to the apparent decline. Keen's post was before the SWTOR news, but others who I cannot find at the moment did make a link between the two topics. Or maybe that was just a dream, no matter, facts will not stop this blog post!
It turns out these I am one of these solo players. It's not because I am anti-social (well, maybe a little), there are a lot of reasons why I like to go it alone. Time constraints, immersion, less hassle and so on. If you have a good solid group of friends that play, then sure the multiplaying aspect can be very attractive. If you don't, not so much.
Why do I play MMO's then? It is simple. I like playing in a living world which is constantly evolving. You cannot get that from a single player game. Just because I don't want to play with other people doesn't mean I don't want to be around them. I think that is a perfectly legitimate style of gaming.
That doesn't mean I expect every game to try to cater to me. There should be old fashioned group focused games, and games like SWTOR. TESO is the latest game to hop on the latter style of gaming. That means I'll probably give it a shot. Hrm, I need to finish Skyrim.... but mounted combat is coming out soon so I may wait for that.
Where was I? Oh yeah, solo MMO's. If anything, the solo-ification of these games is what grew the market (or maybe blew up the bubble?) so there is certainly money to be made. Sadly, it seems to be at the expense of the more traditional MMO.
