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Stand Alone or United?

Hey all,

I was looking through the guild section of the forums, for a special project, and a question came to mind. I figured this would be a fun one to ask and maybe it would get you all thinking as well.

<strong>Q: Do you plan to play Alone, with friends, a guild, or maybe a sarcastic monkey sidekick?
Q: What are the pros and cons of each side, in your opinion?</strong>


Exp: I avoid joining clans, I enjoy my freedom, and sometimes team up with people I meet along the way. Playing without a clan or a gang is fun and peaceful in its on way, but at times it can come with a price, going at it alone also means that some things are out of your reach or will take longer to accomplish.

PS. Monkey sidekick died on 3rd day, due to a sarcastic comment, wasted on a cyclops.
R.I.P. Mr. Sprinkles :(
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Comments

  • I am going to play with the guild i am in, also with friends.

    SInce I am a part of a semi hardcore PVP orientated guild there are some things that come first. But thats necessary if you want to compete with other guilds for the fortresses and guild v guild wars.
  • Q: I am leading a guild but I'm more of a loner, so I'd probably be quite alone.
  • <strong>@Fleelix</strong> Right you are, sacrifices must be made for a strong foundation, I hope to see great things from players and guilds are no exception!
    going to have fun keeping an eye on the bigger guilds. : ]
  • <strong>@Irobot</strong> well, as long as you keep growing, you wont be alone for long. Most guild leaders should be social if they want success for their guild. lol
  • I know that, but I'm going to prefer alone time when I get it.
    Secondly, my guildies and I are casuals.
  • <strong>@Irobot</strong> Ah, ok, well that makes a bit more sense.
  • Imho, it's not about playing alone. It's about finding a guild that fits you.

    If you like your freedom than easygoing casual guild (without any obligations for members) may be a good choice. You still have absolute freedom and relaxation, with added benefit of an extra chat channel where sometimes some event may catch your eye and you can decide to join in, or not.

    There are also other benefits a guild can provide, while still being fully casual and offering full player freedom.
  • Our guild/group has a solid core of folk who've gamed together across platforms & games for about a decade now. We will of course form our guild, so that we have a place to start; however, we're super laid back so initially, I'd figure it'll take us about a week to get figured out exactly what we're doing and how we're doing it. A few of us will begin playing in Alpha2, so we'll get a lot of stuff figured out during that phase, thus, at launch, we should at least have a structure set up for the rest of our group. However, some will play together, some will play solo and just chat back and forth, and we're all cool with that. For me? I'll be happily playing along with @possum, and we'll just go from there!
  • <blockquote><div class="d4p-bbp-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/stand-alone-or-united/#post-26445">SleepyDrifter wrote:</a></div>Hey all,

    <strong>Q: Do you plan to play Alone, with friends, a guild, or maybe a sarcastic monkey sidekick?
    Q: What are the pros and cons of each side, in your opinion?</strong>

    </blockquote>

    I generally like to play alone while on a guild for raids and pvp, although the sarcastic monkey sidekick sounds better.
  • So...

    <blockquote><div class="d4p-bbp-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/stand-alone-or-united/#post-26445">SleepyDrifter wrote:</a></div>Hey all,

    <strong>Q: Do you plan to play Alone, with friends, a guild, or maybe a sarcastic monkey sidekick?
    Q: What are the pros and cons of each side, in your opinion?</strong>

    </blockquote>

    I generally like to play alone while on a guild for raids and pvp, although the sarcastic monkey sidekick sounds better.
  • So...

    </blockquote>

    I generally like to play alone while being on a guild for raids, pvp and social (on chat), although the sarcastic monkey sidekick sounds better.

    PS: just read it died :/
  • you can go solo. it won't hurt, but there are group benefits of course.
  • Guilds usually = Drama

    So while i am generally in a guild and do stuff with them when asked i prefer to play with my GF just what ever we feel like.
  • I am always torn.

    I love my own company and space to explore every facet of a new gorgeous world at my own pace.
    I just cant resist delving into every nook and cranny.

    I love hooking up with others on the fly...because there is nothing that comes close to sharing off the cuff experiences with others.
    Random encounters, in random situations, with complete strangers watching each others back is just awesome for me.
    But that's because these people are always in the right place doing the right thing at the right time.

    Guilds, I always find I never really fit in and always find trying to synchronise endeavours with others almost impossible. They are more about what the guild wants to do rather than what the players need done.
    I like to share experiences with people,,,,but I am not the hive mind type.

    Ashes goes a long way toward helping with these social issues.
  • I'll try and find a PvE focused guild, if I don't find one I'll exclusively play with stream viewers and friends.
  • Hey all,

    Thanks for the feed back, always interested in see'n how others choose to play, It's easy to see that a bunch of you are very fond of guilding. While I may not be a guild guy, I plan to to take full advantage of this "player driven" world to have a bit of fun with them in my own way. =w=

    @Rune_Relic Special thanks for answering my question in such a lovely format.

    @Arkanth I have a new sidekick, Boggles the wise cracking chipmunk! :D
  • My Bartle Score: Explorer 87%; Socializer 73% ; Achiever 47%; Killer 0%
    Solo = not adventuring in formal groups
    I think it is typically casual players who solo - because they get kicked from hardcore groups.
    I would also bet that it's the Explorers and Socializers who tend to solo - because they get kicked from hardcore groups.
    Especially groups primarily focused on killing and achieving.

    People like Steven will complain about "Massively Singlplayer RPGs" without tackling the primary reasons people end up adventuring without a group.

    I tend to solo in MMORPGs because my playstyle clashes with the playstyles of Killer/Achievers who are focused on killing everything in a dungeon while my focus is on exploring everything in a dungeon. I'm not going to hang out in one spot camping an uber mob for hours nor am I going to wait hours for a raid group to form. I'm going to go off and explore. Sometimes I spend hours swimming around continents just so I can uncover every centimeter of the mini-map. In fact, the first thing I do when I level is explore as far as I can without dying every couple of minutes (encountering mobs that con with skulls).
    It's fairly common for people I group with to demand that I go get my BiS gear and respec my abilities for the uber cookie-cutter build.

    I group more to socialize than to kill stuff or to achieve stuff. if I can help other players without joining a formal group, I prefer to do so, socialize with players outside of a group. I'm happy to join a group if they ask me to because they think they need my class to complete an objective - but, not to the extent that I'm going to respec or wear the gear they think I should wear.
    The RP idiosyncrasies of my characters are more important than the efficiency of killing uber mobs.

    Since the advent of social media, I group with FB friends or like-minded casual players from twitch streams -
    others who mostly group because they like hanging out in-game with friends more than they care about how efficiently we kill stuff.
    XP debt as a death penalty actually exacerbates a primary cause of soloing.
    I think hardcore players think that increases challenge and hardcore challenge causes players to group - but it actually causes hardcore players to kick casual players from their groups and then those casual players will solo rather than dealing with hardcore players.

    I think casual players will group more when it's easier for them to find other casual players.
    And Explorer/Socializers will group more when it's easier for them to find other Explorer/Socializers.
    Especially if there are tasks and events and narratives that motivate Explorer/Socializers to adventure in groups - having less of a focus on killing stuff.
  • @Dygz Interesting views.
  • @SleepyDrifter
    I'm hoping that the in-game guilds will also provide more incentives for avatars with common interests to quest together.
    More so than the class guilds in EQ and WoW.
    Similar to scheduling a caravan, I think it would be fun to schedule and register for a blessing ritual which will help cleanse a forest from a plague. The event would require several rangers and/or clerics and/or bards to evoke the ritual. Schedule the specific time to meet up... maybe have that posted in the city so others could join the expedition if they so choose.

    Same for magic rituals as opposed to religious rituals.
    Same for clearing a dungeon of traps. Or adding traps to a dungeon.
    Etc.
  • @Dygz Yeah, I really wanted something similar to a job board and events like the forest clense. I was thinking of having guilds build reputation by doing jobs that would benefit their members as well as the guild its self.
    I'm actually more interested in the market an ecoomy of the game and how things will play out, it's going to be fun.
  • Q1: Big fan of guilds and brotherhood and helping friends and all of that stuff. Oddly though I am about 70% loner play oriented.
    Q2: To me, the advantages of lone play are that I feel I can get more done, of things I like to get done alone, than I can waiting on various people to ge their acts together so that we can role out and "do stuffs".
    The disadvantage is that you do take on lots more risk by running alone and that some of the more difficult things are outside of your scope of achievement...
  • Well, good thing is there is still about 2 or so years to decide and form.

    Personally, I prefer a united, friendly, democratic bunch :)
  • I dont play MMORPGs to play solo. I do not understand playing an MMORPG solo, you shouldnt be solo all the time. I am always going to play with friends. I am also in the guild Grievance.
  • People who solo in MMOPRGs tend to play with friends and strangers - they just tend not to group with other players in order to complete quests, dungeons and raids.
  • Well, from what I've read, I think everyone has a very unique view of what a solo or guild player is.

    Personally and simply put, to me, solo play is a way to avoid negative side effects of joining a clan.
    That is not to say that solo play does not have its bad habits.

    In my case, Rune_Relic had a somewhat relatable explenation for guilds.
  • I'm probably gonna be the equivalent of a mercenary tbh. I'll probably join or make a guild for the benefits it gives but I don't really expect to focus on the team aspect. Basically I wanna do well on my own or with a team. So I can pull my weight so to speak.

    Edit: checked out that bartle thing I read from a post. I like both answers for most of the questions though. =<
  • hahaha "...a way to avoid negative side effects of joining a clan."
    I have never thought of soloing in connection to a guild/clan.

    On the one hand, I tend not to join guilds because I'm Chaotic and unwilling to agree to conform with strict rules.
    I definitely avoid joining any clans that have a list of rules.
    Even the few times I did join a guild, they were casual. And I still mostly soloed or duoed. Since those guilds were casual and had no formal rules, there were no negative side affects that I can recall.

    Fascinating perspective!
  • @Dygz I've been trying to reply for the last hour and something minutes! Damn this job!
    Oh, but I already forgot what I was going to say. .___.
  • I'm definitely aiming for the stars here. I want to build a trading guild in an economic node and slowly work to the richest guild, where I can buy the leadership position for the prosperity of the node! I'm hoping to have a full trading guild all all three craftsmen professions. Set up shops, run and hire mercenaries for trading caravans that I'll be sending off to cities for more money. The whole shebang! Im more often a solo player, but this game has more than most inspired me to create a guild for hopefully likeminded traders who want to become rich and run a node to level 6!
  • Yeah I never understood the solo player in an mmo but again I don't understand not wanting pvp in an mmo. I will be leading a semi hardcore pvx guild in ashes with focus on having a strong presence in all aspects that ashes has to offer. Even if I do things solo I'll always have friends close by in game or chat.
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