Alone Together

Is this an aberration? I don’t think so – my own play experiences tend to match up with the same stats. In any MMO, even when friends are online, I still tend to spend most of my time doing things solo. We all do our own thing, joined by a chat channel, and get together occasionally to do bigger things or when help is required. What does this say of the current WoW design decisions though – the bulk of added content has been aimed at large, forced-grouping situations. If, as the article postulates, one of the major reasons that people pick up on and enjoy WoW is the solo-play in a social environment, these same players will be the ones that drop out when they reach the point where the content no longer supports that play style. Should MMO developers be focusing more on designs that require less direct socialization, instead of more?