They all could really use an offline mode. These games are good, but if you're going to make a heavy single player aspect to your game, then let us play it solo at our leisure, offline without having to pay monthly for it. Id probably subscribe for a month here and there with both TSW and TOR if I could just pick it up and play offline for the storylines whenever I want. At least then it may generate some nostalgia or interest when something new comes out for them.

All three games make poor single player game experiences. 

I personally got my moneys worth out of Diablo 3 as a multiplayer. TOR got too repetitive and the storyline had no consequences so again being offline would make it a worse experience. 

TSW is a fantastic team game, and every aspect of the game is more enjoyable as a group of friends then by yourself, so again no I personally disagree. 

Originally posted by Foomerang

They all could really use an offline mode. These games are good, but if you're going to make a heavy single player aspect to your game, then let us play it solo at our leisure, offline without having to pay monthly for it. Id probably subscribe for a month here and there with both TSW and TOR if I could just pick it up and play offline for the storylines whenever I want. At least then it may generate some nostalgia or interest when something new comes out for them.

I was totally expecting a "They sucked." thread since it's mmorpg.com, but instead you make a good point. 

If you do that then your game is going to get compromised pretty quickly, in order to play a completely offline single player mode people would have to have access to things they currently don't have. You would then have people duping items etc and then taking those characters online.

The only way you could do it is by keeping the offline and online games totally seperate, but that totally defeats the point of what you want from the games.

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Originally posted by SlickShoes
If you do that then your game is going to get compromised pretty quickly, in order to play a completely offline single player mode people would have to have access to things they currently don't have. You would then have people duping items etc and then taking those characters online.

The only way you could do it is by keeping the offline and online games totally seperate, but that totally defeats the point of what you want from the games.

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The point is to keep people interested in your game which opens the door for occasional monthly subs. Even if your online and offline characters are separate, the customer still has access to what your game is about and who knows, tastes change and a customer who would have been permanently lost, may spark an interest after messing around with their offline character and may want to join others online in that world for a while.

Originally posted by Rollcage8

All three games make poor single player game experiences. 

I personally got my moneys worth out of Diablo 3 as a multiplayer. TOR got too repetitive and the storyline had no consequences so again being offline would make it a worse experience. 

TSW is a fantastic team game, and every aspect of the game is more enjoyable as a group of friends then by yourself, so again no I personally disagree. 

In my case, I agree with him because I only play Diablo 3 single player, so the online requirement is ridiculous. I enjoy SWTOR as a single-player RPG with the occasional grouping capable of any other non-mmo multiplayer game, and I haven't even tried TSW because it struck me as not worth the money based on what I saw. I'm waiting to try a demo or trial on the latter, so I have to reserve judgement until then.

So D3 with an offline mode, F2P SWTOR, and a trial run to TSW would be nice. Don't know if it will happen, but we'll see.

Originally posted by Foomerang

 

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Originally posted by SlickShoes
If you do that then your game is going to get compromised pretty quickly, in order to play a completely offline single player mode people would have to have access to things they currently don't have. You would then have people duping items etc and then taking those characters online.

 

The only way you could do it is by keeping the offline and online games totally seperate, but that totally defeats the point of what you want from the games.

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The point is to keep people interested in your game which opens the door for occasional monthly subs. Even if your online and offline characters are separate, the customer still has access to what your game is about and who knows, tastes change and a customer who would have been permanently lost, may spark an interest after messing around with their offline character and may want to join others online in that world for a while.

I would be completely put off by subscribing for a game that I have possibly played through multiple times that when I want to go online with it I have to start up a subscription and start from scratch again. The game should be either offline or online, this just seems like an online pass scenario we see on consoles now, buy the game second hand and you need to pay £10 to access the online portion of the game, the majority of people don't buy the pass, they play the game and then move on.

Dungeon Defenders (ok, not MMO - but D3 is not either) is doing it just fine: Online Mode (char saved online etc), and Offline mode (basically infinite money, for experiments, mods etc).

There would be no issue whatsoever, gameplay wise, to allow a party of people to band together in offline mode and play the game.

But ofc, these are not the 90s. This is 2012, when passionate Devs have been replaced by Wall Street Brokers - so don't expect any AAA title to have features that make sense (if not for their stock temporary value).

(OH wait, and Torghlight2 will have that too!  Not my cup of tea of gameplay, but just sayin' )

Well D3 needs an offline mode for sure.

The two mmorpgs would need a lot of work to make a good single player experience though.

Offline mode in an MMO? I don't see the point and it seems rather silly. Just play on your own without other people. There is a lot you can't do without other people as well, like elite quests, dungeons and raids ...

Diablo 3 offline? Again, what is the point? Just make a game and don't open it up to the public ... done. You gameplay isn't hindered at all by having it be online, except for lag, I guess. I could see them doing it for D3, possibly, but it still seems like a waste of development time overall.

Should they have been marketed as single player RPG's? YES..  They sure as heck play like it, and allow an online co op ability free of charge like Madden Football.. lol   However, They were marketed as MMO's to justify the easy monthly money grab they would of never of gotten.. Business is Business..  Sadly..

agreed for  TOR & D3 , but why TSW it is diferent  game  ?  

Originally posted by Foomerang

 

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Originally posted by SlickShoes
If you do that then your game is going to get compromised pretty quickly, in order to play a completely offline single player mode people would have to have access to things they currently don't have. You would then have people duping items etc and then taking those characters online.

 

The only way you could do it is by keeping the offline and online games totally seperate, but that totally defeats the point of what you want from the games.

---

 

The point is to keep people interested in your game which opens the door for occasional monthly subs. Even if your online and offline characters are separate, the customer still has access to what your game is about and who knows, tastes change and a customer who would have been permanently lost, may spark an interest after messing around with their offline character and may want to join others online in that world for a while.

Diablo 3 isn't a sub-based game, though. It's not even an MMO, so it's a completely different type of game than TSW and SWTOR. I suppose an offline mode could work for Diablo 3, but really most people want to play on battle.net anyway, just like in Diablo 2 (even moreso these days), so I think the feature would add very little value and make exploits/hacks rampant. Totally not worth it.

I don't see why on Earth SWTOR would ever have an offline mode. It's an MMO so it would kind of defeat the whole point of the game. I haven't played TSW but I would assume the answer would be similar for that game since themepark MMOs tend to be very alike.

i don't see why it's only SWTOR and TSW. All themeparks nowadays and coming out in the future play like co-ops. Any game world that isn't player driven can be applied an sp mode with larger co-op options actually. I'd like to know how they're less mmo than the others out there.

But anyway, no. It's not that simple. That level of transition is so hard and complicated it would only created an unnecessary amount of problems.

Regarding Diablo, i'm not a fan or players so i don't know.

Ever stop to think that its just you?

Lots of people group in swtor and tsw, and in fact seen more grouping in tsw than in any mmo for five years.

If all you can see is a single player game then I say your playing it alone and doing it wrong...no matter what mmo your playing. Its as social as you make it mate.

Yeah, these games were designed to be played alone. I just did some heroic quests solo on SWTOR only using a companion npc...

These games are not massive, because there is no point in having a massive amount of people, only way people affect each other's is in the AUCTION HOUSE! Har har har.

I will socialize when they make a sandbox with tools to socialize. Wich means, grief.

SWTOR isn't really an mmo, it's a single player game with a chatbox. It would def be a good candidate for an offline mode game.

Sad thing is that you can get THE BEST of SWTOR and watch it on youtube instead of playing. Because what one experiences, is what everyone experiences...

And when you do something, you know everyone else did the same thing. A different main quest, everything is the same. Might as well just watch the cinematics/cutscenes/dialog.

I know some of you guys are thinking Im bashing these games, but thats not the case. It just makes sense to me that if youre going to make a game where the majority of it can be played solo that there be an option to play the game offline. I love single player games. But I wont pay 15 bucks a month for it. And yes, theres the option to do all this content in a group. SO how about if I decide thats how I want to play it, I can fork over the monthly fee to play on their servers.

Originally posted by Tayah

SWTOR isn't really an mmo, it's a single player game with a chatbox. It would def be a good candidate for an offline mode game.

To the contrary. If attempt to play it as a single player game you miss out on a lot of content. You also miss out on the group XP bonus and the Social XP that comes from grouping. While group sizes in the game proper are limited to only 4 players (which works nicely) OPs can run up to as many as 16. Where people get this "single player" mentality from is because they never attempt to play the game with other people. EVERY quest can be done with more then one person. That does not make it single player. It is only single player when YOU attempt to make it such.