Should MMOs Force Grouping As Part Of Progression?

When New World: Aeternum launches on consoles and PC later this month, one of the upcoming key marketing points by Amazon is that the entire MMO is soloable. This has slowly become the case as Amazon Games Orange County revamped the leveling progression over the last few years, but it wasn't always the case with Amazon's flagship MMO.

When the MMO launched in 2021, the main story quest, like many other games in the genre, forced grouping in dungeons to progress the story along. These instances, called Expeditions in New World, forced players to group up and tackle together, but Amazon noticed a trend very early on as a result of this design philosophy: people were just quitting the game when met with this forced grouping wall.

Last month during a visit to Amazon's Orange County studio, game director Scot Lane was quite clear that the drop off of players was very clearly at this first forced group content: the Amrine Expedition. That falloff continued with the rest of the expeditions that made up tentpole moments in New World's story, with the team clearly seeing a data point that necessitated change. 

MMOs, for decades, have forced grouping as part of their regular content. Final Fantasy XIV's Duties and Raids, for the longest time, were only available to be accomplished with other players, while World of Warcraft's endgame dungeon and raid content saw players joining guilds and risking PUGs for the sake of completing the story.

Yet, both now have at least part of this formerly group-only content now possible to be played solo, with FFXIV's Duty Support system, and The War Within's inclusion of soloable Delves as end-game content. 

At some point in every major MMO's history over the years, group content has been a must, but as the genre has trended hard towards solo play, we've seen even the most hardcore MMOs adjust to be more solo-friendly.

Even Embers Adrift, a newer indie MMO that, when it launched, prided itself on having content that exclusively required preparation and the grouping experience, has made updates to allow for more solo play. 

One of the major reasons why I've always loved MMOs is that I was constantly put in situations where I was playing with other people and had to overcome the challenges of working together towards a common goal. And through that play, a natural byproduct is creating friendships and relationships that, at times, can transcend the screen.

Personally, I think both styles can exist: you can choose to play solo in a crowded world, or forge fellowships with other players while grinding for that next level or piece of gear. However, for me personally, it feels like the design pendulum has swung so far in the direction of facilitating solo play, it has come at the expense of group content. The multiplayer should not get lost in the weeds here.

I'm happy to say that New World: Aeternum doesn't necessarily give me that feeling, as two of the three tentpole endgame features being added are, simply put, multiplayer experiences: its new 10-person raid and the open-world PvP zone. But as we move forward, I'm hoping that we don't lose sight of the first two letters in the genre's acronym and what they stand for: "Massively Multiplayer."As a result, I hope that game devs building the next great MMO, and even the developers on existing ones, feel like they can still force grouping in their content. It won't be easy, and not every player will be a fan for sure. But I think it's necessary to still have games that do this to help retain the identity of the genre. 

But that's just my opinion. What about you? How do you feel about forced grouping in MMOs, and should developers do it, or are you a fan of the more recent trend of offering soloable alternatives to this type of content? Let us know in the comments.