I’ve had a bit of self-imposed isolation over the last couple weeks. Work/school has been stressful and my brain tends to make me shy away from human contact when I get like this. Coincidentally, I’ve been reading Wolfy‘s great posts in response to Syl‘s comments about solo players asking for solo content in MMOs. For me personally, I like MMOs to have compelling and rewarding solo content so that I can get through these mental down times. Sure, I might be hiding from my friends list and avoiding group content like the plague right now, but solo content lets me still make some sort of progress on my characters. It also helps me stay connected to the world, and feel a little less alone just by seeing random strangers going about their business in-game. Without solo activities, I’d be more likely to completely take a break from the game when I feel like this. Instead, I’m still around and still invested, and ready to slide back in fully once I get over my mental funk. So I’ll happily “demand” (ok maybe politely request) that devs keep providing solo content for me and folks like me, who might waffle from time to time about how much they want to engage socially.
In any case, I can feel the isolationist fog starting to lift. I’ve started getting the urge to run dungeons again. Over the next few days I want to get back into the swing of things in WildStar. I also suspect it is only a matter of time before I fire FFXIV back up so I can heal butts. The cycle of introvert life marches onward.
