I *want* to group

It has been written about elsewhere that there seems to be a growing trend in MMOs that is needs to be easily possible to play solo all the way to the level cap. Personally I find this rather disturbing. A major part of the reason for playing an MMO for me is the potential for interaction with other players, and I mean interaction beyond just having a guild chat window open while I play. 

I remember in my first day playing World of Warcraft, I had been soloing along in the starter night elf area, learning about the mechanics of the game and how my small set of skills worked, and eventually I found myself around level 8 at the entrance to a dangerous looking Barrow Den. Fortunately three other players showed up, and after a brief chat we decided to join forces. This was my first ever group in WoW, and it was amazing. Suddenly seeing how different classes worked together, getting into much bigger battles than I had ever seen before, sharing jokes and helping each other out ( remember, this was the early days long before a pug became a thing to dread). From that point on, I actively sought out groups for dangerous quests, and it is how I made a good bunch of friends and found a great guild.

These days, WoW seems to be trying to eliminate this sort of behavior, as Blizzard is mainly concerned with getting a new player to Outland as fast as possible. The speedier leveling means you can easily ignore the harder quests you are given. I remember Uldaman quests sitting in my logbook for weeks, now the would be gray in a few days as I level beyond them. The changing of many world monsters to non-elite also adds to this, and seems completely pointless to me. Killing the ogres in Loch Modan was not only an excellent way of teaming up and meeting people, it was great practice for what to expect in instances, and always felt like a rite of passage with a new character. Now you can solo it.

Sorry, I am not intending this to be a rant about WoW. I like being about to play my character without having to group all the time too. I like for there to be plenty I can do alone. But I do believe that at certain stages you should need to interact with the other players in the world, and there should be plenty of incentive to do this (and not just instanced dungeons). From what I can tell, Warhammer seems to encourage grouping with things like public quests and the open party system, and that makes me hopeful.