In terms of M&M, what is the argument being put forth about single vs group experience exactly? I almost exclusively solo in M&M. And I dont mean I box, I just solo not a huge fan of boxing. I would say most the people I play with group the majority of the time, however there are a big chunk like me that just like soloing or duoing.
I think its important that not every class can solo. Right now for the most part the classes that arent very good at soloing bring more to groups as well. Fighters for example are monsters, easily doing double the dps as my necro and not having to worry about mana - not very good at soloing though.
I think the distinction you’re making that "not every class should be able to solo" is often used as a stand-in for difficulty, but it's worth asking what kind of difficulty that actually represents.
If certain classes simply
can't solo, not because the content is tough or situational, but because they lack the tools to survive or progress at all - that's not difficulty in the meaningful sense. That's just exclusion. It doesn't test player skill, decision-making, or adaptability. It just narrows viable playstyles based on class selection, and often ends up funneling players into suboptimal experiences unless they have the luxury of always being in a group.
And sure, in theory, the classes that can't solo well are
supposed to bring more to groups. That sounds fair on paper. But in practice, it often creates dead spots in a player's experience: times when they want to log on, engage, progress, and there’s nothing they can do unless someone else is online. That doesn’t encourage grouping, it just discourages logging in. Not to mention how horrible most devs are at class balancing, where a class that's
supposed to bring more to a group actually doesn't, but
also can't solo either.
This is why I keep coming back to intentional incentive design as a better solution. You don't need to prevent soloing to encourage grouping. You need to make grouping feel better. More rewarding. More efficient. More fun. If someone solos, that should be viable - just slower, maybe riskier. Not broken by default. Not a punishment for rolling the "wrong" class.
MMORPGs work best when players can express autonomy and feel pulled toward interdependence. That doesn't happen when some classes are effectively turned off outside of a group. It happens when the game gives everyone a reason to cooperate - not because they
have to, but because it's the better path forward.
