Paul Barnett Hates You: The Warhammer Online Conference Call

And finally, we come to the source of this article’s title, when Paul Barnett broke into an explanation of his hatred for RvR, and everyone else in general, forcing him to solo PvE all day:

Question: How viable is solo play?

Paul Barnett: Very viable! It’s the only play I do, because I hate everybody, and I have a great time!

Josh Drescher: As a solo player you’re obviously not going to be able to march up to an enemy’s capital city, knock down the wall alone, wander through the city alone beheading everyone, walk up to the king, and kill him.

Except for Adam Gershowitz, there is a special Gershowitz career, the Warrior Priest.

Jeff Hickman: You’re going to get a different experience playing solo in the game than you would with a group, or a big guild, or in a warband, but you can play through the entire PvE game, and experience almost all the content fully, as a solo player.

Paul Barnett: You can experience all the content fully! I don’t talk to another human being in that game, I’ve taken part in PQs, other people just have to be there! I’ve been attacking the king, other people just have to be there!

Josh Drescher: You can take part in it, but you can’t finish it alone.

Paul Barnett: That’s fine! I’ve had a blast of a time, never having to talk to anyone!

Josh Drescher: When you’re not quite as antisocial as Paul, it’s actually very hard to stay solo for long in the game. That’s a very deliberate thing. Public Quests are designed to take players, like Paul, who are sort of malicious, belligerent, antisocial malcontents, and trick them into making friends.

The Holy Grail of video games is tricking you into having a social life. That’s what public quests do. I can log into the game and go “That’s it, I’m just going to go do my quests, I’m doing things in the world…” And I stumble into a public quest and I see a giant walking around, and I basically say, “I want to fight the giant, too!” and other people see this and think, “You know, he’s not completely incompetent, maybe we should see if he wants to join the group!” And I join the group…

Paul Barnett: I’m always getting invited into groups, I’m always getting tells and chats from people saying, “Hey, you’re really good, join our group,” they won’t leave me alone!

Josh Drescher: The next thing I know, I’m having a good time with other people. In order to be part of a group in our game, you don’t have to run around in a capital city for three hours going, “Looking for group, looking for group, looking for group, looking for group…” and the next thing you know, you’ve got to go to bed.

We want you to run out in the world, and have fun instantly. And we want you to socialize, and we want you to feel like a part of the effort, and we want you to feel like you’re part of a team. We want you to feel like a fan of a soccer team in England. You’ve painted your face blue, everyone else has painted their face blue, you’re going to go out and punch the face of other people who have painted their faces green.

Paul Barnett: We’re very good at that! However, for the people out there going, “I hate everyone, I don’t want to be forced to group!” You don’t have to.

Josh Drescher: One of you, the title of your article needs to be “Paul Barnett Hates You: The Warhammer Online Conference Call.”

I aim to please, Josh.

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