Statesman--
I believe that in your desire to furthur "encourage teaming," you've overlooked something. The fact is that COH already encourages teaming. This is simply the way it's designed: you log on, you start running around, and either you start looking for people on the Team tab or you simply ask the people you see to join up. It's a little more complicated for specialized or high-level missions, but essentially, COH teaming is very simple. This is in part because, other than buying inspirations and updating enhancements, there's not a great deal to do for team prep other than putting together the right balance in the first place. I used to play Anarchy Online, and I swear that it used to take an hour sometimes for people to get together and actually do a simple mission. The ease of teaming in COH is one of the first things I noticed when I started--instead of having to wait for people to fiddle endlessly with equipment, buffs, etc., you can pickup a team on the street. Even teaming with other zones has been pretty easy, and I've never had to wait an excessive amount of time for everyone to be ready. Yes, there've been some bad teams, but on the whole the experience has been very positive.
This being the case, I'm afraid I can't see this latest "encouragement" as anything other than coercion. Yes, a good MMO should have good, even great MM elements, but there are going to be times when people just don't want to team up (and other posters have already given examples of these). If you attempt to encourage grouping by discouraging solo play, you risk losing those players to other games at least some of the time. Look at it this way: would you rather have people log on to COH to hang out and solo a few missions when they don't have time or the inclination to team, or would you rather have those people go play something else, potentially at COH's expense? While we're in the game, we're reminded of how much we like it and how much we'd like to go on subscribing. If I have to save my gametime for the occasional weekend teamfest, my interest in the game itself may gradually wear away. This isn't some kind of threat to unsubscribe, btw--just an expression of my earnest desire that the game will remain accessible and enjoyable to my style of play.
Finally, in terms of leveling, archetypes, and the conceit of the game: COH promises a superhero experience. I don't mind being support of whatever kind for my group--in fact, it's thrilling when a group works well because you and the others have played your roles well. But sometimes I want to go out and do my Dark Knight kind of thing, and having to comb the city for low-level minions and avoid my own missions (which I've had to do increasingly often) is a big letdown in terms of game concept. Please don't assume that there's only one way to enjoy the game. I do enjoy and look forward to group content, but please, allow me my solo, I-can-only-be-on-intermittently-between-real-world-tasks gameplay too.
--Robyn on Triumph
