Champions Online Chief Creative Officer, Jack Emmert, has penned an article geared towards those who prefer to act the Lone Ranger when playing online. Using his own online experiences lends an aura of credibility to his claims.

Just a few years ago, Everquest was held up as the paragon of MMORPGs. Though several games had come out subsequent to it, none had ever reached its level of subscribers. As a result, many of the Everquest game mechanics became almost canonical. Central to this near holy set of testaments was that players must be forced to team. The philosophy is simple and effective. People play longer if they are playing with friends. If a player is forced to team up with other players, he or she will at some point make friends. I think Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot chipped away at this foundational truth by introducing some levels of soloing, but large swathes of each game focused on teaming.

You can read the entire article over at Champions Online.