There is a great article up at Wolfshead Online called MMOs Were Originally Designed to Be Shared Social Experiences that really touches on the finer points of solo-friendly MMOs vs. group-centric MMOs, the role of the player and community, and the origins of the genre. It's a fantastic read if you're into game design philosophy.
This post is less about all those details and more of a response to a specific sentiment expressed by a fellow reader of Wolfshead. Specifically, the notion that mankind's "selfishness" is the driving force behind solo-friendly MMORPGs and the generally poor state of the player communities that surround them.
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