BA Shared Topic: One vs Many? (Solo vs Party Questing)

The topic this week at Blog Azeroth was suggested by Martha of  Perish Twice: One vs Many? (Solo vs Party Questing)

While there are some quests that specifically call for grouping, most don't... but do you group anyway? How many of you pick up a friend or guildie to quest with and how many grind the lonely roads alone?

I before I could post an entry that really didn't add much to what others already said, I concentrated my few thoughts that weren't distracted by the upcoming holiday weekend and had a thought that I hadn't seen others consider.

Yes, yes. Questing and leveling has been changed so much that the old Group Quests can all be soloed and the LFD and PVP tools have conditioned folks to quickly level to get somewhere else. It's easy to understand a hesitancy to inviting an unknown character to complete some quests together.
I've tried raising a character with my son, questing together, but it was too easy for one of us to play one session without the other and suddenly the level difference made things too difficult to continue. The current levelling speed only makes this worse!

Leveling has become a solo experience while things like Raids are not. A 5-man dungeon is obviously a group, yet many pugs are accomplished without any social interaction. Where is there room in today's WoW for a real party experience?

I think the answer Blizzard gives us is in Guilds. At least in my guild, folks don't group up to do quests, but we have been know to form a group with a specific goal. One particularly memorable event was when someone wanted to hunt a Whale Shark and excitedly convinced a bunch of us to try.
It strongly reminded me of a fight versus Stitches in Darkshire in the old days, complete with squeals of terror. Granted the reward was only an Achievement, not a loot drop or token towards completing a legendary, but it was something special.

Another Guild activity was when one of us wanted to solo Black Fathoms Deep for the achievement and asked if anybody else wanted to join. There was no requirement for others as they were perfectly capable of soloing the old content, but it was an excuse to do something together. A really neat part was how it gave me fodder for subsequent Role Play.

These activities obviously don't fit the old "Group Quest" paradigm nor questing at all, really, but they did give an old fashioned feel that reminded me of how we'd group for a dungeon in the "old days" and one veteran would help others ensure they were picking up the right quests before joining together at the gathering stone.

Now THAT image in my brain has prompted some real nostalgic thinking.