Who actually enjoys grinding?

[Shmak]

lets have a refresh for everyone who didn't read the entire thread.

Grinding sucks.
The definition of "grind" = something not fun, something repetitive and boring.
Therefore, one cannot enjoy a grind. If you enjoy it, then its not a grind.

Think about it.

Lets face it. the repetitive killing of countless things over the course of months of game time is the biggest weakness in the MMO genre. It's a weak ploy by the devs to keep people paying their subscriptions, and its a weak way to have fun. If there was no light at the end of the tunnel nobody in their right mind would play the game that way.

Nobody likes grinding. Some people just think it might be worth it for the results in the end, but that is not enjoying it.

Imagine if a big phone company like Verizon set up their network in such a way that you had to use your phone for months in order to finally get the best reception available. Who the hell would subscribe? You subscribe for the reception! Its the same with games, and pay for the fun. Nobody should have to pay for fun they can potentially have when they get to max level. end of story.

[Terpsichore]

Grind can be fun sometimes, also i find usual "go kill 100 rats or talk to x npc" quests a lot more boring than just plain grind, since they make you walk alot and are repetitive as grinding is.

[AtTheLeftHandOvGod]

90% Questing = grind

90% are just grind in disguise

[HollyW08]

Originally Posted by Terpsichore

Grind can be fun sometimes, also i find usual "go kill 100 rats or talk to x npc" quests a lot more boring than just plain grind, since they make you walk alot and are repetitive as grinding is.

Quests are my favorite thing to do to kill time because at least you're working for a goal then, an end result, a reward, another quest, a title, an item...

Killing mobs just to gain exp. is boring to me unless I'm in a group that likes to have fun. I hate solo grinding and if I'm gonna grind I'd rather grind with a quest than just for the sake of killing mobs. If that makes sense.

[Meldarion]

So some people enjoy grinding to lvl while others enjoy to quest to lvl. If Aion goes one way or the other, someone will complain because they aren't happy with the way to lvl. You can't please everyone. So they best bet for Aion to go would be to make quests. If you made the game grind based to lvl then the people who enjoy quest to lvl, won't like the game and quit. If you made the game quest based to lvl then the people who enjoy grinding to lvl can still grind if they want.

I personally enjoy quests as long as there aren't ridiculously long runs :P

[Calindor]

Originally Posted by Shmak

lets have a refresh for everyone who didn't read the entire thread.

Grinding sucks.
The definition of "grind" = something not fun, something repetitive and boring.
Therefore, one cannot enjoy a grind. If you enjoy it, then its not a grind.

Think about it.

Lets face it. the repetitive killing of countless things over the course of months of game time is the biggest weakness in the MMO genre. It's a weak ploy by the devs to keep people paying their subscriptions, and its a weak way to have fun. If there was no light at the end of the tunnel nobody in their right mind would play the game that way.

Nobody likes grinding. Some people just think it might be worth it for the results in the end, but that is not enjoying it.

Imagine if a big phone company like Verizon set up their network in such a way that you had to use your phone for months in order to finally get the best reception available. Who the hell would subscribe? You subscribe for the reception! Its the same with games, and pay for the fun. Nobody should have to pay for fun they can potentially have when they get to max level. end of story.

I think grind should be divided into 2 categories. 1 being something that requires repetition over a long period of time, farming something, doing the same thing day in and day out. The other being a way of playing where you just have your mobs and a sword....you just go out and kill things.

I do not like when something takes an excessively long time to accomplish, but I do prefer the hack and slash way of PvEing in a MMORPG (compared to the available systems in other MMO's). They could be so much more and having so many different ways to level up, or ones that are fun and well thought out. It just seems like all of the big developers are afraid to try anything new...but that seems to be the way the system works, its not like a console game where they just release it and sell it, it depends on keeping players occupied and subscribed long term...so they are afraid to fail.

Thats why the best MMO's will always be the smaller less known ones that maybe peak at 100k subscribers. The most amazing MMO I've ever played still to date was Earth and Beyond by Westwood (until EA bought them and shut it down)...3 different ways of levelling up, raids that were on a mass scale, not a boss type....hundreds of GM controlled mobs would invade an area, and you would have to raid with your server...and after the raid the actual world would change depending on if you won or not...it was an actual sense of RP and accomplishing something....People say thats hard to do now, but I think re-releasing fancy versions of 15 year old MMORPG's is quite pathetic.

[Anju]

In the term of "grind" where you repetitively kill monsters for the exp, I'm fine with it as long as I can have other methods of leveling.

[LethalGT]

There's no point in dragging out the leveling process more than 2 weeks, 2 weeks of questing,pvp, and maybe a little group grind and you're there, after that.. It just gets bad.

[Calindor]

Until the game/server dies because there is nothing to do and everyone gets bored.

[Enity]

Originally Posted by LethalGT

There's no point in dragging out the leveling process more than 2 weeks, 2 weeks of questing,pvp, and maybe a little group grind and you're there, after that.. It just gets bad.

I don't see what pvp has to do with leveling, 2 weeks pure quest or mob grind and the travel that you have to do should be sufficient.
Any other activity like pvping or running various instance(that reward slower xp/h than questing/grind) should be counted on top of that.

[LethalGT]

Originally Posted by Enity

I don't see what pvp has to do with leveling, 2 weeks pure quest or mob grind and the travel that you have to do should be sufficient.
Any other activity like pvping or running various instance(that reward slower xp/h than questing/grind) should be counted on top of that.

PvP counts as XP in this game I'm pretty sure.

Also, they should focus alot more of there time on the end game content, or the content.. instead of just pouring it all into the pre end game which is stupid as hell because NO ONE likes to level.

[Skarn]

I think that ~2 weeks is incredibly short for a MMORPG. To me that offers zero challenge and no fun. I would prefer 1.5~2 months if you are exp'ing for a few hours a day, especially if it is your first time through. After a period of 2 weeks, you can barely find the inventory screen and you're supposed to be max lvl? Bleh. It should mean something and be somewhat of an accomplishment to be lvl 50, especially when the game is new.

In FFXI that is when a lot of your best friendships were/are made. Youre exp'ing for several hours with people, seeing them day after day, making the same mistakes and learning the same things. Many of those people you still know after 4 or 5 years. And even now, I still remember specific parties and meeting people for the first time, there was real adventure there. Thats what makes a game like this worth playing to me, if it was about getting max lvl and best items as fast as I could Id just go play an offline game.

[LethalGT]

Originally Posted by Skarn

I think that ~2 weeks is incredibly short for a MMORPG. To me that offers zero challenge and no fun. I would prefer 1.5~2 months if you are exp'ing for a few hours a day, especially if it is your first time through. After a period of 2 weeks, you can barely find the inventory screen and you're supposed to be max lvl? Bleh. It should mean something and be somewhat of an accomplishment to be lvl 50, especially when the game is new.

In FFXI that is when a lot of your best friendships were/are made. Youre exp'ing for several hours with people, seeing them day after day, making the same mistakes and learning the same things. Many of those people you still know after 4 or 5 years. And even now, I still remember specific parties and meeting people for the first time, there was real adventure there. Thats what makes a game like this worth playing to me, if it was about getting max lvl and best items as fast as I could Id just go play an offline game.

Thing is with current MMORPG's, it's all about bots, duel boxing, or soloing.

No one gets in to the social aspect anymore, which I hate but it's true.

I love group xp'ing but no one does it anymore.

[Enity]

Originally Posted by Skarn

I think that ~2 weeks is incredibly short for a MMORPG. To me that offers zero challenge and no fun. I would prefer 1.5~2 months if you are exp'ing for a few hours a day, especially if it is your first time through. After a period of 2 weeks, you can barely find the inventory screen and you're supposed to be max lvl? Bleh. It should mean something and be somewhat of an accomplishment to be lvl 50, especially when the game is new.

In FFXI that is when a lot of your best friendships were/are made. Youre exp'ing for several hours with people, seeing them day after day, making the same mistakes and learning the same things. Many of those people you still know after 4 or 5 years. And even now, I still remember specific parties and meeting people for the first time, there was real adventure there. Thats what makes a game like this worth playing to me, if it was about getting max lvl and best items as fast as I could Id just go play an offline game.

When I said 2 weeks I meant 2 weeks of actual time or 336 hours if you wish to see it that way.

[Karukan]

I don't enjoy grinding, but I do enjoy the game being hard. I don't want a cakewalk. It should take time, effort, and skill to get your char to max with good gear, preferably with a good mix of quests, killing mobs, and PvP to get there.