The most popular posts
in the last 7 days
- WoW loses another 100,000 subscribers 156 comments
- The Daily Grind: What dead game would you play in a second if it revived? 100 comments
- The Daily Grind: What's the highest sub fee you'd pay? 86 comments
- BioWare kicks off Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A Fridays 78 comments
- Earthrise shutting down today 69 comments
Massively Speaking Podcast
Massively Speaking Episode 185: Bree-to-play
Latest episode: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Reader Comments (3)
Posted: Feb 5th 2009 5:12AM (Unverified) said
-----
Grinding isn't restricted to levelling though. One of the reasons I quit WoW was that all I had to look forward to at my level was hour after hour of PvP or Faction grinding.
-----
What is that supposed to mean? I can't agree nor argue with you when you fail to explain.
-----
I would assume that this is a reference to the fact that soloing in EQ was a hideous experience. I remember soloing mobs on Luclin and enjoying ONE kill every 20 minutes due to my Monk not being able to recover health at a decent rate and having to wait on my self-heal to cool-down so I could use it in combat.
Keep in mind this wasn't an "Elite" or any form of boss mob. This was a Dark Blue mob, a mob weaker than my character.
I really don't want to go back to those days...
I made a point in the other thread that there's nothing wrong with social co-dependency in games. It's a great thing. SWG's cantinas and entertainers and that game's player-driven economy were prime examples of how it can work. But to force people to spend their time trying to find somebody to group with to kill mobs or complete quests is totally counter to the concept of freedom/open-ended gameplay that attracts so many to MMOs.
There's a middle-ground that works: include group quests and solo quests. Have areas that are dangerous for single players. Give non-combat social-dependencies priority in crafting (so Profession A needs something from Profession B and vice-versa.)
But forcing players to group to play is a retrogressive move, IMO.
Posted: Feb 5th 2009 5:24AM (Unverified) said
To me, grinding is the concept of repeatedly doing the same thing over and over to advance your XP/cash whatever. For me, that's when you're killing orcs at 100xp a pop and you need 5000xp, which translates to 50 orcs at a rate of one every 90 seconds so it'll take... well, you see what I mean.
Questing on the other hand provides a storyline and motive (however thin) and - when done well - becomes the driver to continue playing.
Levelling through questing should be a side-effect of questing and in good games it is.
On many occasions I've found myself shocked when I've seen my character level-up at a quest turn-in, simply as I've been so engrossed in the events of the quest that I'd failed to notice how close to my next level I was.
Posted: Feb 5th 2009 9:03AM ultimateq said
We have different views on what constitutes grinding. I guess the reason I consider questing as grinding is because I find it to be as tedious as killing thousands of creatures, although much more productive.
In WoW's case, Faction grinding is extremely tedious. I'll give you that! I can't think of any alternative though. If you take it away, all of the gear and bonuses become trivial.