When a MMO offers you a game without a grind, many people take a second look. Grinding is a part of everyday life for most of us; its something we have grown up with and in a way it makes us feel secure. When I imagine a game without a grind I imagine a game with a massive variety of ways to reach the level cap, and plenty of things to keep me occupied when I do so. In a situation like this I can see myself getting scared that I am not getting everything I want to do done. That is a feeling that I rarely have experienced, generally it occurs when a completely pimped out toon walks past me and after a moment I follow, dragging my jaw along.
A MMO requires a lot of time and effort (Debatable) and surely, something that is incredibly fun when you first start can get old by the time you have spent 100+ hours doing it. So then the challenge is to create lots and lots of incredibly fun things, and that is a challenge, and would take quite a while to perfect. And I mean, why bother putting all that time and effort into creating a large variety of content that supports the anti-grind message when the developers could stick the old grind methodology into any old game, add a few sparkles, add a bit of epic loot, polish it up a little bit and the money pours in. (*cough* WoW *cough*)
PS. It feels like I have written this before? Have I said all this in a previous post?
2 Comments:
Maybe, but I love the picture. At any rate, grinding is put in by the money people to keep people in the game longer and by uncreative developers. See Neverwinter Nights 1 + 2, KOTOR, and Baldur's Gate 2 for examples of grindless games that are developed with fun in mind. MMO's could be the same, but the money people want them to be endless, borderline boring time-sinks, so they are. If they stretch it too thin nobody plays and if they don't stretch it enough, people play through it fast and then get bored. They could make content faster than they do by hiring more people (especially Blizzard) but... they are either too unorganized to be that scalable as a company or they lack confidence in its ability to make them more money and more customers. (Since that's about all they care about, a few companies care about the actual fun level of the game itself enough to keep amping it up but this is rare)
Ya I unfortunately do have to agree with u =(... I remember when I was playing WoW one of the things that pissed me of the most was being beaten by some nooby overpowered class, that prbly was some 8 year old kid...
All because he picked the "better" class and because he had been grinding like a zombie for hours to get his gear.
Well I'm sorry if I don't feel like wasting all that time on doing some TEDIOUS AND REPETITIVE grinding just so I can become viable. If the kid wants to do it fine butI would rather do something useful or fun with my time... So in the end I guess I'm the one that emerged victorious from the battle. XD
Oh ya, Thallian I'll have to agree with u to. Bioware, the creator of the "grindless" games u mentioned, is really what I see as a role model for other devs. Their games are grindless fun and I can still play through their games like a dozen times without getting bored. They offer options and a great story. Can't wait for Mass effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins.
Mass effect is prbly the best game I've ever played and Dragon Age was supposed to be the "spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate =D Awesome!! XD
//RipeMenace
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