How Much Grind is Too Much?
I’m sure there’s a terrible innuendo in this post title somewhere, but let’s ignore that for the moment. MMOs have had a rather notorious reputation since their creation for being a bit of a virtual treadmill. You create a character, learn what he/she can do, and then repeat what he/she is supposed to do ad nauseum to gain experience, skills, levels, and of course, gear. Part of the journey in creating and furthering your characters advancement is the grind, or doing a number of “collect X” quests in exchange for experience.
But at what point is the grind just too much? Final Fantasy and Lineage 2’s MMOs were largely shunned by American players because the time required doing the exact same thing repeatedly was so bad that it took all enjoyment out of the game. Much of Warcraft’s success has been based on the fact that leveling your character was easier, faster, and didn’t carry negative consequences like losing an hour’s worth of leveling if you died (looking at you Everquest). Yet the grind still exists in Warcraft, and one of the worst I’ve seen is getting exalted with the Timbermaw.
If you’re not familiar, you can hit up the wikipedia link here, but let me put it to you like this: you have to kill about 4287205607 enemy furbolgs for a rather nifty trinket (now nigh on useless but still appealing to me). It reminds me of an era of MMO grind long since past it’s prime, and I was rather surprised to here a statement of support from a Blizzard CM about it:
” Trying to think of doing it all at once is pretty overwhelming. If you just work at it bit-by-bit it’s easier to accomplish I think. Besides, think of the cute ghost furbolg you’d get as a friend (every 10 minutes) and all the runecloth you’d be able to sell.”
Yes the cute ghost is nice, but the price you pay in hours and tedium is not.
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