The Leveling Grind Is Dead! All Hail SWTOR!!!

[Hightideuk]

Im sorry but I dont notice any of that at all. I personally dont even watch my EXP bar at all and havnt since the first day I logged in. In wow, I didnt read ANY quest boxes, just looked at my map and followed the arrows and cared about leveing up and leveling up ONLY.

 

In SWTOR, I dont give a crap about leveling up or gear. I care about each planets story and why the empire is their. I care about my class story and what my character is doing and whet he needs to do next.

 

The kill x number of y bonus missions is fun to me and is somthing I set my mind to complete every one available to me because, its a bonus and not required. If I wanted, I wouldnt have to complete ANY bonus missions at all, and it wouldnt affect me in the slightest. Its a bonus for a reason.

 

You miss the point, the OP said the grind is dead, the quests are the same as any mmo out there apart from someone gives me some back story in a nice voice. Im not saying its a hard grind to play this im saying the grind is still there wether you notice or not and if you like it or not

[Waiting]

There's no grind in the 1-49 game. If there is, you're doing something wrong. Seriously. I've been doing all the missions I can get my hands on and I consistently outlevel every planet upon which I set foot. I usually don't even get to a planet until I outlevel it by two or three levels because I consume every mission I can find, no matter what it is. If anything, the 1-49 game is an anti grind. Sure, some of the missions are a little boring and they all use the same formulas as quests/missions in past MMOs, but the VA does immerse me quite a bit and helps to distract from the occasional tinges of boredom. I'm level 45, just started Hoth and am still going strong.

 

However, at 50 the grind begins. Running the same daily missions over and over, the same flashpoints over and over, all so you can farm commendations to upgrade your gear. That's the very definition of "grind" and it's time we got out of that rut we've been in since EQ; that rut where it's acceptable in any way to give players something that IS NOT fun on ANY level as a substitue for content. Killing the same mobs for hours on end to gain one level is not content and is not fun, just as running the same daily missions/flashpoints over and over until your eyes bleed is also not content and is not fun; those things are just lazy shortcuts to keeping progression driven (i.e. most MMO players) players addicted and chasing after the gear carrot. For players like me, players who focus on story-driven content and don't really care about gear or phat loots or big numbers, this game ends at level fifty. Only thing to do is make a new character and sadly, once you've seen everything one faction has to offer, making another character isn't very attractive to me considering the fact that the majority of the missions available to a faction are not unique to your character. I suppose I can start completely over on the other faction but I'm just not sure I have the will to do so.

[Klarick]

Shhhh don't spoil the surprise for them when they realize everyone else has already seen what a disenchanting game this is and has already left

 

Everyone has already left but you? Odd.

 

Your exit is that way >>> [Panda Petting Zoo]

[Tergon]

What other quests do you people WANT???

 

"Oh its a grind! All you do is kill stuff, get stuff, and talk to people!"

Do you want to climb trees for a quest? Do you want to go build a house for a quest? Like what is your people's problem?

 

You supposedly hate the game and think it is boring yet you spend hours on here complaining and whining....

 

Someone came on the forums to say they enjoy the game, then get freaking attacked! Go rage somewhere else

 

SO THE CHALLENGE:

 

What innovative new quest type / way to eliminate grind would you all implement?

[PVProteus]

Play an alt of the same faction where 85%+ of the quests are the same and you'll rediscover the grind.

 

This, so hard. What does it matter that they developed unique storylines for each class if you're freaking FORCED to grind all the sidequests anyway? (If you're someone not interested in the broken PVP that this game has).

 

I've actually argued with people ingame who simply denied that there was huge overlapping issues as soon as you get out of the "unique" planets. Honestly, how can people not see it? It's so blatant that you're basically trapped in this rat maze following pre-set paths, even the maps make this more obvious by having these huge obtrusive walls / mountains / whatever that prevent you from actually exploring outside the extremely linear corridors.

 

As for the voice acting, I stopped caring about why this poor alien needed me to kill X amounts of Y, or go get his missing data cores or whatever you want to call it.

I'm already pissed off that I have to grind the exact same quests every time just to EXPERIENCE the unique storylines that people keep marketing this game with, I'd rather not have to have a 3 to 5 minute cutscene every. single. time. that I need to accept one of these filler quests.

[PVProteus]

What other quests do you people WANT???

 

"Oh its a grind! All you do is kill stuff, get stuff, and talk to people!"

Do you want to climb trees for a quest? Do you want to go build a house for a quest? Like what is your people's problem?

 

You supposedly hate the game and think it is boring yet you spend hours on here complaining and whining....

 

Someone came on the forums to say they enjoy the game, then get freaking attacked! Go rage somewhere else

 

SO THE CHALLENGE:

 

What innovative new quest type / way to eliminate grind would you all implement?

 

Let me break it down for you, there's no way to remove the grind from an MMO. Literally none.

 

You're either grinding quests (WoW and WoW-clones) or you're grinding mobs (korean MMOs). The only other way of countering this is by unlocking everything straight away for the player so he doesn't HAVE to grind for anything, since he already has it all.

Of course this raises a major problem, why keep playing? Everything is already unlocked.

 

But on to my main point, if every MMO is grindy no matter how you look at it, the only choice is to make the grinding as smooth and non-annoying as possible. WoW is the current king because of this. They make you grind quests, but the accepting, completing, delivering of the quests is generally painless and smooth. The same cannot be said about this game.

 

The maps are linear to the extreme, yet they feel pointlessly large, as in big for the sake of being big all the while being absolutely barren and devoid of any life (most of this caused by the annoying sharding of the game).

[kasanth]

Its the same grinding as WoW when leveling.

For me it does not seem like it simply because I havnt done it on TOR for the 8th time.

Instead of going and killing "Mob A", then "Mob B", then "Mob C", as you do in WoW.

We are killing "Mob A" and then killing even more of "Mob A" before moving onto "Mob B".

[BadOrb]

Thank Gawd! Someone has finally designed an MMO with Gamers in mind. With the Voice Acted missions -- yes, even the side quest are voice acted, the grinding for levels is officially dead!

 

Thank you SWTOR for killing this beast by making leveling fun, engaging, and very immersive. I actually look forward to leveling. Its no longer just a race to the highest level to begin the "real" game. In SWTOR the "real" game starts at level 1 with your very first mission and your very first dialogue decision!

 

Awesome!!!

 

You are correct , you can level up in this game without grinding , doing class missions and side story missions is all part of the story line , so therefore it isn't a grind. Now some people who level up doing the heroic , flashpoints and pvp missions over and over are grinding , so the game has both , voila.

 

The only grinding I have done in this game were two heroic missions on ord mantell with just two of us and also a few heroic missions on korriban. Recently over the past ten or so days ive done zero grinding as we just have playing class and side story missions.

 

Ignore the negative people your thread is a good one and indeed bioware have done a great job in removing the grind.

 

Badorb.

Edited January 9, 2012 by BadOrb
shift key doesnt work for capitals

[zerosaint]

The pure PVE solo side of this quest is nothing but grind, anyone saying otherwise is deceiving themselves. However, there's so much other stuff going on that I can relegate that grind to it's proper place- when I just want to tune out for a while.

[genpion]

No grind ?

I feel like grind and running is about 75 % of my playtime.

 

You have to kill an annoying mob every 20 meters in order to arrive at the "Kill X Y" quest location and on the way back to the mission giver.

 

And probably about 85 % of all quests are the same for every class of the same fraction.

 

I wish I had teleporters to mission locations both for my solo game and my multiplayer game.

Edited January 9, 2012 by genpion

[MargulisAZ]

Thank Gawd! Someone has finally designed an MMO with Gamers in mind. With the Voice Acted missions -- yes, even the side quest are voice acted, the grinding for levels is officially dead!

 

Thank you SWTOR for killing this beast by making leveling fun, engaging, and very immersive. I actually look forward to leveling. Its no longer just a race to the highest level to begin the "real" game. In SWTOR the "real" game starts at level 1 with your very first mission and your very first dialogue decision!

 

Awesome!!!

 

Uhhhhhh, the quests are the same dude, they just tell you how you're going to kill x amont of this in a voice instead of a text box.....

[Ethern]

I don't know what the OP is talking about, but I'm not sure he has hit level 50 yet. Going from level 40-50 becomes a pain and the grind is felt, since you have to mass questing more than ever.

Hit the spacebar during dialogs and then dare tell us the grind is not here.

[Nunchi]

5/5 Flesh Raiders killed.

 

Updating...

 

5...4...3...2...1..

 

BONUS QUEST! 0/45 Flesh Raiders killed

 

Welcome to your grind-free experience.

 

its a bonus, your choice whether you do it. if you call killing 5 flesh raiders a grind, i dont know how you even play mmo's to begin with

[disparky]

Definition of GRIND = Games where you don't do quests but have to gain XP by killing things over and over for hours. WoW and SWTOR don't require you to grind at all because they are quest based games. There's absolutely no grind in this game at all. Don't call something a prison if you've never been in jail. Games like Lineage 2 are grind games. Edited January 9, 2012 by disparky

[WarTornPanda]

Play an alt of the same faction where 85%+ of the quests are the same and you'll rediscover the grind.

 

5/5 Flesh Raiders killed.

 

Updating...

 

5...4...3...2...1..

 

BONUS QUEST! 0/45 Flesh Raiders killed

 

Welcome to your grind-free experience.

 

/Thread.

 

If you haven't played an alt, then you honestly have no idea how "grindy" this game is. Unlike other MMORPGs, it's the same on-the-rails questing on every single toon of the same faction. I enjoy this game, but leveling more than one character of the same faction is a chore.

[genpion]

its a bonus, your choice whether you do it. if you call killing 5 flesh raiders a grind, i dont know how you even play mmo's to begin with

 

It is grind because I do not care about them.

Fighting them is boring and repetitive.

They are just in my way to do what and to go where I want.

Edited January 9, 2012 by genpion

[NasherUK]

Feels a LOT less grindy than other MMORPGs and BW have done a good job of making the leveling process flow well. You have fewer quests which are more story focused, instead of 1000s of copy/pasted kill X of Y quests with completely irrelevant and uninteresting "story" lke wow. Edited January 9, 2012 by NasherUK

[Cameirus]

Thank Gawd! Someone has finally designed an MMO with Gamers in mind. With the Voice Acted missions -- yes, even the side quest are voice acted, the grinding for levels is officially dead!

 

Thank you SWTOR for killing this beast by making leveling fun, engaging, and very immersive. I actually look forward to leveling. Its no longer just a race to the highest level to begin the "real" game. In SWTOR the "real" game starts at level 1 with your very first mission and your very first dialogue decision!

 

Awesome!!!

 

I've never been so mind numbingly bored whilst levelling.

 

The voice acting is great (well, passable and repetitive) but the acutal gameplay is boring, dull, repetitive, unimaginative and grindy.

 

Probably the worst levelling experience of any mmo. I'm even looking back to wow with nostalgia and I left that as it was boring as hell.

[pangwl]

imho, I don't see how questing = grinding....

 

Grinding to me is hitting higher level mobs (e.g. hitting mobs that are 3 levels above you) purely keep killing them for their EXP (which would benefit your gained the 'rested exp')...

 

Killing for quest is really just questing, becuz at the end of the day, you get a huge chunk of EXP for completing the quest, so much more that, 'you don't have to kill useless mobs out on the field' to get to x lvl to get y mission/ class quests in order to continue the story.

 

If you guys had played other MMOs b4, i.e. maplestory, you'll know the true meaning of 'Grinding'.

 

No offense really, killing x of y is not 'true grinding'.

[Aisar]

Thank Gawd! Someone has finally designed an MMO with Gamers in mind. With the Voice Acted missions -- yes, even the side quest are voice acted, the grinding for levels is officially dead!

 

Thank you SWTOR for killing this beast by making leveling fun, engaging, and very immersive. I actually look forward to leveling. Its no longer just a race to the highest level to begin the "real" game. In SWTOR the "real" game starts at level 1 with your very first mission and your very first dialogue decision!

 

Awesome!!!

 

The grind is still there, exactly like WoW. Nothing has changed, you're apparantly still star struck by the amazing dialog and cutscenes. For the experienced part of the community, this is a major letdown.

[Cameirus]

Yeah, they're bonus for a reason, as in you don't have to do them.

 

but you cant drop them.....you have to do them, you cant avoid them and if you dont do them all you quest log is uncompleted "bonus" quests.

[genpion]

but you cant drop them.....you have to do them, you cant avoid them and if you dont do them all you quest log is uncompleted "bonus" quests.

 

You can abandon the quest.

But the limitation of 25 missions is a real problem and a restriction beyond my understanding.

[jtravisp]

It seems we have a lot of folks here that are new to MMOs and don't really know what "grinding" means. When you do all of the quests available and it's not enough EXP to continue, then you have to grind. Give any Korean MMO a try and you'll understand.

 

By the classical definition, TOR has zero "grind."

 

Now if by "grind", you mean "the process of leveling up your character", then of course any game with leveling is going to have a "grind", but this ignores the history of the term.

[pangwl]

but you cant drop them.....you have to do them, you cant avoid them and if you dont do them all you quest log is uncompleted "bonus" quests.

 

hello ??? o_O do you know how to open up mission log (L) and hit 'abandon' ?

[genpion]

It seems we have a lot of folks here that are new to MMOs and don't really know what "grinding" means. When you do all of the quests available and it's not enough EXP to continue, then you have to grind. Give any Korean MMO a try and you'll understand.

 

By the classical definition, TOR has zero "grind."

 

Now if by "grind", you mean "the process of leveling up your character", then of course any game with leveling is going to have a "grind", but this ignores the history of the term.

 

I do not play Asia MMO for these reasons.

 

But forcing me so often to fight monsters on my way to a location is annoying and hence grind for me.

Maybe its my problem in that "Press button 1 - 10" is not satisfying enough for me as a good gaming experience.

 

And I have to do quests or PvP in order to level in order to do the more interesting class quests or flashpoints.

Edited January 9, 2012 by genpion