MMOs without grind...are there any?

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I was looking around at what MMOs are out there and until TOR is released, don't really know what else there is out there worth playing. I wanted to find out from Escapists what MMOs they know of which are fun and have very little to no grinding. Also, with plenty of PvE content, not just a PvP game.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It wouldn't really be an MMO without grind.

Grind is the measurement tool used to determine how long someone is willing to put up with repetitive tasks to get certain items and/or benefits.

 

[jakko12345]

There's always Club penguin

 

[creepy_rabbit]

Dungeons and Dragons Online didn't seem too grindy to me... (from my 4 hours of playing it)

 

[Seishisha]

"Grind is what keeps mmo's going" Its pretty much a fact, the day they invent one without massive grind is the day the universe explodes into custard.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I dunno. Neopets? Ikariam?

I'm assuming we're going by the internet's definition of "grind," which refers to basically any task repeated more than once. If that's the case, it's basically impossible to have RPGs without that (they wouldn't last long), but others, perhaps.

 

[longboardfan]

MMO's are grind. From all the leaks and talk from the developers (not the official spokesmen), TOR is going to be nothing more than WoW with voice acting and a visual face lift. Enjoy your "story driven" grind.

 

[Mr.Petey]

I think EVE did a very good spacious (pun intended) MMO without any need for constant real time grind as any skill building is done while the game is on or off, so there's no need to constantly find AI enemies to beat up over and over to gain exp (I think)

 

[longboardfan]

Well WoW's grind now is mostly reputation based. Instead of finding random mobs to grind, you just run instances repeatedly wearing tabards and do the same daily quests over and over again (once a day). Its pretty boring now actually.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

There's grinding if you're gonna go for maxed out faction titles like Sunspear or Lightbringer, or Luxon and Kurzick faction(which can be done in fun ways), but Guild Wars is the least grindy mmo I've played to date.

 

[VladG]

No such thing. If you want mmo, you want grind. If all you want is pvp, go play League of Legends or CoD

 

[mitchell271]

Maplestory has a lot less grind now. Try it out

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Guild Wars is quite low on the grind. Once you get max armour which is not hard and hit level 20 which is also not hard there is little to no grind unless you want to grind. Even then if you want to grind it is only for luxury stuff in game which you don't truly need ever.

The only game where it is kind of grindy is Nightfall where if you have a native character you need to grind Sunspear points a bit but other than that the main quest lines are grind light.

 

[Stall]

You know, I think most people who use the term "grind" don't understand what it means. It's a term that's lost almost all meaning since people throw it around willy-nelly with no real understanding of what it means to actually "grind" (probably because they never have had to because they didn't play MMOs in the era when grinding was common). Almost all modern, Western MMOs virtually have zero grind. You can level straight up to cap in WOW, Rift, and most others by doing nothing but quests. Some might refer to this as "grinding quests," but this is simply not grinding in the truest sense of the word.

I wish people wouldn't talk on genres they clearly have absolutely zero understanding about. Seriously. Stop saying things about MMOs when your knowledge consists of outdated crap from the early 00s. This is ALL This thread is. People who clearly have NEVER played and MMO but feel they can directly comment on the genre because no one is willing to call them out.

 

[DementedSheep]

D&D online does not seem to have much grinding if you pay for it. If you want to go F2P however then it will have allot of grinding for favour.
Guild wars also doesn?t have much grind aside from a few titles that you can get and some items like obsidian armour which is no better stat wise than you're standard, it?s just for looks and bragging rights. You only level up to 20 and after that its more about finding and unlocking the skills you want.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

I agree with most. MMO's are so deeply intertwined with grind, that I feel it's impossible to have an MMO without it. Take WoW. If you didn't have the multiple grinds, (leveling, skills, factions, achievements, PvP ranks/tiers, gear tiers) it would be a online fancy rpg. Even then you'd have to grind till max level and acceptable equipment to go kick Deathwing in the teeth and then you're finished. Nothing else to do, maybe go kick Yogg-Saron in the gums a few times for laughs but that's it. All the current MMO's wouldn't exist.

I guess you can argue that MMO's are there for the social aspect but fine, you have Maple Story... and even that have grinds to get x trinket or y fun item.

So TOR is going to have grind. I'm calling it right here. It may not be kill x of Sith y for Jedi z, but there will be something to grind away for amazing lengths of times to get. It'll be stuff like "prove your worth to learn this power and do the following tasks" or "you need ot get 4 buds and beat dark Sith Lord Tomfoolery but you'll need ot have a whole bunch of good powers and gears which you can get from the frozen planet Highliner if the mutant fishmen drop the key crafting component of on and on and on..."You can yell about the story driven campaign till Yoda's ears fall off but if TOR doesn't have some grind, well it's not going to last very long, as most people won't want to simply hang around the Cantina and talk to Greedo forever cause they already ***** slapped the Emperor, to use a simile from the old series.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

You know, I think most people who use the term "grind" don't understand what it means. It's a term that's lost almost all meaning since people throw it around willy-nelly with no real understanding of what it means to actually "grind" (probably because they never have had to because they didn't play MMOs in the era when grinding was common). Almost all modern, Western MMOs virtually have zero grind. You can level straight up to cap in WOW, Rift, and most others by doing nothing but quests. Some might refer to this as "grinding quests," but this is simply not grinding in the truest sense of the word.

I wish people wouldn't talk on genres they clearly have absolutely zero understanding about. Seriously. Stop saying things about MMOs when your knowledge consists of outdated crap from the early 00s. This is ALL This thread is. People who clearly have NEVER played and MMO but feel they can directly comment on the genre because no one is willing to call them out.

Most do mate. Grind means do x task god know how long or often to get a reward. Sure in wow you can quest till 85 and never PvP, instance, raid level professions or whatever, but then you'll miss most of the game and why pay the 15 bucks a month when you could play a free social mmo?
You want good gear? grind faction rep or dungeons till you can raid. Then grind raids.

You want a shiny raven mount? Run Sethek Halls once a day till the mount drops. Ditto for the other mounts that drop. You wanna wintersabre? Well go spend a chunk of time doing the same 3 quests over and over till the NPC likes you enough to give you one.

Grinds are a part of all MMO's. It's just how they do it. I fail to see why people think they so bad? If everyone got everything they wanted right away it makes the game not fun and boring. I suppose some bizarre sense of entitlement is lurking about a lot of poeple who complain about grinds and even a self failure thing as well. "I'm not good enough to get this mount, so I want it anyways"

 

[Hisshiss]

An MMO without grind would have to not be an RPG. So things like shooters (Ones using the call of duty model are arguably debatable with that unlock system) and...like maybe league of legends, Im not sure how much good those extra summoner levels/skills really do.

"No grind" More often than not is a myth made up to sooth people who are just tired of playing giant RPG's all day, which is what most MMO's amount too. In reality, its impossible to play a game as big as MMO's are expected to be without having too many levels or ranks to plow through to reach end game, that's how the genre works, they are built for longevity, not excitement.

But yeah, look for any game that has a sort of left for dead aura too it, in that it has no ranks or levels to progress through, that's the kind of game that will give you alot up front.

They are rare though, that model fits better in non MMO's, since up front rewards are kind of counter productive towards a successful MMO model, cant keep you playing for a year if they give you everything in a week :0.


My spell checker has "Helpfully" pointed out how many times I said MMO in this response. Thank you spell checker.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Guild Wars 2 is going to have no grind, because of its buy-to-play model which means they don't have to pad out the experience. You log in, do whatever you want, log out, don't log in again until you want to do something else. You don't even have to worry about your friends surpassing you, since they can just sidekick you up to their level, City of Heroes style, if you all want to do something together.

But it won't be out until after TOR, so...Sorry, this post was no help at all.