MMOs without grind...are there any?

[AzureRaven]

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.

Guild Wars 2 is going to be amazing. If I recall correctly they stated that most of the leveling experience will just be playing through various stories. So it will feel like what you're doing has significance, rather than beating up boars in a forest somewhere for half an hour for no reason.

As for non-grinding MMOs now...none that I'm aware of. But do keep an eye on GW2 when it does come out.

 

[SergeantAnt]

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.

since guild wars had a level cap of 20 you don't really grind for experience. you can beat the whole story and hold up very well in pvp without ANY grinding. in that ggame you just grind for cooler looking stuff, not better lol.

i wouldn't get it though since guild wars 2 is coming out and looks amazing ;D

 

[Stall]

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?

With such a broad definition of "grind," couldn't you effectively argue that EVERY game, much less just MMOs, is nothing beyond grinding? This is what I am talking about... people are FORCING the definition of "grind" to fit what they want.

If you define grind like YOU did, then EVERY game is a grind. Yet if you use a more "MMO" definition of it, i.e. doing nothing but killing mobs in a specific area to earn XP, then "grinding" is more or less an anachronism... not characteristic of modern MMOs.

 

[Zakarath]

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?

With such a broad definition of "grind," couldn't you effectively argue that EVERY game, much less just MMOs, is nothing beyond grinding? This is what I am talking about... people are FORCING the definition of "grind" to fit what they want.

If you define grind like YOU did, then EVERY game is a grind. Yet if you use a more "MMO" definition of it, i.e. doing nothing but killing mobs in a specific area to earn XP, then "grinding" is more or less an anachronism... not characteristic of modern MMOs.

I'd second Ash's definition of grind. it's basically do repetitive, boring tasks in exchange for the advancement they bring. Stuff like "Go kill 20 bears, or gather 15 rocks, (Slighly more egregious example: in LOTRO, you can unlock certain trait points by, say, killing 200 of some monster type.) in order to get a bit of xp or reward, without really furthering any sort of story or whatever, and that really is something you see much more of in MMOs, even modern ones, that most other games.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

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.

Please don't speak for others. I've played MMO's for over 10 years, and quite a diverse collection of them. I know quite clearly what grinding is, thank you.

 

[Plucky]

Kingdom of Loathing, at first it looks like one of the many "you get limited amount of turns per day" dealies, but this one ISNT a city/civilization builder game, basically you go around killing monsters and do quests, alot of the jokes are usually pop culture references or longtime jokes that only the most devoted would get.

Other than that, it's hard to "grind", there isnt PvP in the traditional way that people know it as, the main form of PvP is 'contests' like how many trophies you have and the such, in terms of grindability, you can go as fast or slow as you want. (though there is Alice's Army, a trading card game ingame...though you'll eiher have to pay meat for a booster pack someone has summoned, buy individual cards from players, or pay RL money at the time for an item which you can get to learn how to summon said packs....the item that teaches the skill is used up when used, but does cost quite a bit of meat)


The heirachy and diversity of personal achievements is thinly explained, many players try to get a high amount of shinies, either by collecting Trophies, Tattoos, items or skills.....to get many skills would involve starting the life allover again, but thats the best bit, you can choose a difficulty, a path and even potencial restrictions to make the runs more challenging and rewarding.


And theres 6 classes to play with, each with their own skill learn set and slight playstyle changes, coupled with the ability to permanantly learn skills by ascending, the game does have quite a bit of replayability, though it would look confusingly vast to newer players...unless they read the Wiki or something.

 

[Tsukikagenoknight]

Depends. If you mean experience grinding, then wizard 101 would work, as the experience you get from battle is based on how many attacks you make, and rarely would get you 100 and quests give up way more (They also do not have daily quests, all quests are one time only) so any "grinding" is done for gold or rare drops.

If you mean completely grind free, download a rpg rom and then hack it.

 

[MolotoK]

World war 2 Online / Battlegrounds Europe

It's not an RPG, but it's an MMO.
New players need to level up a bit before they are allowed to use the most expensive equipment, but apart from that there is no leveling system. It all depends on how good you are with a rifle, tank or plane.

Think: Red Orchestra turned MMO and crossed with IL2 Sturmovik and the most realistic tank sim u could imagine.
Or: Battlefield42 with 10times more players, 1000times bigger map and 1million times more realism.

 

[Zendervai]

It's probably not what you want, but the only grind-free MMO I've seen is URU, the Myst MMO.

 

[L00fah]

Guild Wars had a very minimal amount of "grind." Though, I would hardly call it a grind. You can reach the level cap in about a day (if that) and mostly doing different stuff and completing story missions.
Your level cap is 20, but you reach that really early on and shit just gets much-much harder from there.

And I think you guys are a bit wrong about MMOs = Grind.
MMORPG, maybe. But not all MMOs. MMO is a subgenre-prefix, not a genre.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

The problem is I see this. Someone says Kingdom of Loathing isn't a grind and then goes on to talk about all the things you have to grind to do... you wanna get the various tattoos or trophies... go jump through whatever hoop the games says to do and you get them. That's a grind. You wanna collect items or pets or whatnot? Well go grind away to do those too. Spend however many hours ot get enough meat to buy it...

WW2O/BGE said new players need ot level up a bit... so they need ot grind? If you grind more can you unlock a slightly bigger or better gun or tank?

Guild Wars... so you do various stuff? So what pray tell do you do? I never played GW but seriously, a grind is a damn grind. You wanna get this faction to love you, well go beat up the dudes from that other faction enough and we will. Grind.... you wanna make 1000000 gold in game ot buy some awesome magical thing? Grind....

now back to Stall, you said...

"With such a broad definition of "grind," couldn't you effectively argue that EVERY game, much less just MMOs, is nothing beyond grinding? This is what I am talking about... people are FORCING the definition of "grind" to fit what they want.

If you define grind like YOU did, then EVERY game is a grind. Yet if you use a more "MMO" definition of it, i.e. doing nothing but killing mobs in a specific area to earn XP, then "grinding" is more or less an anachronism... not characteristic of modern MMOs."


Erm... I was very specific of my definition of grind. Allow me to say it again...

GRIND: Grind means do x task god know how long or often to get a reward.

SO yes, if every game has to do x of y to achieve z where z isn't just finish the damn game, yes it's a bleeding grind. So no, I don't consider playing a game through once to finish it a grind. But if you start trying to unlock this, or collect all of these or make x group like you or etc etc blah bl;ah yakkity smakkity... you be grindin mon.

Honestly Stall, I don't think you know what grind means and are determined ot shoehorn your own definition on others. I'm curious, so what's your definition of grind? I've played MMO's since EQ1 and well, they pretty grind tastic. I just don't mind. I understand you need ot work to get your little thrill of achievement.

 

[JaceArveduin]

There's always Club penguin

Nope, my sister plays, and you have to grind for coins, and to use those coins to get anything that looks good you have to get a $5 a month subscription. I told her if she did the dishes, I'd play the mini games to grind coins (well) for her.

I know because I played on her account, I spent 20 minutes mashing random buttons and messing with the arrow keys while she did the dishes, fair trade in my opinion.

OT: Nope, I don't think there are any MMO's with out grind, though there are MMO's that have less grind than others, though I haven't played enough to give you a clear indication.