XP grind. Mob or Quest?

Arclan

In EQ, we earned xp several hours at a time by killing mobs. Much of that time involved joking around with newly met friends. Often, you came to respect their wit and skill and made a game-long friend and in some cases a lifelong friend.

In Vanguard, I earned xp by doing quests. This never involved staying in one place for more than just a few minutes. If you are busy moving or fighting, you don't have time to chat. So no new friends were made in Vanguard.

Most games require xp, and many refer to that as a 'grind.' So pick your poison.

Theocritus

I made more friends in EQ than I have in all other MMOs combined...The reason was because of the way we had to gain XP..... Liek the OP said, once we started questing we weren't in any one place long enough to make new friends and often didn't need anyone else anyway.....IMO quests should have been in MMOs only if they involved a great task (like class epic quests in EQ) and should involve other people....Otherwise its basically a single player game with other people in the game world.

Abuz0r

These are some of the great moments that the new mmo games have lost.

I miss watching tv and grinding monsters, or chatting on ventrilo while grinding.  Or even just trying to type something out while 2 mobs in a pit beat on me lol.

nbtscan

I prefer engaging in a well done story rather than mindlessly grinding on the same type of monster for hours at a time.

Alioth

Mob grinding, but with a party. EQ and FFXI rocked! I can't play quest grinders.

Lumm

Both with grinding mobs giving the best results.

grimfall

Originally posted by Alioth

Mob grinding, but with a party. EQ and FFXI rocked! I can't play quest grinders.

It's just not the mob grinding that builds community... it's also the down time.  In EQ you often had one puller who was pretty much "playing" all the time, and the rest of the group sat around regenerated mana and talked.  There were also other "time sinks" that allowed for talking- questing that involved staring a spot on the ground  Boat rides, or auto-following someone running through a zone, sitting in the auction zone, selling or looking for things to buy.

WoW removed all of these things in an effort to make the minute-to-minute game play more exciting, and for the most part they succeeded, but they consequently threw the baby (socializing) out with the bathwater (sitting around waiting for mana).

shingoukieh

Hell no to that exp mob grind BS

I remember playing perfect world and literally grinding for hours just to get a half bar of exp...

I remember Rohan Blood feud grinding in scrolls parties for endless hours...and rohan was bad ass if it wasnt for the horrible grind...

in grind parties yeah u meet people and chat....but its hella boring...i remember falling asleep in some of them.

 

IMO sounds to me they need to find a new way to party with people through the levels that involve interaction.

Nyrrho

Originally posted by Alioth

Mob grinding, but with a party. EQ and FFXI rocked! I can't play quest grinders.

This. There was something to be said sitting in one spot for hours with the same group of people in FFXI. I don't think anyone would disagree that it definitely facilitates community more than running from hub to hub.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Arclan

In EQ, we earned xp several hours at a time by killing mobs. Much of that time involved joking around with newly met friends. Often, you came to respect their wit and skill and made a game-long friend and in some cases a lifelong friend.

In Vanguard, I earned xp by doing quests. This never involved staying in one place for more than just a few minutes. If you are busy moving or fighting, you don't have time to chat. So no new friends were made in Vanguard.

Most games require xp, and many refer to that as a 'grind.' So pick your poison.

I pretty much solely grind mobs in Vanguard.

Other than that, I prefer killing mobs because I enjoy the combat it's rather relaxing up to the "oh shit" moment and then that's fun.

Yesterday in Aion I started taking quests but then started realizign that I was going to be running all over creation for stuf I just didn't care about. So I dumped theme and killed mobs.

xeniar

Originally posted by Arclan

In EQ, we earned xp several hours at a time by killing mobs. Much of that time involved joking around with newly met friends. Often, you came to respect their wit and skill and made a game-long friend and in some cases a lifelong friend.

In Vanguard, I earned xp by doing quests. This never involved staying in one place for more than just a few minutes. If you are busy moving or fighting, you don't have time to chat. So no new friends were made in Vanguard.

Most games require xp, and many refer to that as a 'grind.' So pick your poison.

I miss those days man.

I'd rather grind mobs in intresting places wich present a threat (lots of patrols and traps) then these stupid run there and kill 7 wolves then move on quests..

Sovrath

Originally posted by coretex666

For me, it is definitely the "Mob" option.

Besides Wow, I played mostly grinding games.

I remember in Lineage II, we just made a group of guildies where almost everyone played a different role...you had a tank, healer, mana healer, buffer, dps, etc. We went to e.g. Lair of Antharas which was practically a huge public dungeon. First we were just running, exploring killing mobs meanwhile. Then we found us a smaller cave with some good exp / time mobs with good drop chance and grinded for hours. For me, it was more fun than collecting 10 tiger claws as a quest.

Obviously grinding mobs should not be the only activity of the game. But accompanied by world bosses, pvp, crafting, building, sieges, etc., it can work in a MMORPG, in my opinion.

I would also say that mob grind would not work well in a game with easily attainable level cap (wow, gw, rift,...). Quests are more suitable for this game design, I think.

 

Pretty much all this. This was my experience in L2 as well.

AlBQuirky

It is a matter of a combination for me. Sometimes, I feel like being in a group and tearing through MOBs for hours on end. Other times I feel like following quests, where I can do as I please without worrying about others in my group. It is 2 very different types of gameplay and I enjoy them both.

The "grind" is so variable. With quests, I am engaged in the game. With MOB killing, I am not as engaged. If I get in a good group and we chat, the "grind" becomes less "grindy" and levels seem to come much more quickly.

The downside to EQ for me was the feeling that I could not do much without getting into a group. Even crafting was tough because it costs money and money was much easier to get fighting MOBs in groups. I could get to level 20 fairly easily without the "need" of others to help, but after that, soloing was very tough, indeed.

I do miss the Epic Quests that EQ had, though. They seemed to involve everyone in the group, not just the player doing the quests.

xeniar

Originally posted by AlBQuirky

It is a matter of a combination for me. Sometimes, I feel like being in a group and tearing through MOBs for hours on end. Other times I feel like following quests, where I can do as I please without worrying about others in my group. It is 2 very different types of gameplay and I enjoy them both.

The "grind" is so variable. With quests, I am engaged in the game. With MOB killing, I am not as engaged. If I get in a good group and we chat, the "grind" becomes less "grindy" and levels seem to come much more quickly.

The downside to EQ for me was the feeling that I could not do much without getting into a group. Even crafting was tough because it costs money and money was much easier to get fighting MOBs in groups. I could get to level 20 fairly easily without the "need" of others to help, but after that, soloing was very tough, indeed.

I do miss the Epic Quests that EQ had, though. They seemed to involve everyone in the group, not just the player doing the quests.

Epic quest where truelly epic. they wernt easy at all. i in EQOA had a part where i had to take a portal into the bubbles area where i had to fight an incredibly hard guy alone. i made it trough barely and i was really relieved because ive heard people where having an incredibly hard time in there.

Alioth

Originally posted by grimfall

Originally posted by Alioth

Mob grinding, but with a party. EQ and FFXI rocked! I can't play quest grinders.

It's just not the mob grinding that builds community... it's also the down time.  In EQ you often had one puller who was pretty much "playing" all the time, and the rest of the group sat around regenerated mana and talked.  There were also other "time sinks" that allowed for talking- questing that involved staring a spot on the ground  Boat rides, or auto-following someone running through a zone, sitting in the auction zone, selling or looking for things to buy.

WoW removed all of these things in an effort to make the minute-to-minute game play more exciting, and for the most part they succeeded, but they consequently through the baby (socializing) out with the bathwater (sitting around waiting for mana).

Absolutely. FFXI also worked in a very similar fassion with pullers, waiting on mana, etc; it had a great community and down time played a very important role in the building of it.

I would love to see a new MMO bring back true exp parties, and judging by the number of die-hard EQ and FFXI fans, I am sure many other people would too.

ClaudeSuamOram

The other difference is in EQ...even grinding mosters could be fun becuase loot was more randomized and you could possibly get a nice surprise drop from a mob during that grind. It made each fight sort of like Christmas. Of course though more times than not it was like opening a present to find a rock in the box. =P

Waiden

XP grind all the way But sometimes i want to do some quests to break the routine.

You know why NA/EU players prefer doing 100 quest per day over killing 1000+ mobs in western mmorpgs? I think it is because western mmorpgs with only questing required give them opportunity to level up to max lvl in week or two. Western players are used to create character and by the end of the the week, two or tree just reach the max lvl and start beating the hardest content. Just my thoughts ... It just looks most of them now want easy reachable, acessible and obtainable things and goals in mmorpgs. sad...

 

But I rather see xp grind than quest grind tbh .. In mainly quest mmorpgs these quests force you to do certain things, in mainly xp mmorpgs you can do whatever you want and kill whatever you want. You know what I mean

Mikeha

I will always prefer mob grinding but I wish for a game to come along that evolves it to the next level. I cant do quest based games and I have finally come to accept that afther uninstalling TERA a couple days ago. I would rather be in a group grinding mobs anyday because its just way more social where you made friends for life in the game and it made you really appreciate your accomplishments. So for 6 years running I will continue to play Lineage 2 in hopes that one day I will see Lineage 3.

Psychow

I would rather quest.  Mindlessly killing mobs for no other reason than to gain XP is not a gamestyle I would want to participate in.

 

I'm sure developers would LOVE it if we did prefer mob grinding tho. Just think of all the costs they can save from having to provide content for it's players!

 

 

Lovely_Laly

quest to me is one time story line quest, rest of them is repetitive grind.

some grinds are ok: kill small amount of mobs can't annoy me too much but if next quest push you back to same mobs, I quite game.

quest or mob depends on rewards / drops; sometime you just waste time with quest but get nothing much, by this time you could kill X mobs and get Y drops;
sometime you have quest to kill "good" mobs and this way you get both: quest reward and drops.

I can't tell you what I prefer, it depends on game, quest, mobs.

I can tell you what i hate to do: kill 30 mobs, come back, kill 40 of same kind, all at same or close area; kill 10 mobs, go like 3 zones far, turn quest, go back to kill next 10 mobs of same kind 3 zones from here (LoTRO).

anything you do, you can't afford best to buy items in game w/o use of cash shop: GW2 has worst example with cost of Legendary, following by Runes of Magic upgrades, and then, by far, most of f2p shop dependent games.

group quests when you can't find people to do it with you (some zones at TBC WoW).

Sovrath

I have to say that I love quests when they are actual quests. Which is rare to non-existant.

Having me run down to the river to kill 5 of X is not a quest. It's a job. Which is fine, I don't mind being payed to get rid of local fauna. But other than that, I'd rather go out and explore and hunt monsters over "run here... now run there... now go back.. now run and talk to one person who has nothing to say and run back again."

That makes quests tedious relay races.

@mannish: I actually play tera mostly with mob grinding sprinkled with the quests. And I grind BAMS which have been somewhat lucrative but only solo.

also, do you think they will make L3 a grinder game? I fear they won't.

blackcat35

I remember playing EQ, and falling asleep on the keyboard.  its scary waking up with an imprint of the keyboard on your face.  I remember doing a tough raid that had multiple groups in the raid, and having our cleric fall asleep at the keyboard.  We had called a gm to boot his char so he wouldn't be auto-killed, and a dragon came while everyone was running away, and I remember mezzing it so it wouldn't toast his char.  ( I was an enchanter ).  I basically saved his char from a certain death.  Our group killed the mob.

I had alot of good times in EQ, but grinding in one spot against respawning mobs gets boring, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread.

 

 

 

CalmOceans

It's important to note that EQ uses camp squatting for most of the world, it also has a slower paced combat system.

Both these things allow for community building. Basically if you want a community you need downtime in your game.

BeansnBread

I don't like either option very much. Perhaps I might enjoy quests if they weren't so damned generic. Maybe if they added far, far fewer of them and made each of them far more epic in scope I might like it.

 

But really, I like games where I can level in PvP or in difficult PvE dungeon-like content.

 

Grinding or quests as we know them? They can completely remove both "features" from MMORPGs and I would be perfectly happy.

Wolfenpride

Mob grinding for the most part. During quests more time is spent running back and forth between walls of texts giving some excuse as to why it was imperative I needed to kill 10 boars. It also makes grouping more of a hassle than it should be, trying to make sure everyone is on the same stage/kill count and such.

There's a few things that need/can be done to spice up mob grinding so it doesn't become a chore, but i'm to lazy to get into that.

I did enjoy quests in EQ1 though, despite how incredibly difficult many of them would turn out to be.

KaosProphet

Originally posted by Arclan

In EQ, we earned xp several hours at a time by killing mobs. Much of that time involved joking around with newly met friends. Often, you came to respect their wit and skill and made a game-long friend and in some cases a lifelong friend.

In Vanguard, I earned xp by doing quests. This never involved staying in one place for more than just a few minutes. If you are busy moving or fighting, you don't have time to chat. So no new friends were made in Vanguard.

Most games require xp, and many refer to that as a 'grind.' So pick your poison.

I never played either.  I stuck with UO when EQ was in it's hey-day, and I missed Vanguard completely.

I also dislike dichotomies, so I'mma throw out option three here:  SOT, skill-over-time, the way Eve did it.  This way you're "levelling" while you're doing... whatever you feel like doing.  Grinding mobs, grinding quests, grinding craftables, or just shooting the breeze at whatever social hub the game might have.