Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Anyone else miss group grinding?
GinoMontag
Member Posts: 9
I'm not a fan of grinding for advancement, but it does work in some games. But every new game that comes out wants you to solo and get the majority of xp from quests. This is the new standard.
I miss the old days where games had really good grinding spots, and you would have to send a tell and wait in line to join the group. Everquest was based on this, as well as many games that followed.
The thing I miss was the random groups. Just showing up in a the middle of nowhere and finding large crowds of people all wanting to level. It was always casual and nice to talk to people. There was always a few spots at each camp and in most games the population density was under control.
Today, all the popular games could be played just as well offline. I don't mean content, just leveling. It's tedious and desolate to solo for the span of a character. You have your guild chat, the same people every day. Or you can talk to the mass of idiots that spam away zone/global chats.
Group dungeons don't solve the issue. They make it worse in most cases. Lower level dungeons will sometimes invite random groups, but later on people get l33t. They want to do the dungeon as well as possible and will only play with people they know.
So now we have massive games woven together with tiny little communities. There's no interaction anymore. And they haven't evolved. If anything, I see the genre getting worse and more suited to the market WoW created. Level/Raid for gear/PVP, /quit, whine.
btw, I enjoy the posts about sandbox rpgs. I'm glad a few more people want an experience worth paying for.
</rant>
Comments
I had the same experience during my play of DAoC. Running randomly through some dark creepy woods you come upon a group of people and you start making small talk. You ask them what they're doing and they invite you into the group and you camp for a couple hours killing mobs, chit chatting, and just having a ball alltogether.
The newer games as you said might as well be played offline till you max out on levels and then show up to do some instances. I think they should make these games like Diablo 2. You can solo all you want, get to the max level and hunt for "phat lewt" and then join the multiplayer aspect so you can show of your new shinies. I think that's what it's come down to now.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Combat experience games > than quest experience oriented games
This new trend of linear quest line games usherd in by WoW is boring and antisocial. Usually you have a short wham-bam-thank-you-maam type group arrangement which ends when the quest is over and then you follow the retarded questgiver floating icons and minmap arrows to the next one.
Funny that u mention this. My dad and I were just talking about the good old EQ days of hanging out in the Aviak tree or just going to a dungeon and finding a fun group to play with. Seems alot of the new MMO's out now focus more on quests that run you zone to zone. Not that it bothers me, but you rarely see groups going out. I do miss SolB and the dreaded trains that often followed with dozens of Kobolds and Lava duct crawlers hehe. We were thinking of going back and trying EQ1 out again but i am not sure if there are many peeps still there
Yeah, I don't get it. I kind of miss it as well. The good old days when the puller went out and got the mob and the tank taunted it off. Tank then tanked the mob while the healer healed the tank and the others nuked the hell out of it. The mezzer would take care of any adds. Combat would actually take more then 10 seconds and was more then just mashing your 45 attackes in a pre-defined order. Yeah, the good ole days...
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
Vanguard has what you're looking for.
The only difference I see is in EQ you kinda parked at a camp and brought all the mobs to you. In Vanguard you have to be thinking about which mob to pull next very much like EQ but you're on the move deeper and deeper into the dungeon.
I'm finding that all of those things that I miss about EQ are found in Vanguard.
Again that dynamic is in VAnguard along with Bards, CC and tanking roles.
I also have my VG collectors addition sitting here next to me. Was thinking about giving that another shot, but I dont know if many peeps are on there either.Hmmmm decisions decisions. I really had my hopes up for VG but after a month of its launch it dwindled however I have been seeing posts popping up all over to give it another shot.
No , while Vg came close , its still nothing like it was back in the day with eq grouping , vanguard doesnt have the same feel or "camping" situation tho yes it comes close , half the time you will still get those crappy groups that break up after everyone gets their quests done , you get some good group exping in the dungeons yes and other group places , but its still too easy to solo and the game is still based around questing to max level , so you still get the solo players that don't know as much as they should and the quest only groupers .
My wife and i would love a good Heavy group based mmorpg like Eq back in the day or like EQoa/FFxi where solo is doable but not gonna get you to max level.
No.
I became soooo fedup of grinding in SWG and it's all we had to do to gain XP, it was not fun at all and the only highlight of it all is hoping a BH would come to attack you or another Jedi so you had something to do. I much prefer grouping to do quests or in dungeons which EQ2 got perfectly and was really fun when that came out but for some reason and probably because of WOW that game died by 2005.
I agree with the Op, I enjoy grouping with people and chatting with people as you level up. It was a great way to get to know the people in the game. The solo/quest driven games just do not seem to develop a very good community.
I played EQ and then moved to Daoc. They are both similar games, Daoc is my all time favorite. I recently returned to Daoc and decided to give Gaheris, the pve only server a try. So many helpful and friendly people on this server. You can solo but the game is really built for grouping and working together. There is a free 2 week trial that you can download if you want to give the game a try. This server has a great community and encourages grouping and I think those are two key components for enjoying an online game.
If I can be of help feel free to message me here or in game.
http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/download/
Agree 100%. I had great fun in pick up groups playng DAoC. City of Heroes is ok for grouping, but it's usually the wham bam thank you ma'am kinda group, not like hanging out in DAoC.
WoW solo questing sucks, and the group game before end game in WoW is terrible, which is why I couldn't play it.
EQ2 was good for group grinding, but it also had some good group quests. I don't mind the quests, if it's a big tough quests that requires a good group to get through it, and maybe has several parts to it.
But I agree, in a game like WoW, just have a chat channel running while you play the game solo and it would be the same thing.
What!? EQ and DAOC? No one played AC? use to be the best group grinding game around. BIG xp bonuses the larger your group the higher %. Hundreds and hundreds of quests...not kill quests or item pick up quests but real ones where you go into a dungeon and do something and get something created etc
Edit: Oh and not to mention everyone wanted to be your friend because of the monarchy system. Your guild loved u
Can't say I played Asheron's Call, though I often wonder what it would have been like.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
You can still play that way. I play that way every time I go out to get exp in FFXI.
I made friends I still have while grinding the orcs in Misty Thicket. I met my guild leader, and joined her guild, which became my guild throughout my life in EQ1, while group camping the PGT in HP. I met hated enemies that I fought with until I left while trying to bag the AC.
Yeah, though it is horribly out of fashion to the new generation of gamers who wernt there, and of course much hated by the burnt out wrecks that now have a nagging spouse and crying kids to limit their play time that were there, I like random PUGs, meeting new people, and exploring the world one dead orc at a time.
Grinding in a group was social, and that made it fun. The fact that EQ1 was just a harder game at the base level then something like AoC was also waht made it fun of course... I am a co-op social player though, so a shared victory has always been more rewarding to me then an unnoticed solo one.
The only group grinding I missed was in dangerous dungeons in which the penalty for dying was significant enough to get your attention, and in which any misstep could pull a train or spell disaster for the group.
I did not miss grinding in big open outdoor zones, I suppose because there seemed to be less risk and more avenues for retreat or escape.
I do not miss grinding in games which have a limited or zero penalty for dying, because without the feeling of risk, the feeling of rewards are greatly lessened.
oh god yes ... i HATE, despise, loathe and not really care for the quest grind system that MMOs have adopted. some of the best experiences in MMos have been when im grinding/dungeon crawling. heck I keep in touch with some people from said grinding groups from EQ1 and daoc .... ah the good ole days at the tree camp or vigs in catacombs.
why solo questing has become better than grouping I will never understand it. I thought that was the whole point of Online RPGs is to get something you cant get from single player RPGs ... fighting alongside real life players.
I'll agree with you to some extent. If you risk nothing you gain nothing. Many people say that they don't want their hours upon hours of exp, items, or what have you gone when they die. At this point I really wonder where their risk was? What did they have to risk to get all the rewards?
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
I went back to EQ1 for the free play recently and overal it was a good experience.....I made some new friends who were also returning and we did alot of things together......When the 4 of us were all on at the same time it was a great time grinding mobs and leveling...The problem was that often at least one person couldnt make it and it changed our group dynamic.......By the end of the free time I was teh only one that was logging in so I decided not to renew.....If you have alot of friends and they play fairly often then there is nothing better than grouping.......If your friends are not so many and its hit and miss when they play then it gets frustrating.
I agree that it "seems" like people miss that and recently resubbed my FFXI account for just that reason. I have never played EQ but Ive heard that FFXI might have an even steeper grind so I know how it is to a degree. Anyways, the big turn off for me with those type of games isn't the group grind but with FFXI combat is so frickin slow Im bored out of my mind and literally feel tired while playing, almost the same feeling you get in a boring class listening to a teacher lecture.
I think if an MMO came around with good combat I would love to grind mobs that took a long time to kill and rewarded groups with better exp but FFXI and EQ the combat is so slow its really hard to go back to that after playing games like WoW where every 1.5 seconds( global cooldown) you're using an ability.
Nope, don't miss it one bit.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
Or Lineage 2.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I agree with the OP, my favorite leveling and grinding times ever in an MMO were in the Star Wars Galaxies CU days. You would get a group together, get your missions, and go out and grind. Always a good time. Way better then the boring questfest that is WoW.
But on the other hand, I think certain games lead to certain leveling types. For instance, I would hate the SWG way of grinding if it were put into WoW, but that is simply because of the community. The community is so immature and annoying when compared to that of SWG, that I prefer going solo in WoW.
Perhaps a semi-complex game is needed to make group grinding the staple.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Well I am happy about the quests these days because I was not much of a fan of standing in one spot and just killing mobs. You kind of get the same thing these days with quests as they are really just tasks and not what I consider to be a quest.
The biggest issue is no matter what the options are, human nature goes for the easier, faster route in most situations. I just don't understand why people can't still group and do quests together. The only loss of xp is some from the kills but quest xp is the same total when you turn it in and can usually get through quests quicker with partners and if you find you are behind a bit, sit and kill mobs.
To me games are about having fun and you make from it what you can. Just to let you know I don't play WoW, I have but it just isn't my game, I prefer to feel like my character is in a world and I am not just playing a game. Not sure when I will get that from a graphical game again(SWG was close) but I hope some day I will. I do plan on playing WAR but playing it for what it is. I have a MUD I am playing to get immersion in so everyone has their choices.
I have played a few quest-based games, and while my primary reference is WoW, the others seemed to pose similar problems with grouping for quests. For almost all of these games, quests are used in order to hide the grind by providing objective-guided grinds. In WoW, I have tested it, and I move way slower questing with a group. In LotR, I find that it depends on the quest. I liked how LotR had quests that were simply better to do with a group. Others seemed to be better to do alone.
One of my main complaints is that there is not much of a bonus that could greatly improve the levelling. In addition, players are not very loyal with group quests and primarily aim at completing the quest for them and them alone.
In group-grind based games, I find there is far more interaction. You care about other players because it makes a difference as to how well you will do. This is true for games that encourage both the divide-and-conquer method (Asheron's Call) and the one-at-a-time method (FFXI). The players are typically more loyal in my experience, though, if another player is casting a major weight toward the group, that player may be discharged. I even find that I make more friends this way.
In WoW, I have played the entire levelling aspect of the game and made no friends whatsoever (I eventually made temporary friends at endgame). Also, with random PUGs, you can meet very unique people which might even become good friends later down the road. Though, this might be true for instancing in other games, it has never happened to me because most people are their for gear and that is all. The only place you tend to meet people will be in guilds.
Another aspect that I like about group-grinds is the flucuation. It sucks to enter a group that does not even remotely impress you. On the other hand, it is absolutely unbelievable when the group does impress you. It is enough that I personally do not get bored. I am inspired to do my best for better levelling.
I question how many of the newer gamers have truly tried the style of group games we are talking about. Many claim to but it seems hard to believe sometimes. Oh well, it seems players that like group levelling, and the related content, are in the minority.