Are there any MMO's where you don't have to grind/go through stale grinding quests?

[MarcoKaraki]

And by stale quests I mean the generic "kill x, x many times". Those tasks are just meaningless.
Perhaps I mean an MMO that does have those kinds of quests, but in a limited amount.

I feel like I've researched for many MMO's--but they are either free to play and have many downsides, or are very expensive, and don't have enough of a userbase and still aren't very thrilling or exiting. :\

 

[IGemini]

EVE works that way. There are story/corp/faction quests you can do. You don't have to do ALL of them, but they can help in getting standing, money, equipment etc. There's tons of other stuff to do in the game, and I know they've added more since I last played.

The only real "grind" is time, as your player develops skills by researching them (even when offline). But I suppose asteroid mining could count.

 

[MarcoKaraki]

Oh wow, and I just saw that it's getting Oculus Rift support. That's a big plus

 

[PrincessFrosty]

In short, no not really.

MMOs mostly work through a system of rewarding players with loot for effort put into doing certain tasks to create a rat race to get to the top, they're all based around that model in some way, the moment to moment experience is normally more boring than fun, what keeps people playing is the rewards. That means they just need to release more high end content and it keeps everyone in a state of grind.

What the grind involves doing tends to differ from game to another but there's always some kind of grind.

 

[Dahak]

Its been a while, but I believe Guild Wars 2 works like that without the many "kill x, x many times". there might be a few there but it don't recall seeing it as much.

Mind you the last time I had put any time into GW2 was about 6-9 months ago

 

[Red Storm]

MMO and Grind go hand in hand. You don't get one without the other.

 

[Zenoth]

In short, no not really.

MMOs mostly work through a system of rewarding players with loot for effort put into doing certain tasks to create a rat race to get to the top, they're all based around that model in some way, the moment to moment experience is normally more boring than fun, what keeps people playing is the rewards. That means they just need to release more high end content and it keeps everyone in a state of grind.

What the grind involves doing tends to differ from game to another but there's always some kind of grind.

I agree with this pretty much entirely.

@ MarkoKaraki

The grind you'll experience in MMORPGs can of course vary from one to another, but there's indeed always some kind of grind thrown in.

There are, however, some of them that managed to make the grind sort of fun (at least for a time, until it inevitably becomes boring) or at the very least made it a little more complex than just having you go at some farmer's field to kill those 12 wolves he wants dead. I'd say that (out of those I've played myself) Guild Wars 2's "generic quests" (dynamic events they were called... they weren't actually that dynamic though) were sort of entertaining for the most part (at least they were, back when the game was new and everyone jumped in for a time).

If I'm not mistaken GW2 became free-to-play recently, perhaps give that one a try (on a side note, GW2's music is good, graphics are good, animations too and there's voice acting for your character, which is actually rare in MMORPGs). I for one got bored of GW2 for various reasons (despite the fact that it does have its qualities), one of which is the fact that there's no trinity system ("Healer", "Tank", "DPS"), everyone can be their own 'tank', have their own 'self-heals' and can 'dps' at their hearts content. Some like that, some don't, I'm one of those who ultimately realized that even though the trinity system is "old" in MMORPGs it simply still works and was never in actual need of replacement (except in the minds of ArenaNet that is). I have to admit, however, that back when the game was still being advertised before its release I did jump in the hype wagon and I was actually praising them for not going with a "generic" trinity system. I was actually looking forward to just make a character that didn't "need" to heal nor would depend on others to be healed, etc. In the end, it took me a few weeks, but I just realized that I was ultimately wrong.

But to each their own. I can definitely see why some people actually enjoy GW2. The game is still very much active with a massive community and a new expansion is coming for it. I'd still recommend that you at least give it a try, if anything. On a side note, I decided to speak about GW2 mostly because it really is the only one that comes to mind that happens to have somewhat tolerable grinding (or even enjoyable at times). To be honest if GW2 had a normal trinity system I would definitely go back playing it just for that, because a lot of things in GW2 are actually done right (and I absolutely loved the map designs and detailed environments, not to mention the actual sheer size of some of the maps which makes 'exploration' fun, which is also rare in MMORPGs).

 

[MarcoKaraki]

Okay, I think I get it now. There will never be an ideal MMO since "Massive Multiplayer" entails having a game appeal to the least common denominator(Not much skill required, not much creativity required, and the ability to keep the players in by having limitless repetitive content)

 

[Anomaly1964]

Best MMO EVER was Star Wars Galaxies!!!!!!!!!

 

[asteldian]

Okay, I think I get it now. There will never be an ideal MMO since "Massive Multiplayer" entails having a game appeal to the least common denominator(Not much skill required, not much creativity required, and the ability to keep the players in my having limitless repetitive content)

Really all depends on your tastes. For me there is never an ideal single player game because...it's single player and I find that rather dull regardless how great the tale may be (I can enjoy a good book if I want a great story to enjoy all alone).

Course, that said, Modern MMOs are rather tedious because they tend to drown yo with tedious tasks and also provide zero challenge while actually levelling up, so they all end up as solo experiences until end game, so it feels like a single player game but with an inferior story.

For me, the strength of an MMO is experiencing content together - so I can happily see the meaningless quests removed and simply have a world you explore and team up with people to overcome the challenges from the start to the end.
AAA MMOs won't provide that because they are Mass Market Online games and want to lure in as many people as they can - so fully accessible means lots of soloability and 1000s of quests to keep players distracted. As a result, it will all be about the Indie MMOs if current MMOs are not interesting you it is likely they may be more appealing.

 

[Shmee]

I recently got into SW:TOR as free to play. I have not played a whole lot of time in MMOs, but I am enjoying it.

 

[Anomaly1964]

I recently got into SW:TOR as free to play. I have not played a whole lot of time in MMOs, but I am enjoying it.

The first 50 levels are VERY fun - now that more DLC is coming out it can still be fun...

 

[skipsneeky2]

The grind,have done it in Wizard 101 and in Rift.Fun in both but my buddy has told me some fun grinding stories on his 6+year old Ruinscape account.99 Prayer is a pita so i hear.

 

[TeknoBug]

Yup as someone else said, Star Wars Galaxies (there's SWGemu), one of the most addictive games for me years ago before SOE shut it down, but I don't play SWGemu that often anymore.

Guild Wars 2 isn't very heavily dependent on gear, if you like to PvP you have instant access to the best equipment right off the bat and off you go but you do need to level up to gain access to more advanced skills, which can matter in smaller group based fights, otherwise when it's 30+ vs 30+ or whatever just throw your basic skills at the enemy's direction til you die.

 

[DarkRipper]

Best MMO EVER was Star Wars Galaxies!!!!!!!!!

*pre-CU SWG

Pre-CU was the BEST MMORPG I've ever played. I truly miss that game. We were armored GODS and the newbs bowed down to us.

 

[Anomaly1964]

*pre-CU SWG

Pre-CU was the BEST MMORPG I've ever played. I truly miss that game. We were armored GODS and the newbs bowed down to us.

Yes Pre-CU...

I remember hunting Kryt Dragons and selling the pearls for 6 million credits to Jedi...

 

[KMFJD]

Best MMO EVER was Star Wars Galaxies!!!!!!!!!

To each his own i guess......i thought it was one of the shittier attempts at an mmo

 

[MarcoKaraki]

I guess those star wars MMO's do seem more interesting quest-wise--now the only thing I wish appeared was skill based combat like in an FPS, or situations where you can use physics and time to use weapons (like a catapult or a bow & arrow). I know this one MMO called Mortal Online sort of has combat like that, but it is kind of rough and feels a little buggy.

 

[Red Storm]

I guess those star wars MMO's do seem more interesting quest-wise--now the only thing I wish appeared was skill based combat like in an FPS, or situations where you can use physics and time to use weapons (like a catapult or a bow & arrow). I know this one MMO called Mortal Online sort of has combat like that, but it is kind of rough and feels a little buggy.

Real time twitched based combat is not easy to do with "Massively Multiplayer" unfortunately.

 

[BoberFett]

Okay, I think I get it now. There will never be an ideal MMO since "Massive Multiplayer" entails having a game appeal to the least common denominator(Not much skill required, not much creativity required, and the ability to keep the players in by having limitless repetitive content)

No, there will never be a good MMO for your because based on the above post you're a conceited jerk and people probably don't like you, and therefore don't want to game with you.

 

[sweenish]

I've not played it, but The Secret World might fit the bill.

 

[BoberFett]

*pre-CU SWG

Pre-CU was the BEST MMORPG I've ever played. I truly miss that game. We were armored GODS and the newbs bowed down to us.

Pre-CU SWG was definitely one of the best sandbox games ever. I really wish they had the cajones to see it through and improve it, but they took the easy route and killed it by eventually reducing it to a bad WoW clone.

In the old days, I was one of the top Weaponsmiths/Architects on Bria. I surveyed and horded materials like a madman, and during that brief glitch/change that allowed for perfect raw materials, I harvested a ton of it. Was the only person on Bria to build perfect crafting machines, and one of only a few on any server who could make them. All those rare metals I was storing made for some crazy powerful rifles.

 

[MarcoKaraki]

No, there will never be a good MMO for your because based on the above post you're a conceited jerk and people probably don't like you, and therefore don't want to game with you.

Seems like you take MMO's very seriously?

 

[DarkRipper]

Pre-CU SWG was definitely one of the best sandbox games ever. I really wish they had the cajones to see it through and improve it, but they took the easy route and killed it by eventually reducing it to a bad WoW clone.

In the old days, I was one of the top Weaponsmiths/Architects on Bria. I surveyed and horded materials like a madman, and during that brief glitch/change that allowed for perfect raw materials, I harvested a ton of it. Was the only person on Bria to build perfect crafting machines, and one of only a few on any server who could make them. All those rare metals I was storing made for some crazy powerful rifles.

I was on Scylla from launch, and while I never got into the crafting side like some folks did, I had one of two patterns for the kinetic rifle on the server and a buddy of mine had a literal ton of perfect mats for it...

So I had crates and crates of kinetic rifles (I was a doc/rifleman, of course) and NO ONE ELSE could have one, this is in a game where 99% of people wore the anti-laser armor which kinetic weapons chopped right through.
I also had crates of pre-nerf T21s (could shoot them point blank) which were made with perfect materials.
Then they completely pulled one of the mats for the kinetic rifle out of the game and nerfed the T21...
Then they nerfed materials in general...

But all it did was make us folks who started on launch day and were smart godlike compared to the newer players, who could only get the amazing gear from someone like us, and only then at large amounts of money.

Then CU and we became the same as everyone else. It was right about then that I started EQ2 (which sucked), then Feb 2005 I switched to WoW.

 

[Martimus]

Eve is the only MMO I have ever played, but I never grinded anything in the game for long. The hardest thing is maintaining a positive security status, but you don't actually need a positive security status to play the game, and I gave up trying after a short period of time. I played for years with a -10 security status, and it never really hindered me much. There is grinding you can do in Eve, like mining, or "ratting" (killing NPC pirates for money and security status), but I didn't do either of these things after the first couple months, and I was able to play the game for years without any grinding at all.

At the same time, my play style was that of a hunter where I would track down people running plexes in low-sec and killing them, or as a fleet commander who took a group of like minded individuals around low-sec looking for other fleets to kill. Other play styles might lead to grinding, but you can really do anything you want in the game.