[MUD-Dev] Why do smart people grind?

[szii at sziisoft.com]

Adam Martin wrote:

> You want to be a powerful butt-kicking warrior, or a fancy-pants
> mage, but you know that just entering a game and immediately being
> God is no fun at all (although perhaps you don't understand why).

This is not entirely true. Being 'capped out' on levels doesn't mean
that it's no fun.  Some games are 100% like this (CounterStrike,
Doom, Unreal, etc.)  Some games have a very crappy PvE system in
which it's not even really intersting to play until you achieve PvP
capabilities which are on par with the rest of the world.  In a PvE
game, your statement will hold.  However, it's no fun to be level 5
and "grinding on a REALLY bad PvE system" only to have someone come
gank ya.  It's life, but you start only wanting the ability to fight
back (PvP) and therefore, screw PvE.  PvE only gets in the way at
that point.  It's tedium, the already bad PvE systems appear that
much worse and the system starts to break down into massive
power-levelling sessions.

> So. Perhaps level-grind is the hardship we willingly submit to in
> order to feel we've achieved something. I don't know about you,
> but when I sat back and looked at my level 50-something characters
> I certainly felt achievement - and it had nothing to do with
> discovering new lands (each of which could have had a sign like:
> "Welcome to the Lost Plains. You are visitor number 45,736"). Nor
> did it have anything to do with strategy, as confirmed by looking
> at some of the painfully stupid people who were at a similar
> level, yet appeared quite genuinely to have played their way to
> that point.

IMO, this is one of the major focal points of the downsides of
today's games.  They're too easy.  Any numbnut with enough time can
achieve the upper tiers.  Suddenly your advancement to, in your
example, Level 50 is tarnished by the plethora of low-skill players
who've achieved the same thing.  This is even worse if you're a
part-time player who's strived for, sometimes, years only to be on a
mountain top full of sheep who've spent enough time to muddle
through the content.  There is no "bonus" for playing smarter.

> But I certainly felt proud that I'd stuck with it all that way -
> that was an achievement in itself. I'd learnt and re-learnt
> tactics for each scenario to maximise my levelling speed, and
> demonstrated at least some skill in reducing the interminable
> boredom of levelling to the least boring as possible (but still
> enough to make one miserable), and carefully paced the
> addictiveness, so that I was able to keep playing and *actually
> enjoying it* whilst knowing, really, that I was doing something
> pointless, unchallenging, and dull.

... and then the delusion drops.  You're playing a shell-game and
when that facade is gone...so is your paying customer.  Dissention
rises, unhappiness and brooding start taking over.  You start to
realize that you've just played a LONG time for....nothing.  Not
just in a pixellated sense, but you aren't even fullfilled.  You
start to resent the game and you end up not playing.

Look at all the top-end games...the highest ranked players.  What
keeps them coming back for more?  IMO, from my experiences, it's the
content of the game and not the levelling.  It's the people and the
social interaction and not the character building.

I've never seen every zone in EverQuest.  Restarted and quit about,
oh, 4 times now.  I had a 63 wizard that I'd mostly solo'd with but
couldn't devote the time to raiding with.  So - I capped out.  I
could farm AAs...sure.  I was on Sullon Zek so I could grief but the
PvP system was NASTY and broken at the AA+ level.  What to do?  I
can't really solo much longer.  I can mindlessly farm AAs...for no
real reason.  I can play in a broken environment (Manaburn?
Lifeburn?  bard-burn?  bow-burn?... mostly "I win" buttons.)

I suppose the test is the "awe" factor.  How much "awe" do you get
when you see a top-tier player?  Level 65 in EverQuest...one of
462,238,122,110 just like 'em.  Level 75 in Shadowbane?  "Damn, he
put in a lot of grinding time."  Since Level 75 isn't much better,
characterwise, than a level 60/65/70, gaining 75 is really just a
"woowoo."  GM'd UO players?  Wow, he played that character a lot or
ran a macro.

Everyone can do it and there's nothing special about levelling,
experience, or ranks.  It's all about how much time and money do you
want to throw at it.

So far, the only exception I can see are the top-tier guildleaders
of various games.  They're the ones who're actually thinking.  How
to defeat content.  How to defeat enemies in PvP.  There is some
recognition from this endeavor, but, again, it's social status and
has zero to do with levelling or in-game experience.  (Guildleaders
is extended beyond the physical title and into the "people who're
actually thinking but not ranked" realm.)  I restricted it to
"top-tier" guildleaders because once a sequence/battle is figured
out, there are plenty of me-too-type-guilds to utilise that
strategy.

-Mike/Szii
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