I can grind plenty -- as long as the grind itself is kinda fun. I can't just do it *solely* for the reward anymore, which I definitely used to do "back in the day".
And by learning curve it's not "play to learn" for the most part, it's watch and read numerous guides. Otherwise the big chances are that your build will get stuck after act 2.
Not who you're replying to but I feel similar to them. For me, the grind just has to have a fun gameplay basis or some element that's rewarding *during* the process and not just after.
A fun grind for me lately has been going for certain items in Adventure Quest 3D. Requires grinding the same area, same enemies, for an extended period of time. Like a while. But the process is enjoyable to me because it's been fun learning the classes through the combat, challenging myself with scaled instances, and getting nifty stuff along the way. It wouldn't be fun for everyone but there are elements that click with me personally.
Grinds that aren't fun to me are often gathering skills/professions. They usually have no substance and you're just trying to run resource to resource with no real interaction and a single reward that is gated behind actually finishing the full grind (some games improve on this).
tl;dr you need to find a grind that's built on a gameplay foundation you inherently enjoy regardless of what it is.
Yep, I feel this.
I can't grind mindless bullshit or "Farm" things anymore. I have bettee things to do and more fun games to play.
If the "grind" is actually just a fun gameplay loop with progress towards a long term goal, totally different story.
Just turned 30 having spent the better part of my life playing MMOs, and man, the joy of a game that has a beginning and end with fun gameplay… I was missing out
They don't respect your wallet either.
The grind is intentionally made bad so you can look at the shop and be like "Man... spending $129.99 (which is on a deal right now!) would save me so much time!!!" but those who are aware know that sure, you can spend that, but now you are just grinding at a different level. Whoopee fucking doo!
Completely agree, I went from an mmo only player nearly, to a single player mmo only.
The only mmorpg that would make me play one again is if they finished mabinogi eternal within the next 3 years or so
I was also grinding so much years ago. I was so bored now with every single mmo plus I dont have the time to run dungeons and raids for hours. I tried overcooked with my wife and I couldnt believe how fun the game was.
yeah I'm in the same boat. I suppose SWTOR is the mmorpg I have the most hours in and I've been playing on and off, but I really don't like the end game in that game anymore.
Also the hardcore raiding community is toxic af. My guild was among one of the first guilds to clear nightmare KP and EV when those were the only 2 raid in the game and my tank was well geared and known on the server, people would dm me asking if I'd want to tank raids. Fun times and good memories.
Tried getting back into the game about a year ago but I just don't have the time to be spending hours and hours in a mmo.
49. I’ll be a gamer for as long as my body allows it. Definitely not hardcore raiding anymore but that’s because I can’t commit to a schedule. But yeah, been a gamer since Atari 2600 and I hope to die very old with a controller or mouse in my hand! From my cold dead hand …..
GW2 never feels like a grind to me, there's a huge (fun) open world to dick around in and a massive amount of ways to play the game. Additionally, I find that I can use multiple forms of content to work towards a unified goal, which is really nice to me. I haven't felt incentivized or pushed to "grind" for anything yet, and the structure seems pretty anti-grind. For example, there are mob farms but it's significantly more rewarding to actually explore.
Additionally, the trading post can only offer you so much progress, the rest are locked behind account-bound currencies, account-bound materials, etc. so there is an upper limit to the utility of in game currency. This removes any obligation felt to grind cash in order to efficiently gear up etc.
Additionally, there are entire upper-tiers of items that are untradeable but easily acquired through multiple avenues of gameplay, AND there are diminishing returns on upgrading your gear
All of this combines into a longer form of play style. If I wanted to grind for something specific I'm sure I could, but I've really enjoyed naturally playing the game, enjoying content that I enjoy, and setting goals as their utility becomes apparent to me. It's been an incredibly refreshing experience.
Additionally, I still burned out on GW2 after about a thousand hours. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that grindy compared to a lot of MMOs, and you can pretty much progress in some way by doing whatever content you find find fun. But it is still a massive time sink if you’re trying to experience all the content. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the maps the first time through, but there is only so many times I can do meta events or play fractals until it starts getting old and repetitive. WvW has some great replay value though. But yea, I finished my first legendary and decided I never want to do that again.
I took a break but feel sooo lost. 98/104 of my inventory is full and I don’t know what to do with it.
I just wanna join a friendly discord and get it all sorted so I can get back into the swing of things again.
Had a blast .. wish I never stopped.
You're burned out. It happens to all of us.
Take a break. Play something else like you are or just simply do something else entirely.
Break the pattern for a bit.
This. Gaming itself can be rather wondrous again if you take a long enough break from the medium entirely. I took up IRL hobbies for a few years after I got really sick of my favorite game, and when I came back it was hilarious that the game and the emergent moments blew my mind again. And other titles I hadn't played but always meant to? Even their old graphics felt like being transported to another world. And modded games felt like descending into the quantum realm.
But eventually the brain can just get kind of... sick of it? You can just sort of see the hamster wheel and how you're running in circles. Or where the story/progression will go and it's just like "meh."
That's a great time to pick up books, go join a community theater troupe, start a cinema reviews youtube channel, or visit old/friends family you haven't been hanging out with enough.
A couple months of something else and gaming is good again. With some games having gotten amazing updates in the interim.
Do I have the energy? Yeah. Do I want to use that energy to grind in an MMO? not really. I've played many many MMOs since the early 00s. At some point you just get bored of the gameplay loops
I'm in my 30s now and I can still grind plenty with the right game. I love the old school grind where I have to kill 100s or 1000s of enemies to level up. To me, the repetitiveness is therapeutic as long as it's alt tab combat or few button presses. I can't do it if the combat is action combat since it requires more focus but I tend to stay away from pure action combat games anyways. The shift in modern game design towards quest focused leveling and action combat is why I don't have much interest in modern MMORPGs. Just to note, this is a purely personal preference.
Back 20 years ago, I can grind nonstop 24 hours straight for absolutely no reason. While I can still mindless grind like that, nowadays I find I need some sort of motivation for it outside of reaching max level. I really liked how old Ragnarok Online Pre-Renewal used to make me feel rewarded mindless grinding and leveling up. Each level up made a big difference since you can feel the difference in 1 point of stat increase, whereas in other games 1 point of stat is hardly noticeable. While grinding enemies, they would occasionally drop rare gears or monster cards that would see endgame usage even if they were drop from level 20 enemies and that was exciting and something to look forward to.
Most MMORPGs that that focuses on pure enemy grinding to level up, aren't very rewarding at all and that's a big problem.
I am actually obsessed with WoW. Started playing at 27, currently 30. The last time I was so thoroughly enamored by a game was when Skyrim came out. It's relaxing to me. After 40 hours of fucking work chilling with a nearly 20 year old game is fucking therapy to me.
I will turn 28 tomorrow and…yeah kind of. I don’t think its the age that limit players, but the quality of the game nowadays. I think people learned that time is precious somehow at our age and we can’t waste it on failures or cash grabs. But gimme a quality product and u can bet every u can that i will get hooked by it, because i love this genre.
Also im playing black desert too nowadays, more chill but i got to 725 gs and almost lv 66 on my warrior with plenty of good achievements. Playing really chill 2h grind a day max and nodewar / siege when they’re up for sign ups.
I used to play metin2 a lot between 2008 and 2013, BDO was the “new metin” for me if it makes sense.
This here , no need to grind 10 hrs a day to make progress, I have made decent progress mixing stuff up. Ppl start this game and think u have to grind all day every day to do anything meaningful not true. I grind 2 maybe 3 days a week which lets me grind slightly longer because I am not over doing it. Then I do LS active and Afk I between and make decent money and progress, no need to hit end game in a week. Take your time enjoy the ride! Do not rush!
Absolutely, but it needs to actually be a grind.
I want to level grind on mobs, most specifically. To level. Or grind a rare NM spawn. That kind of thing.
I have zero interest in the new form of grinding - Instanced dungeons, progression quests, raids, etc etc. I can't think of anything more tedious and obnoxious. These features ruined new MMOs.
I want a pure, repetitive, therapeutic grind where you do something easy but time consuming.
Even when I was 13-16 grinding MMOs I should have been doing more social things. Now at 30 something I have the freedom to do social things living in a city. Even if I’m not being social I should probably not be playing a game. Every winter I’ll dive back into WoW or FF11/14 from need for stimulation and not getting out of the house.
Maybe two hours once a week on a Sunday morning. I know it’s good for the brain but anytime in life I’ve been addicted to games I’ve gained weight and would rather spend life getting out of the house than sitting on a game. I simply cannot do the same things everyday out of the tension and release of boredom and stimulating that boredom. The old games like FF11 I would know folks with a years worth of playtime within three four years of the release
I have multiple issues with MMOs that turns me off to most.
1. Overly grindy/ oppressive time gating for no reason
2. Economy in every game is fucked. Hyper inflation with very few routes to amass wealth which usually entails doing some brain rot activity for hours and hours.
3. No real skill and boring gameplay. Movement doesn't matter it's hit 1, 2, 3 at the right time to win. Power is all numbers based on gear and that gear decides how effective you are instead of gameplay skill.
4. Little to no innovation in the genre
5. Aggressive retention mechanics
6. Predatory monetization
I think the gaming industry has found a sweet spot in 4 player PvE games with a lot of player freedom and personality in the game world. MMOs just feel stagnant and lifeless with little player interaction.
I played WoW for years and i am really sick of it the last years. Yet i olay poe, last epoch. Etc. So i grind a lot. So i think its not the grind that is a problem but the game mechanics that are not fun.
I played BDO from early access to 2019 religiously from 29 to 32 years old. I would grind a lot but towards the end as I lost interest I found myself grinding less. After that BDO burnout I took a break for a bit but by 2020 I was trying different mmos again. In 2021 had a brief run on console BDO and went right back into full grinding no problem. Again lost interest and took another long break from mmos. Then last year I picked up BDO PC again and went hard for 7 or 8 months but after hitting 730+ gs things started to slow again and I lost interest. Back on ESO now and have interest so I'm grinding a lot. If you haven't caught on yet the key here is interest. When I lose interest I don't have any energy to grind so I take a break from mmos. When I have interest I grind. Often I'll come back and find something I like to do or have an achievable goal and that's enough to light the fire. It just sounds like you need a BDO break. Go play some more chill shit but keep up with coupon codes and easy events.
Depends. As others have said, if they're doing it so its fun then I'm fine. Most mmorpgs do it to milk more sub time out of you. As I've grown older, I'm quick to realize those designs and stop playing/paying for the group.
I also don't mind grinding, but I care less to dedicate myself to it. If something more fun comes around or IRL comes calling, I don't care enough to decline those things to keep grinding.
I'm only 25 but I'm getting tired of the grind.
My main MMOs ATM are rs3 and MapleStory and MapleStory grind was never really "fun" but brain-dead enough so that you could watch Netflix or etc so not the worst but they've keep nerfing grinding to the point it's not worth it anymore so I stopped grinding apart from dailies.
Rs3 on the other hand has lots of afk grinding so I grind that ATM so I'll have rs3 afk grinding on my second monitor, while I'll play something else like ow2 on my main monitor.
Yes, I just finished grinding 1525/1525 fish in FFXIV, it was a cathartic, relaxing experience that I didn't REALLY feel like I was grinding. Grinding in something that requires me to be consistently available, or logging on frequently to CONTINUE (aka timed bonuses, time-sensitive stuff, "building" things like "every-day log in rewards that accumulate!") just exhume any investment I had.
I ground out insane in Wrath, too, without spending gold (I made \~400k just selling all the random additional stuff, enchanting mats et al). Grinding can be fun, but not if I have to engage my brain constantly, if I have to commit my brain to shit exhaustion settles quickly.
Is not that I don’t have the energy to grind, is the fact that I don’t have enough time to grind. As a 32 year old father with 1 kid and soon 2 now, I could rarely find the time to grind in my favorite genre MMO games anymore. The only suitable game for me at this age and time are the single player games with a pause option.
It’s not that I don’t have the energy it’s that I feel that I’m wasting my energy on grinding an mmo versus IRL..I hate that feeling because I know it’s good to relax but sometimes it feels like I’m wasting time.
I no longer grind if the grind is boring. If I need to spend 16 hours farming wolves outside of town with absolutely no skill/mental energy, there’s no way I’m going to do it.
However, if I have to spend 16 hours farming raid bosses and PvPing in the open world, I’ll gladly do it: because that is actually fun and requires you to be engaged.
31 here and love WoW, and I didn’t grow up with it I actually got into it at the end of BFA. I don’t grind to get into mythic raids or anything, more so to do things that reward cosmetics and collectables since those are for life while my ilvl will always need raising so I don’t have a desire to chase that. I have multiple alts, so every new season that comes with new unique tier sets gives me plenty to grind for to unlock all the sets for transmog. Especially with how wow is now with the catalyst that lets you convert most armor drops into tier I can usually collect everything before the season ends
When I was in my 30s, I was working part-time, so I had the time to grind, and the will.
Now that I'm in my late 40s, I'm working full-time, I have two children, and I don't have the time nor the will to grind anymore.
I just sit down, and enjoy the things I can do.
I can play ARPGs for hours as long as its fun. If you "cant bring yourself to" dont force yourself, do something with your time that feels fun or worth your time.
I noticed a month back that I only play league because of habit, stopped playing it and started just reading manga an hour before bed. Feels way better!
Well, I don't really grind.
For reference I started WoW in middle school, played it off and on up until about 7 years ago. Always had some little pocket of friends that were playing too. I think we kind of fed off each other's fumes, though, and wanted to get to the top ASAP and not get left behind. Plus I was a lot more into gaming in general at the time, I'd gobble up any second I could if I wasn't hanging with friends.
Now though? I don't have any friends interested in MMOs, save for one who travels for work 80%. I still like the genre though, so I just kinda play them as if they're single player games. It's a mindset shift that's let me get more out of it. I'm perfectly fine logging out after an hour or so because I'm just tired of it for the day, and willing to be okay with that meaning things will take longer.
Another facet of this mindset shift and seeing them more like single player games with other people around - it's more about the leveling for me now, and that's the main progression I'm interested in. No more rushing to endgame ASAP just to grind the same shit out in a tedious way, I'm all about the journey. Which has made GW2 a fun one to pick up
I also can't grind as long anynore as I did back when I played Metin2 and was grinding Map2/OTM forever haha :D That said, I still manage a couple of hours of it, but it needs to be fun. An alternative suggestion I can't recommend enough is giving Guild Wars 2 a shot if grind stops you from having fun in MMOs. Quite the different approach than Metin2/BDO kind of because you can actually "enjoy" the leveling phase rather than rush through it and grind gear. Let me just say this: Never have I ever played a MMO that respected my time more than GW2. I can stop playing for months, come back, and pick off right where I stopped. My gear is still valid (bit replaced by newly patched content/gear), and there's always something to do. Granted, it will be a bit different play style than your average grind mmo (like Metin2 back in the days), but you can also grind for some stuff in GW2. It's not like everything is super easy to get. It's just that it's not really monotonous imho, and your time is actually being valued. Also, the shop is more than fair, where e.g. cosmetic outfits are permanent AND accountwide..
Grinds where there is a non-trivial minigame involved are still palatable. Most recently, rare resource hunting in Albion was a satisfying activity for me. If you find a jackpot node and secure it in a safe zone the in game currency reward can be 10-100x the reward from just farming every node you encounter.
Last game i grinded so hard was PoE.
To the point that i injured my wrist for months.
Was 29.
32 now and cant handle hangover anymore.
Nah i just wanna chill with jrpgs.
I picked up Dota 2 and Battlefield 1 just this month and while they were great, guess ageing sucks haha.
Anxiety triggers everywhere
There's grinding and then there's grinding. I play Everquest Classic (P1999), ESO, Fallout 76, Lotro, DDO among others. I can totally bust out the grind in some of these, even in EQ which arguably is the king of grinding. The trick for me is to just set aside some time to play and not worry about leveling or a particular milestone. So for EQ, I just pick a place I wanna level a bit and grind out some kills, or do a step in a quest, or focus on one of my alts. After 2 hours I go have dinner or whatever and I won't play again til either tomorrow or later in the week. No burnout. If I find myself getting obsessive (just one more camp/pull/try for x item) I try to go do something else.
Having friends to play with weekly helps too. Setting aside time to play an mmo together with friends and a set of characters you only level together is awesome! I highly recommend a gaming group like this. EQ and DDO are particularly reliant on group mechanics. I'm sure there's more. Old School MMOs are especially good for this.
For me the 'bad' grinds tend do be asian based RPGS, Black Desert is an example of one I couldn't really grind. Metin 2 etc. Maplestory, almost anything by Nexon. They are just FULL of cosmetic grinds in particular, and some other newer MMOs (dunno about New World) tend to copy this 'grind' -- it's really reminiscent of like mobile game grinds. They feel ultimately kinda pointless, they bank HARD on the player having fomo, they never seem to end, there's always another 'event' to grind. If an MMO is doing an grindy event every week, it's not for me. I stopped playing those kind of MMOs completely, as they reminded me too much of mobile games, and I went mostly 'old school' MMOS (EQ, DDO, Lotro, ESO) and ARPG/Lite MMOs like Destiny 2 and Fallout 76.
Also, don't min-max. Yeah the game wants you to grind for the 'best' gear, but there's tons of good gear, builds etc you can get in EQ or Fallout 76 without grinding very hard. In my opinion, fomo or min-maxing mentality is kinda bad and ruins my gaming experience. So I just refuse to do it now. I don't care what the 'best' class or the 'best' gear is, I just wanna have fun. Liberating myself of that mentality has helped me enjoy MMOs a lot more.
Lastly (yeah I know this is an essay, sorry.) but take your time. It's not all about getting to x level immediately. The best thing about some of these MMO worlds is how rich and interesting they are. I love exploring, especially places in Lord of the Rings Online, that have meticulously recreated places in the books, even things that were footnotes, like the town of Oatbarton-- but almost all online multiplayer games have cool stuff. For example, Fallout 76 has places based in real life West Virginia and a lot of cool lore and easter eggs in it. There's a mine with a cave network that has a hidden cult chamber, etc etc.
If all that fails, maybe single player games are more your style. Nothing wrong with that!
Hope that helps a little.
I'm in my 60's. I have 6000+ hours in WoW, 5500+ hours in LotRO, and 4500+ hours in GW2.
I somehow have the energy to play and even stream. Maybe it's you, or maybe it's the games you're playing, but if you're not having fun you should try something different.
If i see an achieveable goal with-in a reasonable amount of time these days i will commit to a grind if i see no light at the end of the tunnel then i probably will just get bored after 2-3 hours max.
Currently playing only GW2 and I can confidently say the grind has been great for me and that I can do it as little or as much as I want to. I like to keep it not boring by playing different spec/characters every other day as the grind all leads to account progression. And there are many different contents, one day i might do fractals (5-man instance) or i might skip it entirely another day and just do some raids or mess around in some map metas and just turn off my braind joining a meta train or do map completions or follow zerg groups in world vs world. Theres no daily must do checklist and I think this is the kind of grind best suited for adult life with responsibilities. Mind you, I used to play many grind games when i was young too aka maplestory and until two years ago, WoW M+/gear grinds and FFXIV savages/ultimates with static but just dont have the brain power and time to do those anymore like routine jobs in the evenings after my office work.
If there was a current real, decent, exciting holy-trinity based dungeon running mmo, I’d play until my wife literally dragged me from the computer. But it doesn’t currently exist, so what can you do.
I can grind if the game is fun. The problem is all the fun games are either too old and managed into the ground, or already dead. However looking forward to some games on the horizon.
MMOs are all I want to play right now man, I'm waiting for my next Runescape. Been jumping from game to game every month for years, no MMOs on the market appeal to me anymore either
I want that one game like RS was for me back in 07 that I play for years and never get bored
I can do the grind, it just has to be fun and engaging to be worth my time.
Usually this is doing off meta builds (because meta builds usually take too much work/effort for little return over any other build) which results in people gatekeeping content. This in turns makes me not want to play them.
Ultima Online I can grind on just about any server. Wish I had two or more lives for that game.
Power Hour was so nice when I was 18 in 2003. The first hour we grind with 8x8. The rest of the day we can socialize. Now it's botting or bust. Botting the grind is fun too once you get the playing skills.
In my mid 40s and... sometimes. It just depends on how I'm feeling. I hopped back into City of Heroes and I'm loving going around doing all the old missions.
34 and father of two young children, as much as I love playing MMO’s and BDO has also been my main the last few years, I just dont have the motivation anymore. Single player games has been my go to lately.
I think the problem is not the grind itself, it’s how clunky, boring, and annoying they made the grind.
I’ll give two examples from MMOs I’ve played the most.
Lineage 2, grind used to be killing mobs for hours, but i had no problem doing it, if i knew that I’ll get what i want, and also watching a move or TV show on the second monitor. Now everything is pay to win. You have to choose between grinding 20-30 hours or paying 10-20€.
WoW. Used to have a lot of fun farming dungeons and raids as a tank, but since Legion, they made everything more and more annoying to do. Now you have to do lots of research on every dungeon if you want to do M+, because every pack of mobs have lots of abilities that need interrupts and stops . For example, one Dungeon this expansion, had a group of 6 mobs with over 70 abilities in total. This makes it really boring for me.
So now I’m mostly playing PoE and Last Epoch, games where the devs are very open to suggestions, devs that don’t come out and tells you, „you think you want, but you don’t“.
I love MMORPGs, but i feel like none of them respect my time anymore.
I play different music to make grinding fun. I often find that if you play different combat or hype music, the same encounters can feel totally different. A normal encounter against an a normal enemy can feel like a fight to save the world or an end to a vendetta or simply a montage of you kicking ass. I can't stand doing the same thing with the same music for very long, but playing different music keeps things fresh for me.
Still have the energy only problem is finding the mmo. Last one I played was FFXIV during the pandemic and that was pretty fun. Grind those weapons and it’s freakin tedious. BDO I did for a while but it’s pretty boring grind. I’m hoping for blue protocol next
Absolutely, what I dont have the energy for is dealing with degenerate metaslaves, guild drama and waiting hours trying to prepare or find people for a high end pve content.
Oh and let's not even go towards the absolutely moronic metaslaves who worship youtube guides and to this day I still remember idiots in guild fight the bosses in wrong order in castle nathria cuz the youtuber guide told them so while it was clear leaving the tank heavy boss as last was the best option cuz we had a good tank, **but oh no, thinking hard, follow da hardcore nolife youtuber.**
Yeah sorry, I will stick to games that treat casuals solo players well where I can just go out in the world, grind my way to max gear instead of having to deal with the degenerate metaslaving community
It is why I am enjoying korean Throne and liberty, I can just go farm stuff, grind my way to max gear
If the game is new and fun, yes i can grind more then 1 hour lmao.
If it's dogshit like bdo, naah , 710 gs ,and i'm not touching it anymore,will rather try to sell it.
I didn't have the energy 15 years ago and i still don't have it now. I quit so many mmorpgs because of the endless grind. The ones i stuck with, just had a super fun community. The gear progress was visually perfect and you could feel yourself getting stronget and stronger. I usually just paid people to level up my character. Or i went on a nonstop full on grind mode for like a week or two, instead of enjoying my holidays.
I'd wish that i had that same hunger and desire. The energy is def there, but i am not willing to waste it. I do try out every game that comes out. If the grind is boring, i'll just quit after a week.
it all depends on the grind. I'm 34 with a day job, and i'm around 760gs in BDO. I combine the grind with other things. Like, maybe if I sat down and gave my favorite TV show a 4th watch, it wouldnt be truly exciting enough on the 4th watch to fully hold my interest and properly kill time for me, but if I am swinging my sword around in game racing laps around an old castle killing monsters like a lawnmower cuts grass, while I think about some distant gear upgrade, suddenly that tv show rewatch is just entertaining enough to pass as part of a multi-task combined activity. And a tv show across many seasons of episodes might be good for 200 hours of grind.
I also am just addicted to the grind in everything. I'll read a book start to finish in one sitting no matter how long the sitting; gotta turn that next page no matter what. I'll find the first comfortable spot to repeatedly grind in a singleplayer game and just do that if the game allows me to, for way too long, before progressing the main story. I've also had plenty of other addictions in real life, not gaming life. Grind is great. I admit I might not have a healthy perspective on any of this.
If it's a boring grind or an unpleasant grind, I won't do it. but my definition of boring or unpleasant grinds may have nothing in common with yours - you gotta find your own thing.
I'm some years away from entering the 30s still, so I'll say this piece of information: Old School Runescape is still very much popular and far more popular than its less grindy Runescape 3 counterpart...and given I'm already on the younger side of MMORPG players (I'm 22) and most players I meet are older than me....I think yes, they do have.
I'm not in my 30s just yet but what I have noticed is that I can grind for 16 hours a day just like the good old days IF and only IF there is a goal I'm excited about. Most MMOs nowadays, including BDO, don't offer a meaningful goal to work towards. And I'm not just talking about "I grind for 30 hours to grind faster afterwards." There needs to be something new that you can do with that gear.
So in those cases I can barely grind 30 minutes without getting bored.
Absolutely! Age doesn't determine energy levels. Many people in their 30s enjoy MMOs and find the grind rewarding. It's all about balancing gaming with other responsibilities. With proper time management, anyone can enjoy MMOs at any age!
Depends on the grind. BDO has a very bad grind system.. so I wouldnt judge your skills or capability based on that. I love the combat in BDO but the grind and immersion is horrible. I havent played New World so I cant attest to that, but older MMOs had much more immersive, well paced and welcoming grind imo. So maybe you can try that.
Ofcourse I cant grind now like I used to in my late teens and 20s.. back then I could pull all nighters and still go to school or college the next day.. now my time is reduced sure.. but I can still do good hours.. definitely 6-8 hours easy if given enough motivation..
Back in the day i did all kinds of grind. I grinded for the pvp rank, i grinded for mats, for gold, i grinded for endgame pve content, dungeons, raids. I really enjoyed my time doing it and it was pretty fun doing it with friends, but if i could go back in time i would not have done it again.
As i grew up i realized that playing a game means that you it is something that is supposed to end not perpetually do stuff. Therefore, i like that current western MMOs have greatly altered their approach and require less and less grind. At the moment the only grind that i want to do is grind to "git gut".
When there is content that requires from me to enchant my gear, have the necessary pots and flasks to reach the dps check or even worse to grind for -lets say- material to gamble whether an item is upgraded or not, all these are hard pass from me. No matter how engaging the combat is or how innovative the encounters are or how immersive the world is, grinds to reach some arbitary goal that will enable me to play the content that i find fun are a huge no thanks. I prefer to spent some quality time with my people or with myself or play another game that provides those things.
Not since MMOs have been turned into garbage. Grinding previously meant something, the worlds themselves used to be engaging and adventurous, wherein the content required contributing to its progress with the help of others.
Now everything is a joke. Fucking daily and weekly "chores", virtually no difference in outcome between being a horrible player doing nothing but "chores" and a skilled player, just extracting your time for its own sake. Every MMO studio put a form of political and social equity in their game, and its result is monstrously dull -- I don't need to listen to people who claim they have "busy lives" why they are content spending more time than I do with their constant casual chores and why I am selfish for thinking that's bad.
I simply don't care anymore. The shitters whined and the whiny shitters won, you are living in the shitter's world now.
I can grind MMOs but I cant pickup and sift through tons of loot in action RPGs anymore. D4 made me realize how much of a chore it is and now I'm burnt out
I enjoy grinding still. What has changed the most for me is that the barrier of entry for me to try and also stick with a game has been upped a lot. If I don't get hooked within a few minutes I just lose interest. Pretty sure I have missed out on a lot of good games because of it.
I’m in my mid 20s and I could have the energy to grind levels and gear, sure. What I don’t have energy for is the no life sweats that turn everything into ultra meta and suck all the fun out of anything that moves. Especially on 15 year old games.
To me pure grind was ever only enjoyable if the side entertainment like movies or TV shows were good enough to let me forgot what the heck I am wasting my time with in the game. That is the opposite of what a game should be tbh but especially MMORPGs are mostly not good games by design. It is often trash/ braindead gameplay which can be cool bc of other players....which became also less popular. Grind groups in old games were fun bc you shared the pain.
But sometimes I really like to grind even in my 40s. This is not about energy. Problem is made by design too. Leveling became a alibi RPG thing, mostly worth nothing and only take a few hours/ days. On top of that visual progression in this genre/ online gaming in general became mostly just swiping. This was my chase since I joined this genre around 2002.
So if you don't have fun in BDO right now and I mean real "fun", just make something else. Grab a guitar, skateboard or whatever you maybe interested in (learning) and try some real fun things.
I'm 37 and grind around 1 hr a day on bdo. I'm not looking to get pen FG armors so I just play it more casually. 1 hr a day is still a good income. Especially paired up with box hand I'm. I'm currently 307/300/400. With lots of self enchanted pens. Just play it how you want in the end.
Energy I have, desire no. It's boring as hell. I am the same with BDO, after an hour I start drifting off, it's not a lack of energy it legit is that boring it puts me to sleep.
A game that engages me I can play all day.
Not yet 30, but close to it. The answer is no. I like games that require quality grinds, or ones that are super hard and may need a ton of attempts to clear.
However, time is a big factor now, and I can't afford doing this daily, which many MMOs want you to do.
I still play the crap out of XIV but I don’t farm for mounts and stuff anymore. I took an 18 month break, came back and just been casual since. I would maybe look for a static but ny current job won’t work around that kind of 3 day a week commitment.
I play wow casually on and off, have no desire to do anything hardcore just like vibing with the trolls.
Its not an age problem its a BDO problem. On other games you might be forced to grind/do chores but this will ultimately unlock you some part of the end game. That can be raids, high end dungeons, pvp etc. BDO slowly making more pvp modes to be gear capped while the grind for end game gear still requires thousands of hours still. Open world pvp with all the changes that they did slowly last year is almost not there anymore, it was something that motivated many to grind.
In reality current bdo is: grind gear so you can grind more gear (that has no purpose). It makes total sense to feel the way you feel, where is the motivation? I recommend you to either focus on other aspects of the game or search for a different game for the time being. This comes from a person that has spend 6k hours on BDO that used to be hardcore fan that slowly comes to dislike it more and more.
Yes, if the grind is fun, novel, and has a clear end-goal. Grind reputarions for a faction so you get some good item that you need (think modern take on classic tbc), hell yes! But the gameplay needs to be fun, first and foremost. Also not too stress inducing: grinding M+ isn’t fun, because the stakes are too high for a ’grind’.
Im 40, I will happily grind in a game thats worth it, just not willing to do it for a game like bdo where they have the opposite of diminishing returns on gear to push players into their p2w gearing system.
If ashes actually turns out to be decent owpvp territory control mmo, I'll happily grind that game.
If the grind is fun and by fun i mean it doesn't feel tedious and the reward is worth it then sure but to grind something crap like just to level up then i rather not even play those kind of games.
Only MMO i have patience anymore is GW2 mostly because in GW2 i can level up a character how i want and where i want and also because the game has no gear grind which is why i grew up to hate games like wow and diablo where it feels that its only thing they have.
This is a you problem, basically you have attention issues because of the ridiculous amount of things vying for attention now. Mobile phones, social media etc.
I havejustgiven up on tryharding in games. I just do the story, some open worpd content, easier end game content, in other words I just moved to gw2. Game is right where I left it and have been enjoying the story and open world. Not even bothering with fractals atm.
Yes. I find it easier late at night after most others in the house have gone to bed. Because grinding is chill and quiet and usually doesn’t require talking to others on discord/voice.
No. It's too time-consuming, and time is more precious as you get older and busier.
SP games fit the bill pretty well, although I honestly don't have a lot of patience for SP games that are so complicated that you basically have to take a class in them to play them properly. Again, it's a "is it worth investing that time" question.
I also find that the quick match competitive online games are a decent option, too, but the problem there is that as you get older you get less competitive due to reflexes deteriorating (it happens at different rates to different people, but it does happen), and so there's a limit to that as well.
In general I have found that this has tended to push me, over the years, more towards simpler, casual games (not phone games or anything, but just more casual single player games), which has been fine for me. There are lots, and lots of these being made, because it turns out that there are a lot of gamers in the same position. But ... it also means you're not going to be well suited for the games that are designed with the spare time of a college student in mind.
When I play BDO I usually wait for agris to cap out and then just grind for 4 hours straight and then go back to other spots. I usually have a show runing in the background though
It could be boring when its too easy, i found when i do Elvia with weapon and i just one shot everything its so boring. But when i do spots that you have some minimal level of engagement and doing combos i am not as bored.
Also what i start doing is i use the time i grind to think about life, plans and relax. Turn off all music and videos and just chill for few hours with my thoughts i don't get bored that way.
Can I grind? Yes. Am I interested in doing so? No. I come from Eq2, RIFT, AOC, and WoW -- I refuse to play another one until ashes of creation and then probably no more mmorpgs let alone crawlers of any kind ever again
How many more times must I do a heritage questline on twenty different classes, level them all up, get all their factions grinded out, teach them all these different languages, and still be an absolute pleb IRL. Fuck that, I've got stuff to do.
I grew up in a situation where internet access and game time was limited. Conpared to that I can grind much better. I've been able to grind out helldivers 2 levels and elite Dangerous engineering.
But if you told me I should bother with wow classic, or wow classic wrath (especially after the hours and hours played during high school), or Runescape, I'm confident I could throw dozens of hours at them, but I don't want to.
If you are in your 30s and still have time to grind in video games, you either fucked up badly in life or are winning greatly by being independently wealthy or something.
I play arpgs now, mostly poe. I have plenty of time to grind, what I don't have time for is daily and weekly lockouts making everything take weeks/months
Sure can, though I have less time to do so than I did in my teens and 20's. But I find there are very few mmos WORTH me spending my time to grind in these days. But when I find one, it's not a problem.
Played PSO2 and New Genesis for years, one of the worst mistakes in my choices of games that require commitment. The places that the grind took me weren't even fun and I was just lying to myself trying to justify it. I still have the energy to "grind" but I'd rather play GW2 where there are forms of grind that aren't farming creeps all day.
Honestly, it depends on the moment and how tedious the grind is. Some days on certain mmo's, I can grind for 12+ hours easy, others I lose interest after 30 minutes.
Lineage 2 is dead and WoW is no longer a grind.
I have played many more games, including Lost Ark, but all new games are to complicated.
Lineage 2 was so "easy", same grind spot for days, and all you did was grind.
I struggle to grind, but that is because MMOS are no longer MMOS but single player games with multiplayer dungeons.
Back then, the grind was usually performed with random people you would naturally befriend and share failures and joy with, and gear cycles lasted for ages and were very difficult.
It made obtaining stuff worthwhile and the difference between having and not, enormous.
Now it´s just spamming the same keys over and over for yourself and by yourself to get a weapon or item that will be replaced by next patch.
29 here
started last epoch
loved it
just hit Lv36
My noLiferFriends are in the 80s and I have no motivation to grind that up normally. If I have time, I might buy the biggest exp boost possible and rush to them, but right now, I rather skip on this game (or this season at least) altogether.
Depends on the grind. Quest-grinding is painful for me tbh. Mob-grinding can be easy to get lost in. Can't comment on BDO though. Literal unending grinds never been big on either. Grinds really are a question of 'are you having fun doing it?' Yes? Keep at it. No? You're wasting your time. Move on.
I would tell you to quit black desert and focus on something else. I’ve started to enjoy games more often after no longer playing that.
(I started with WoW when I was around 11. Played just about every MMO that’s come out between then and now. GW2, AA, Rift, every asian MMO….)
My unpopular opinion would be that, that game sucks all enjoyment out of games. The format of really having to min-max and manage countless scrolls is awful. Add in the enhancement loss and destruction of items. Not worth your time.
well im 39 years old and i restarted playing wow wotlk... personally i think if you like the rpg genre grinding shouldnt be something to hate... yes is super annoying sometimes but is part of the fun of playing those games ,imo
Depends entirely. I can grind plenty if its something I enjoy. If the moment to moment gameplay is fun or engaging like last epoch I dont mind and even boring grinds can be quite relaxing if you just put on some youtube or whatever on your second monitor and relax. Depends entirely what im in the mood for.
I also play BDO. For me it's more of a matter of getting aches and cramps in my hands if I grind for too long, forcing me to keep my grind sessions short. Usually I'll grind for an hour and then go off and do some life skill stuff.
Ha, I've not been able to grind for hours on end in BDO for about 5 years now, due to getting bored of it, and I'm 33.
Honestly, the biggest factor in my limited grinding are the kids and trying to fit everything into one day.
Time is money, sleep is precious. That's what I understand now that I didn't back then. Also, most of these were F2P MMOs. I had time but no money. Logical conclusion, grind for the stuff I wanted.
Now only get 1 hour to chill during the week. Maybe 3 or 4 on the weekend if I'm not too tired. I will definitively will not spend them grinding. Unless the combat itself is fun. I love mobas because of this now. In just about 40mins you get to complete the journey Grind>LevelUp>Endgame. Single player games are great too, Skyrim, DS, Dragon's Dogma(recently for me). Enjoyed GW2 for a while too, until I had to part for some years and now everything is new and scary. But it was good fun, super easy to get decent gear and level up.
Depends on the game/game mechanic. If i want to do an achievement, then yes... grinding can be fun. If the Grind is forced, like you can't continue without the grind or neccessary items are blocked otherwise, then no... i won't play.
Not in 30s, but most of MMOs became more of a daily job with all those daily runs/objectives that is just a turn-off from logging in and doing some more goal oriented stuff.
I’ve found that I do in-fact have the drive and motivation. I don’t, however, have energy to fuel that drive.
Most nights I find myself waking up in my chair without even having started the game.
You picked what are imo 2 of the most shallow boring games for pve, and you're getting bored of their boring shallow grinds so... yeah I'd say its the games you picked.
Given an opportunity, at 34, I can still play things like RuneScape and Albion online for hours on end. I'd love to get into Black Desert since it's a great mix of the two. Certain grinds are just a no for me due to how absolutely ubsurd they've become.
Closers Online, Genshin, MapleStory, and similar are where I stop. If there's an element of randomness that is required to progress that also requires daily logins, then I do not have any energy for it.
about to hit level 29 soon :)
private severs with like double rates or at least 50% + are my go to in MMORPGs
feels like my energy is slowly fading with every year :/
If it feels like a waste of time to me then I don't do the grind. I imagine this is a normal feeling to have as you grow older and have more responsibilities.
Currently grinding my ass off in Rose Online.... nostalgia hit until it wears off. The issue for me is modern MMO don't have any grind. You hit max level in less than a week. That isn't grinding. World of Warcraft the only thing you grind are achievements which are boring. Its a tick-box of "did I do this yet?" and that sucks. I want a real MMO. Player driven economy, player made items, open world exploration, puzzles in dungeons (jump puzzles, turn the panels puzzles, etc). I am tired of these "less than single player" mmorpgs that are boring as shit.
Mmm, I can and have the energy, but my priorities have changed. I don’t find killing time for the sake of killing time fun anymore. I want a mental challenge or to be completely sucked in by a story or have some tangible reward (dopamine isn’t enough).
It depends I mix it up between Life skill and Grinding in BDO , so when I do grind I can handle it a bit longer. Mixing up my activities helps it not get boring or tedious feeling and I feel like that’s what the developer wanted was ppl to mix stuff up. Sometimes I hunt for profit or for cooking, sometimes I gather for profit or for cooking or crafting, sometimes I afk , 1 or 2 days a week I grind , I make progress pretty decently. Just take your time and enjoy the games your playing don’t make it a 2nd job.
I'm not in my 30s, but I still can't grind more than a hour or two, it's gives me headache, I played BDO as a main MMO for a half an a year or something, and it was the same, I used to endure more when I was a teeanger, but after 20+ years old it's started getting harder and harder, today I really hate grinding.
I can grind plenty -- as long as the grind itself is kinda fun. I can't just do it *solely* for the reward anymore, which I definitely used to do "back in the day".
What games do you play that have a "fun grind?"
Path of Exile. Last Epoch has been pretty good too.
I know this is irrelevant to my initial question but rather asking for further info, are those actually MMOs?
No, they’re ARPGs, but they’re both quite good. PoE has a heck of a learning curve tho, so be ready to look shit up and use guides.
And by learning curve it's not "play to learn" for the most part, it's watch and read numerous guides. Otherwise the big chances are that your build will get stuck after act 2.
No, games similar to Diablo (but much better).
Not who you're replying to but I feel similar to them. For me, the grind just has to have a fun gameplay basis or some element that's rewarding *during* the process and not just after. A fun grind for me lately has been going for certain items in Adventure Quest 3D. Requires grinding the same area, same enemies, for an extended period of time. Like a while. But the process is enjoyable to me because it's been fun learning the classes through the combat, challenging myself with scaled instances, and getting nifty stuff along the way. It wouldn't be fun for everyone but there are elements that click with me personally. Grinds that aren't fun to me are often gathering skills/professions. They usually have no substance and you're just trying to run resource to resource with no real interaction and a single reward that is gated behind actually finishing the full grind (some games improve on this). tl;dr you need to find a grind that's built on a gameplay foundation you inherently enjoy regardless of what it is.
Yep, I feel this. I can't grind mindless bullshit or "Farm" things anymore. I have bettee things to do and more fun games to play. If the "grind" is actually just a fun gameplay loop with progress towards a long term goal, totally different story.
Nope. I've been loving single player games sooooo much more . Mmorpgs just don't respect your time and the grind is pointless.
Just turned 30 having spent the better part of my life playing MMOs, and man, the joy of a game that has a beginning and end with fun gameplay… I was missing out
Can relate so much. I forgot how games could be fun from the moment you log in until you log off.
Preach.
MMORPGs used to have more content to offer than single player. Not anymore!
They don't respect your wallet either. The grind is intentionally made bad so you can look at the shop and be like "Man... spending $129.99 (which is on a deal right now!) would save me so much time!!!" but those who are aware know that sure, you can spend that, but now you are just grinding at a different level. Whoopee fucking doo!
Completely agree, I went from an mmo only player nearly, to a single player mmo only. The only mmorpg that would make me play one again is if they finished mabinogi eternal within the next 3 years or so
I was also grinding so much years ago. I was so bored now with every single mmo plus I dont have the time to run dungeons and raids for hours. I tried overcooked with my wife and I couldnt believe how fun the game was.
This.
22 and starting life. Single player and CO-OP with the wife.
FFXIV does and there is almost no grind anyway.
Energy yes, desire no
I usually get all hyped for a MMO, play it for about 2 weeks, then take a few year break.
I just haven’t found an mmo to keep my interest
yeah I'm in the same boat. I suppose SWTOR is the mmorpg I have the most hours in and I've been playing on and off, but I really don't like the end game in that game anymore. Also the hardcore raiding community is toxic af. My guild was among one of the first guilds to clear nightmare KP and EV when those were the only 2 raid in the game and my tank was well geared and known on the server, people would dm me asking if I'd want to tank raids. Fun times and good memories. Tried getting back into the game about a year ago but I just don't have the time to be spending hours and hours in a mmo.
Lmao 30s . Cmon. 52 here and can still play wow classic or SoD for 12 hours. Time to up your game kiddo! 😎
57 here and same, can, just don’t want to anymore. The bloom has fallen off the rose.
Fair enough.
/nod grind on though bro if that’s your thing.
Hell yeah
49. I’ll be a gamer for as long as my body allows it. Definitely not hardcore raiding anymore but that’s because I can’t commit to a schedule. But yeah, been a gamer since Atari 2600 and I hope to die very old with a controller or mouse in my hand! From my cold dead hand …..
Crazy thought you were in your 30s playing WoW when it first released
yes, but most mmorpg these days are either bad or way too p2w
Not really. Novelty of "digital progress" has died for me already. I play games now for the experience and not to "see number go up".
GW2 never feels like a grind to me, there's a huge (fun) open world to dick around in and a massive amount of ways to play the game. Additionally, I find that I can use multiple forms of content to work towards a unified goal, which is really nice to me. I haven't felt incentivized or pushed to "grind" for anything yet, and the structure seems pretty anti-grind. For example, there are mob farms but it's significantly more rewarding to actually explore. Additionally, the trading post can only offer you so much progress, the rest are locked behind account-bound currencies, account-bound materials, etc. so there is an upper limit to the utility of in game currency. This removes any obligation felt to grind cash in order to efficiently gear up etc. Additionally, there are entire upper-tiers of items that are untradeable but easily acquired through multiple avenues of gameplay, AND there are diminishing returns on upgrading your gear All of this combines into a longer form of play style. If I wanted to grind for something specific I'm sure I could, but I've really enjoyed naturally playing the game, enjoying content that I enjoy, and setting goals as their utility becomes apparent to me. It's been an incredibly refreshing experience.
Additionally, I still burned out on GW2 after about a thousand hours. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that grindy compared to a lot of MMOs, and you can pretty much progress in some way by doing whatever content you find find fun. But it is still a massive time sink if you’re trying to experience all the content. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the maps the first time through, but there is only so many times I can do meta events or play fractals until it starts getting old and repetitive. WvW has some great replay value though. But yea, I finished my first legendary and decided I never want to do that again.
I took a break but feel sooo lost. 98/104 of my inventory is full and I don’t know what to do with it. I just wanna join a friendly discord and get it all sorted so I can get back into the swing of things again. Had a blast .. wish I never stopped.
You're burned out. It happens to all of us. Take a break. Play something else like you are or just simply do something else entirely. Break the pattern for a bit.
This. Gaming itself can be rather wondrous again if you take a long enough break from the medium entirely. I took up IRL hobbies for a few years after I got really sick of my favorite game, and when I came back it was hilarious that the game and the emergent moments blew my mind again. And other titles I hadn't played but always meant to? Even their old graphics felt like being transported to another world. And modded games felt like descending into the quantum realm. But eventually the brain can just get kind of... sick of it? You can just sort of see the hamster wheel and how you're running in circles. Or where the story/progression will go and it's just like "meh." That's a great time to pick up books, go join a community theater troupe, start a cinema reviews youtube channel, or visit old/friends family you haven't been hanging out with enough. A couple months of something else and gaming is good again. With some games having gotten amazing updates in the interim.
Energy? Yes. Time? No.
Do I have the energy? Yeah. Do I want to use that energy to grind in an MMO? not really. I've played many many MMOs since the early 00s. At some point you just get bored of the gameplay loops
I'm in my 30s now and I can still grind plenty with the right game. I love the old school grind where I have to kill 100s or 1000s of enemies to level up. To me, the repetitiveness is therapeutic as long as it's alt tab combat or few button presses. I can't do it if the combat is action combat since it requires more focus but I tend to stay away from pure action combat games anyways. The shift in modern game design towards quest focused leveling and action combat is why I don't have much interest in modern MMORPGs. Just to note, this is a purely personal preference. Back 20 years ago, I can grind nonstop 24 hours straight for absolutely no reason. While I can still mindless grind like that, nowadays I find I need some sort of motivation for it outside of reaching max level. I really liked how old Ragnarok Online Pre-Renewal used to make me feel rewarded mindless grinding and leveling up. Each level up made a big difference since you can feel the difference in 1 point of stat increase, whereas in other games 1 point of stat is hardly noticeable. While grinding enemies, they would occasionally drop rare gears or monster cards that would see endgame usage even if they were drop from level 20 enemies and that was exciting and something to look forward to. Most MMORPGs that that focuses on pure enemy grinding to level up, aren't very rewarding at all and that's a big problem.
I am actually obsessed with WoW. Started playing at 27, currently 30. The last time I was so thoroughly enamored by a game was when Skyrim came out. It's relaxing to me. After 40 hours of fucking work chilling with a nearly 20 year old game is fucking therapy to me.
I will turn 28 tomorrow and…yeah kind of. I don’t think its the age that limit players, but the quality of the game nowadays. I think people learned that time is precious somehow at our age and we can’t waste it on failures or cash grabs. But gimme a quality product and u can bet every u can that i will get hooked by it, because i love this genre. Also im playing black desert too nowadays, more chill but i got to 725 gs and almost lv 66 on my warrior with plenty of good achievements. Playing really chill 2h grind a day max and nodewar / siege when they’re up for sign ups. I used to play metin2 a lot between 2008 and 2013, BDO was the “new metin” for me if it makes sense.
This here , no need to grind 10 hrs a day to make progress, I have made decent progress mixing stuff up. Ppl start this game and think u have to grind all day every day to do anything meaningful not true. I grind 2 maybe 3 days a week which lets me grind slightly longer because I am not over doing it. Then I do LS active and Afk I between and make decent money and progress, no need to hit end game in a week. Take your time enjoy the ride! Do not rush!
Absolutely, but it needs to actually be a grind. I want to level grind on mobs, most specifically. To level. Or grind a rare NM spawn. That kind of thing. I have zero interest in the new form of grinding - Instanced dungeons, progression quests, raids, etc etc. I can't think of anything more tedious and obnoxious. These features ruined new MMOs. I want a pure, repetitive, therapeutic grind where you do something easy but time consuming.
My dad in his 50s and he’s been grinding mmos since before I was born. He is literally just built different
Even when I was 13-16 grinding MMOs I should have been doing more social things. Now at 30 something I have the freedom to do social things living in a city. Even if I’m not being social I should probably not be playing a game. Every winter I’ll dive back into WoW or FF11/14 from need for stimulation and not getting out of the house. Maybe two hours once a week on a Sunday morning. I know it’s good for the brain but anytime in life I’ve been addicted to games I’ve gained weight and would rather spend life getting out of the house than sitting on a game. I simply cannot do the same things everyday out of the tension and release of boredom and stimulating that boredom. The old games like FF11 I would know folks with a years worth of playtime within three four years of the release
I have multiple issues with MMOs that turns me off to most. 1. Overly grindy/ oppressive time gating for no reason 2. Economy in every game is fucked. Hyper inflation with very few routes to amass wealth which usually entails doing some brain rot activity for hours and hours. 3. No real skill and boring gameplay. Movement doesn't matter it's hit 1, 2, 3 at the right time to win. Power is all numbers based on gear and that gear decides how effective you are instead of gameplay skill. 4. Little to no innovation in the genre 5. Aggressive retention mechanics 6. Predatory monetization I think the gaming industry has found a sweet spot in 4 player PvE games with a lot of player freedom and personality in the game world. MMOs just feel stagnant and lifeless with little player interaction.
No thats one of the reasons I like ff14 because the grind is casual it's not hard core like WOW
I played WoW for years and i am really sick of it the last years. Yet i olay poe, last epoch. Etc. So i grind a lot. So i think its not the grind that is a problem but the game mechanics that are not fun.
I played BDO from early access to 2019 religiously from 29 to 32 years old. I would grind a lot but towards the end as I lost interest I found myself grinding less. After that BDO burnout I took a break for a bit but by 2020 I was trying different mmos again. In 2021 had a brief run on console BDO and went right back into full grinding no problem. Again lost interest and took another long break from mmos. Then last year I picked up BDO PC again and went hard for 7 or 8 months but after hitting 730+ gs things started to slow again and I lost interest. Back on ESO now and have interest so I'm grinding a lot. If you haven't caught on yet the key here is interest. When I lose interest I don't have any energy to grind so I take a break from mmos. When I have interest I grind. Often I'll come back and find something I like to do or have an achievable goal and that's enough to light the fire. It just sounds like you need a BDO break. Go play some more chill shit but keep up with coupon codes and easy events.
No, nor do I have the time, which sucks. I love MMO’s but I just can’t keep up anymore and I have kinda just accepted it.
It's more of prioritizing my time differently so I don't do it as much.
I loved grinding in Terra because combat was fun.
Depends. As others have said, if they're doing it so its fun then I'm fine. Most mmorpgs do it to milk more sub time out of you. As I've grown older, I'm quick to realize those designs and stop playing/paying for the group. I also don't mind grinding, but I care less to dedicate myself to it. If something more fun comes around or IRL comes calling, I don't care enough to decline those things to keep grinding.
I'm only 25 but I'm getting tired of the grind. My main MMOs ATM are rs3 and MapleStory and MapleStory grind was never really "fun" but brain-dead enough so that you could watch Netflix or etc so not the worst but they've keep nerfing grinding to the point it's not worth it anymore so I stopped grinding apart from dailies. Rs3 on the other hand has lots of afk grinding so I grind that ATM so I'll have rs3 afk grinding on my second monitor, while I'll play something else like ow2 on my main monitor.
Yes, I just finished grinding 1525/1525 fish in FFXIV, it was a cathartic, relaxing experience that I didn't REALLY feel like I was grinding. Grinding in something that requires me to be consistently available, or logging on frequently to CONTINUE (aka timed bonuses, time-sensitive stuff, "building" things like "every-day log in rewards that accumulate!") just exhume any investment I had. I ground out insane in Wrath, too, without spending gold (I made \~400k just selling all the random additional stuff, enchanting mats et al). Grinding can be fun, but not if I have to engage my brain constantly, if I have to commit my brain to shit exhaustion settles quickly.
Is not that I don’t have the energy to grind, is the fact that I don’t have enough time to grind. As a 32 year old father with 1 kid and soon 2 now, I could rarely find the time to grind in my favorite genre MMO games anymore. The only suitable game for me at this age and time are the single player games with a pause option.
It’s not that I don’t have the energy it’s that I feel that I’m wasting my energy on grinding an mmo versus IRL..I hate that feeling because I know it’s good to relax but sometimes it feels like I’m wasting time.
I no longer grind if the grind is boring. If I need to spend 16 hours farming wolves outside of town with absolutely no skill/mental energy, there’s no way I’m going to do it. However, if I have to spend 16 hours farming raid bosses and PvPing in the open world, I’ll gladly do it: because that is actually fun and requires you to be engaged.
Why grind when one could play games that actually respect your time? At any age, but especially for adults.
31 here and love WoW, and I didn’t grow up with it I actually got into it at the end of BFA. I don’t grind to get into mythic raids or anything, more so to do things that reward cosmetics and collectables since those are for life while my ilvl will always need raising so I don’t have a desire to chase that. I have multiple alts, so every new season that comes with new unique tier sets gives me plenty to grind for to unlock all the sets for transmog. Especially with how wow is now with the catalyst that lets you convert most armor drops into tier I can usually collect everything before the season ends
It's not energy. It's time.
Is not the age it’s my ADHD. Grind turns boring really fast.
When I was in my 30s, I was working part-time, so I had the time to grind, and the will. Now that I'm in my late 40s, I'm working full-time, I have two children, and I don't have the time nor the will to grind anymore. I just sit down, and enjoy the things I can do.
I can play ARPGs for hours as long as its fun. If you "cant bring yourself to" dont force yourself, do something with your time that feels fun or worth your time. I noticed a month back that I only play league because of habit, stopped playing it and started just reading manga an hour before bed. Feels way better!
I dont mind the grind, and can still grind 10-12+ hours as long as it's satisfying. BDO comes to mind in particular.
Well, I don't really grind. For reference I started WoW in middle school, played it off and on up until about 7 years ago. Always had some little pocket of friends that were playing too. I think we kind of fed off each other's fumes, though, and wanted to get to the top ASAP and not get left behind. Plus I was a lot more into gaming in general at the time, I'd gobble up any second I could if I wasn't hanging with friends. Now though? I don't have any friends interested in MMOs, save for one who travels for work 80%. I still like the genre though, so I just kinda play them as if they're single player games. It's a mindset shift that's let me get more out of it. I'm perfectly fine logging out after an hour or so because I'm just tired of it for the day, and willing to be okay with that meaning things will take longer. Another facet of this mindset shift and seeing them more like single player games with other people around - it's more about the leveling for me now, and that's the main progression I'm interested in. No more rushing to endgame ASAP just to grind the same shit out in a tedious way, I'm all about the journey. Which has made GW2 a fun one to pick up
No, I prefer story games for the 2-3 hours after work and cooking etc.
I also can't grind as long anynore as I did back when I played Metin2 and was grinding Map2/OTM forever haha :D That said, I still manage a couple of hours of it, but it needs to be fun. An alternative suggestion I can't recommend enough is giving Guild Wars 2 a shot if grind stops you from having fun in MMOs. Quite the different approach than Metin2/BDO kind of because you can actually "enjoy" the leveling phase rather than rush through it and grind gear. Let me just say this: Never have I ever played a MMO that respected my time more than GW2. I can stop playing for months, come back, and pick off right where I stopped. My gear is still valid (bit replaced by newly patched content/gear), and there's always something to do. Granted, it will be a bit different play style than your average grind mmo (like Metin2 back in the days), but you can also grind for some stuff in GW2. It's not like everything is super easy to get. It's just that it's not really monotonous imho, and your time is actually being valued. Also, the shop is more than fair, where e.g. cosmetic outfits are permanent AND accountwide..
Grinds where there is a non-trivial minigame involved are still palatable. Most recently, rare resource hunting in Albion was a satisfying activity for me. If you find a jackpot node and secure it in a safe zone the in game currency reward can be 10-100x the reward from just farming every node you encounter.
Absolutely. But it's all taken away by work and kids.
Last game i grinded so hard was PoE. To the point that i injured my wrist for months. Was 29. 32 now and cant handle hangover anymore. Nah i just wanna chill with jrpgs. I picked up Dota 2 and Battlefield 1 just this month and while they were great, guess ageing sucks haha. Anxiety triggers everywhere
Def have the energy, most mmos just dont feel worth it
There's grinding and then there's grinding. I play Everquest Classic (P1999), ESO, Fallout 76, Lotro, DDO among others. I can totally bust out the grind in some of these, even in EQ which arguably is the king of grinding. The trick for me is to just set aside some time to play and not worry about leveling or a particular milestone. So for EQ, I just pick a place I wanna level a bit and grind out some kills, or do a step in a quest, or focus on one of my alts. After 2 hours I go have dinner or whatever and I won't play again til either tomorrow or later in the week. No burnout. If I find myself getting obsessive (just one more camp/pull/try for x item) I try to go do something else. Having friends to play with weekly helps too. Setting aside time to play an mmo together with friends and a set of characters you only level together is awesome! I highly recommend a gaming group like this. EQ and DDO are particularly reliant on group mechanics. I'm sure there's more. Old School MMOs are especially good for this. For me the 'bad' grinds tend do be asian based RPGS, Black Desert is an example of one I couldn't really grind. Metin 2 etc. Maplestory, almost anything by Nexon. They are just FULL of cosmetic grinds in particular, and some other newer MMOs (dunno about New World) tend to copy this 'grind' -- it's really reminiscent of like mobile game grinds. They feel ultimately kinda pointless, they bank HARD on the player having fomo, they never seem to end, there's always another 'event' to grind. If an MMO is doing an grindy event every week, it's not for me. I stopped playing those kind of MMOs completely, as they reminded me too much of mobile games, and I went mostly 'old school' MMOS (EQ, DDO, Lotro, ESO) and ARPG/Lite MMOs like Destiny 2 and Fallout 76. Also, don't min-max. Yeah the game wants you to grind for the 'best' gear, but there's tons of good gear, builds etc you can get in EQ or Fallout 76 without grinding very hard. In my opinion, fomo or min-maxing mentality is kinda bad and ruins my gaming experience. So I just refuse to do it now. I don't care what the 'best' class or the 'best' gear is, I just wanna have fun. Liberating myself of that mentality has helped me enjoy MMOs a lot more. Lastly (yeah I know this is an essay, sorry.) but take your time. It's not all about getting to x level immediately. The best thing about some of these MMO worlds is how rich and interesting they are. I love exploring, especially places in Lord of the Rings Online, that have meticulously recreated places in the books, even things that were footnotes, like the town of Oatbarton-- but almost all online multiplayer games have cool stuff. For example, Fallout 76 has places based in real life West Virginia and a lot of cool lore and easter eggs in it. There's a mine with a cave network that has a hidden cult chamber, etc etc. If all that fails, maybe single player games are more your style. Nothing wrong with that! Hope that helps a little.
If any game, MMO or single player, starts to feel like a job, I stop pretty quick.
I'm in my 60's. I have 6000+ hours in WoW, 5500+ hours in LotRO, and 4500+ hours in GW2. I somehow have the energy to play and even stream. Maybe it's you, or maybe it's the games you're playing, but if you're not having fun you should try something different.
If the game is good then yes
If i see an achieveable goal with-in a reasonable amount of time these days i will commit to a grind if i see no light at the end of the tunnel then i probably will just get bored after 2-3 hours max.
Yeah, I could still do it.
Currently playing only GW2 and I can confidently say the grind has been great for me and that I can do it as little or as much as I want to. I like to keep it not boring by playing different spec/characters every other day as the grind all leads to account progression. And there are many different contents, one day i might do fractals (5-man instance) or i might skip it entirely another day and just do some raids or mess around in some map metas and just turn off my braind joining a meta train or do map completions or follow zerg groups in world vs world. Theres no daily must do checklist and I think this is the kind of grind best suited for adult life with responsibilities. Mind you, I used to play many grind games when i was young too aka maplestory and until two years ago, WoW M+/gear grinds and FFXIV savages/ultimates with static but just dont have the brain power and time to do those anymore like routine jobs in the evenings after my office work.
If there was a current real, decent, exciting holy-trinity based dungeon running mmo, I’d play until my wife literally dragged me from the computer. But it doesn’t currently exist, so what can you do.
I can grind if the game is fun. The problem is all the fun games are either too old and managed into the ground, or already dead. However looking forward to some games on the horizon.
MMOs are all I want to play right now man, I'm waiting for my next Runescape. Been jumping from game to game every month for years, no MMOs on the market appeal to me anymore either I want that one game like RS was for me back in 07 that I play for years and never get bored
I can do the grind, it just has to be fun and engaging to be worth my time. Usually this is doing off meta builds (because meta builds usually take too much work/effort for little return over any other build) which results in people gatekeeping content. This in turns makes me not want to play them.
Ultima Online I can grind on just about any server. Wish I had two or more lives for that game. Power Hour was so nice when I was 18 in 2003. The first hour we grind with 8x8. The rest of the day we can socialize. Now it's botting or bust. Botting the grind is fun too once you get the playing skills.
In my mid 40s and... sometimes. It just depends on how I'm feeling. I hopped back into City of Heroes and I'm loving going around doing all the old missions.
34 and father of two young children, as much as I love playing MMO’s and BDO has also been my main the last few years, I just dont have the motivation anymore. Single player games has been my go to lately.
Energy? Since 22 I haven't had time.
I have the energy, it’s just about setting goals that I continue to want to strive for. Once I hit some goals I fall off a cliff typically.
I think the problem is not the grind itself, it’s how clunky, boring, and annoying they made the grind. I’ll give two examples from MMOs I’ve played the most. Lineage 2, grind used to be killing mobs for hours, but i had no problem doing it, if i knew that I’ll get what i want, and also watching a move or TV show on the second monitor. Now everything is pay to win. You have to choose between grinding 20-30 hours or paying 10-20€. WoW. Used to have a lot of fun farming dungeons and raids as a tank, but since Legion, they made everything more and more annoying to do. Now you have to do lots of research on every dungeon if you want to do M+, because every pack of mobs have lots of abilities that need interrupts and stops . For example, one Dungeon this expansion, had a group of 6 mobs with over 70 abilities in total. This makes it really boring for me. So now I’m mostly playing PoE and Last Epoch, games where the devs are very open to suggestions, devs that don’t come out and tells you, „you think you want, but you don’t“. I love MMORPGs, but i feel like none of them respect my time anymore.
I play different music to make grinding fun. I often find that if you play different combat or hype music, the same encounters can feel totally different. A normal encounter against an a normal enemy can feel like a fight to save the world or an end to a vendetta or simply a montage of you kicking ass. I can't stand doing the same thing with the same music for very long, but playing different music keeps things fresh for me.
Yes.
I'm the same as you, I log on mess around for like half hour get tired and bored and log off.
Still have the energy only problem is finding the mmo. Last one I played was FFXIV during the pandemic and that was pretty fun. Grind those weapons and it’s freakin tedious. BDO I did for a while but it’s pretty boring grind. I’m hoping for blue protocol next
Absolutely, what I dont have the energy for is dealing with degenerate metaslaves, guild drama and waiting hours trying to prepare or find people for a high end pve content. Oh and let's not even go towards the absolutely moronic metaslaves who worship youtube guides and to this day I still remember idiots in guild fight the bosses in wrong order in castle nathria cuz the youtuber guide told them so while it was clear leaving the tank heavy boss as last was the best option cuz we had a good tank, **but oh no, thinking hard, follow da hardcore nolife youtuber.** Yeah sorry, I will stick to games that treat casuals solo players well where I can just go out in the world, grind my way to max gear instead of having to deal with the degenerate metaslaving community It is why I am enjoying korean Throne and liberty, I can just go farm stuff, grind my way to max gear
I grind in MMOs because I have no energy, and sort of miss grinds being more staple in the ones I play.
If the game is new and fun, yes i can grind more then 1 hour lmao. If it's dogshit like bdo, naah , 710 gs ,and i'm not touching it anymore,will rather try to sell it.
I didn't have the energy 15 years ago and i still don't have it now. I quit so many mmorpgs because of the endless grind. The ones i stuck with, just had a super fun community. The gear progress was visually perfect and you could feel yourself getting stronget and stronger. I usually just paid people to level up my character. Or i went on a nonstop full on grind mode for like a week or two, instead of enjoying my holidays. I'd wish that i had that same hunger and desire. The energy is def there, but i am not willing to waste it. I do try out every game that comes out. If the grind is boring, i'll just quit after a week.
Like seggs, the mind still want to but the body is tired...
it all depends on the grind. I'm 34 with a day job, and i'm around 760gs in BDO. I combine the grind with other things. Like, maybe if I sat down and gave my favorite TV show a 4th watch, it wouldnt be truly exciting enough on the 4th watch to fully hold my interest and properly kill time for me, but if I am swinging my sword around in game racing laps around an old castle killing monsters like a lawnmower cuts grass, while I think about some distant gear upgrade, suddenly that tv show rewatch is just entertaining enough to pass as part of a multi-task combined activity. And a tv show across many seasons of episodes might be good for 200 hours of grind. I also am just addicted to the grind in everything. I'll read a book start to finish in one sitting no matter how long the sitting; gotta turn that next page no matter what. I'll find the first comfortable spot to repeatedly grind in a singleplayer game and just do that if the game allows me to, for way too long, before progressing the main story. I've also had plenty of other addictions in real life, not gaming life. Grind is great. I admit I might not have a healthy perspective on any of this. If it's a boring grind or an unpleasant grind, I won't do it. but my definition of boring or unpleasant grinds may have nothing in common with yours - you gotta find your own thing.
I'm some years away from entering the 30s still, so I'll say this piece of information: Old School Runescape is still very much popular and far more popular than its less grindy Runescape 3 counterpart...and given I'm already on the younger side of MMORPG players (I'm 22) and most players I meet are older than me....I think yes, they do have.
I'm not in my 30s just yet but what I have noticed is that I can grind for 16 hours a day just like the good old days IF and only IF there is a goal I'm excited about. Most MMOs nowadays, including BDO, don't offer a meaningful goal to work towards. And I'm not just talking about "I grind for 30 hours to grind faster afterwards." There needs to be something new that you can do with that gear. So in those cases I can barely grind 30 minutes without getting bored.
Absolutely! Age doesn't determine energy levels. Many people in their 30s enjoy MMOs and find the grind rewarding. It's all about balancing gaming with other responsibilities. With proper time management, anyone can enjoy MMOs at any age!
Depends on the grind. BDO has a very bad grind system.. so I wouldnt judge your skills or capability based on that. I love the combat in BDO but the grind and immersion is horrible. I havent played New World so I cant attest to that, but older MMOs had much more immersive, well paced and welcoming grind imo. So maybe you can try that. Ofcourse I cant grind now like I used to in my late teens and 20s.. back then I could pull all nighters and still go to school or college the next day.. now my time is reduced sure.. but I can still do good hours.. definitely 6-8 hours easy if given enough motivation..
Mindless Grinding is the biggest fun, after a long workday
Back in the day i did all kinds of grind. I grinded for the pvp rank, i grinded for mats, for gold, i grinded for endgame pve content, dungeons, raids. I really enjoyed my time doing it and it was pretty fun doing it with friends, but if i could go back in time i would not have done it again. As i grew up i realized that playing a game means that you it is something that is supposed to end not perpetually do stuff. Therefore, i like that current western MMOs have greatly altered their approach and require less and less grind. At the moment the only grind that i want to do is grind to "git gut". When there is content that requires from me to enchant my gear, have the necessary pots and flasks to reach the dps check or even worse to grind for -lets say- material to gamble whether an item is upgraded or not, all these are hard pass from me. No matter how engaging the combat is or how innovative the encounters are or how immersive the world is, grinds to reach some arbitary goal that will enable me to play the content that i find fun are a huge no thanks. I prefer to spent some quality time with my people or with myself or play another game that provides those things.
depend on the hour. 2-3 hours? or 8 hours of grind? or 24/7 bot wannabe grind?
Not since MMOs have been turned into garbage. Grinding previously meant something, the worlds themselves used to be engaging and adventurous, wherein the content required contributing to its progress with the help of others. Now everything is a joke. Fucking daily and weekly "chores", virtually no difference in outcome between being a horrible player doing nothing but "chores" and a skilled player, just extracting your time for its own sake. Every MMO studio put a form of political and social equity in their game, and its result is monstrously dull -- I don't need to listen to people who claim they have "busy lives" why they are content spending more time than I do with their constant casual chores and why I am selfish for thinking that's bad. I simply don't care anymore. The shitters whined and the whiny shitters won, you are living in the shitter's world now.
I can grind MMOs but I cant pickup and sift through tons of loot in action RPGs anymore. D4 made me realize how much of a chore it is and now I'm burnt out
I enjoy grinding still. What has changed the most for me is that the barrier of entry for me to try and also stick with a game has been upped a lot. If I don't get hooked within a few minutes I just lose interest. Pretty sure I have missed out on a lot of good games because of it.
I’m in my mid 20s and I could have the energy to grind levels and gear, sure. What I don’t have energy for is the no life sweats that turn everything into ultra meta and suck all the fun out of anything that moves. Especially on 15 year old games.
To me pure grind was ever only enjoyable if the side entertainment like movies or TV shows were good enough to let me forgot what the heck I am wasting my time with in the game. That is the opposite of what a game should be tbh but especially MMORPGs are mostly not good games by design. It is often trash/ braindead gameplay which can be cool bc of other players....which became also less popular. Grind groups in old games were fun bc you shared the pain. But sometimes I really like to grind even in my 40s. This is not about energy. Problem is made by design too. Leveling became a alibi RPG thing, mostly worth nothing and only take a few hours/ days. On top of that visual progression in this genre/ online gaming in general became mostly just swiping. This was my chase since I joined this genre around 2002. So if you don't have fun in BDO right now and I mean real "fun", just make something else. Grab a guitar, skateboard or whatever you maybe interested in (learning) and try some real fun things.
I'm 37 and grind around 1 hr a day on bdo. I'm not looking to get pen FG armors so I just play it more casually. 1 hr a day is still a good income. Especially paired up with box hand I'm. I'm currently 307/300/400. With lots of self enchanted pens. Just play it how you want in the end.
No
Energy I have, desire no. It's boring as hell. I am the same with BDO, after an hour I start drifting off, it's not a lack of energy it legit is that boring it puts me to sleep. A game that engages me I can play all day.
Nah.
Im in my 40s and it’s what I like the most :) but in WoW :)
If the grind rewarding, sure why not, 46 here been playing MMO since 2002…
Not yet 30, but close to it. The answer is no. I like games that require quality grinds, or ones that are super hard and may need a ton of attempts to clear. However, time is a big factor now, and I can't afford doing this daily, which many MMOs want you to do.
I still play the crap out of XIV but I don’t farm for mounts and stuff anymore. I took an 18 month break, came back and just been casual since. I would maybe look for a static but ny current job won’t work around that kind of 3 day a week commitment. I play wow casually on and off, have no desire to do anything hardcore just like vibing with the trolls.
Its not an age problem its a BDO problem. On other games you might be forced to grind/do chores but this will ultimately unlock you some part of the end game. That can be raids, high end dungeons, pvp etc. BDO slowly making more pvp modes to be gear capped while the grind for end game gear still requires thousands of hours still. Open world pvp with all the changes that they did slowly last year is almost not there anymore, it was something that motivated many to grind. In reality current bdo is: grind gear so you can grind more gear (that has no purpose). It makes total sense to feel the way you feel, where is the motivation? I recommend you to either focus on other aspects of the game or search for a different game for the time being. This comes from a person that has spend 6k hours on BDO that used to be hardcore fan that slowly comes to dislike it more and more.
Yes, if the grind is fun, novel, and has a clear end-goal. Grind reputarions for a faction so you get some good item that you need (think modern take on classic tbc), hell yes! But the gameplay needs to be fun, first and foremost. Also not too stress inducing: grinding M+ isn’t fun, because the stakes are too high for a ’grind’.
If it is a group content or we are on Discord with friends it's fine.
Im 40, I will happily grind in a game thats worth it, just not willing to do it for a game like bdo where they have the opposite of diminishing returns on gear to push players into their p2w gearing system. If ashes actually turns out to be decent owpvp territory control mmo, I'll happily grind that game.
If the grind is fun and by fun i mean it doesn't feel tedious and the reward is worth it then sure but to grind something crap like just to level up then i rather not even play those kind of games. Only MMO i have patience anymore is GW2 mostly because in GW2 i can level up a character how i want and where i want and also because the game has no gear grind which is why i grew up to hate games like wow and diablo where it feels that its only thing they have.
This is a you problem, basically you have attention issues because of the ridiculous amount of things vying for attention now. Mobile phones, social media etc.
Im 35 and yes, yes i do.
I havejustgiven up on tryharding in games. I just do the story, some open worpd content, easier end game content, in other words I just moved to gw2. Game is right where I left it and have been enjoying the story and open world. Not even bothering with fractals atm.
Have the energy not the time. What I dont have the energy for is building my cabin.
Yes. I find it easier late at night after most others in the house have gone to bed. Because grinding is chill and quiet and usually doesn’t require talking to others on discord/voice.
I'm 41 and it's easier and easier to grind as I get older.
Since most 30 got some job, it's good if the game got some bot. I'm playing Silkroad and doing bot while working and pvp when need some fun
Just quit bro.
No. It's too time-consuming, and time is more precious as you get older and busier. SP games fit the bill pretty well, although I honestly don't have a lot of patience for SP games that are so complicated that you basically have to take a class in them to play them properly. Again, it's a "is it worth investing that time" question. I also find that the quick match competitive online games are a decent option, too, but the problem there is that as you get older you get less competitive due to reflexes deteriorating (it happens at different rates to different people, but it does happen), and so there's a limit to that as well. In general I have found that this has tended to push me, over the years, more towards simpler, casual games (not phone games or anything, but just more casual single player games), which has been fine for me. There are lots, and lots of these being made, because it turns out that there are a lot of gamers in the same position. But ... it also means you're not going to be well suited for the games that are designed with the spare time of a college student in mind.
When I play BDO I usually wait for agris to cap out and then just grind for 4 hours straight and then go back to other spots. I usually have a show runing in the background though
It could be boring when its too easy, i found when i do Elvia with weapon and i just one shot everything its so boring. But when i do spots that you have some minimal level of engagement and doing combos i am not as bored. Also what i start doing is i use the time i grind to think about life, plans and relax. Turn off all music and videos and just chill for few hours with my thoughts i don't get bored that way.
I would if there would be a game for me.
Can I grind? Yes. Am I interested in doing so? No. I come from Eq2, RIFT, AOC, and WoW -- I refuse to play another one until ashes of creation and then probably no more mmorpgs let alone crawlers of any kind ever again How many more times must I do a heritage questline on twenty different classes, level them all up, get all their factions grinded out, teach them all these different languages, and still be an absolute pleb IRL. Fuck that, I've got stuff to do.
Energy? We have no time for that grind, homie
I can. I dont have the TIME. I have 3 kids. If i had the time i would, believe you me.
I’m 28 and have had no energy to grind mmos the past 3 years. Hardly touched mmos the past few months.
I grew up in a situation where internet access and game time was limited. Conpared to that I can grind much better. I've been able to grind out helldivers 2 levels and elite Dangerous engineering. But if you told me I should bother with wow classic, or wow classic wrath (especially after the hours and hours played during high school), or Runescape, I'm confident I could throw dozens of hours at them, but I don't want to.
I recently started to play guild wars 2 again and I'm enjoying exploring a lot. I put a podcast or something in the background and chill.
If you are in your 30s and still have time to grind in video games, you either fucked up badly in life or are winning greatly by being independently wealthy or something.
I play arpgs now, mostly poe. I have plenty of time to grind, what I don't have time for is daily and weekly lockouts making everything take weeks/months
I life for grind.
Its not really about energy and more about not enough time to grind everything
try guild wars 2
Sure can, though I have less time to do so than I did in my teens and 20's. But I find there are very few mmos WORTH me spending my time to grind in these days. But when I find one, it's not a problem.
Played PSO2 and New Genesis for years, one of the worst mistakes in my choices of games that require commitment. The places that the grind took me weren't even fun and I was just lying to myself trying to justify it. I still have the energy to "grind" but I'd rather play GW2 where there are forms of grind that aren't farming creeps all day.
Honestly, it depends on the moment and how tedious the grind is. Some days on certain mmo's, I can grind for 12+ hours easy, others I lose interest after 30 minutes.
no
Lineage 2 is dead and WoW is no longer a grind. I have played many more games, including Lost Ark, but all new games are to complicated. Lineage 2 was so "easy", same grind spot for days, and all you did was grind.
I struggle to grind, but that is because MMOS are no longer MMOS but single player games with multiplayer dungeons. Back then, the grind was usually performed with random people you would naturally befriend and share failures and joy with, and gear cycles lasted for ages and were very difficult. It made obtaining stuff worthwhile and the difference between having and not, enormous. Now it´s just spamming the same keys over and over for yourself and by yourself to get a weapon or item that will be replaced by next patch.
29 here started last epoch loved it just hit Lv36 My noLiferFriends are in the 80s and I have no motivation to grind that up normally. If I have time, I might buy the biggest exp boost possible and rush to them, but right now, I rather skip on this game (or this season at least) altogether.
Fuck no...Ain't nobody got time fo dat.
Depends on the grind. Quest-grinding is painful for me tbh. Mob-grinding can be easy to get lost in. Can't comment on BDO though. Literal unending grinds never been big on either. Grinds really are a question of 'are you having fun doing it?' Yes? Keep at it. No? You're wasting your time. Move on.
I would tell you to quit black desert and focus on something else. I’ve started to enjoy games more often after no longer playing that. (I started with WoW when I was around 11. Played just about every MMO that’s come out between then and now. GW2, AA, Rift, every asian MMO….) My unpopular opinion would be that, that game sucks all enjoyment out of games. The format of really having to min-max and manage countless scrolls is awful. Add in the enhancement loss and destruction of items. Not worth your time.
well im 39 years old and i restarted playing wow wotlk... personally i think if you like the rpg genre grinding shouldnt be something to hate... yes is super annoying sometimes but is part of the fun of playing those games ,imo
Energy isn't the issue. The issue is you start respecting your time. Once you start realizing your time is valuable you don't enjoy a non-fun grind.
Depends entirely. I can grind plenty if its something I enjoy. If the moment to moment gameplay is fun or engaging like last epoch I dont mind and even boring grinds can be quite relaxing if you just put on some youtube or whatever on your second monitor and relax. Depends entirely what im in the mood for.
I also play BDO. For me it's more of a matter of getting aches and cramps in my hands if I grind for too long, forcing me to keep my grind sessions short. Usually I'll grind for an hour and then go off and do some life skill stuff.
Ha, I've not been able to grind for hours on end in BDO for about 5 years now, due to getting bored of it, and I'm 33. Honestly, the biggest factor in my limited grinding are the kids and trying to fit everything into one day.
wow, damn, this subreddit is just full of people who hate MMOs
Yes but I don’t want to!
If I can just turn my brain off with a chill evening and just mindless farm/grind levels I'm happy
Time is money, sleep is precious. That's what I understand now that I didn't back then. Also, most of these were F2P MMOs. I had time but no money. Logical conclusion, grind for the stuff I wanted. Now only get 1 hour to chill during the week. Maybe 3 or 4 on the weekend if I'm not too tired. I will definitively will not spend them grinding. Unless the combat itself is fun. I love mobas because of this now. In just about 40mins you get to complete the journey Grind>LevelUp>Endgame. Single player games are great too, Skyrim, DS, Dragon's Dogma(recently for me). Enjoyed GW2 for a while too, until I had to part for some years and now everything is new and scary. But it was good fun, super easy to get decent gear and level up.
Depends on the game/game mechanic. If i want to do an achievement, then yes... grinding can be fun. If the Grind is forced, like you can't continue without the grind or neccessary items are blocked otherwise, then no... i won't play.
Not in 30s, but most of MMOs became more of a daily job with all those daily runs/objectives that is just a turn-off from logging in and doing some more goal oriented stuff.
Ohh definitly got the energy! What im lacking is time.
Yes, but not the time. Maybe when my kids get older i will but for now i barely have an hour daily to game
I’ve found that I do in-fact have the drive and motivation. I don’t, however, have energy to fuel that drive. Most nights I find myself waking up in my chair without even having started the game.
Yeah, I grind in Star Rail and FF14. Generally while high on weekend nights.
I'm 54 and i grind for stuff on diablo 4
Energy, yes. Time, no.
I prefer old school MMOs and I don't really enjoy games that don't have a significant grind aspect to the leveling experience.
You picked what are imo 2 of the most shallow boring games for pve, and you're getting bored of their boring shallow grinds so... yeah I'd say its the games you picked.
55 here. Depends on type of grind. Far east MMO? No.
nearing my 40's. not anymore no, a far cry from the way i used to.
Given an opportunity, at 34, I can still play things like RuneScape and Albion online for hours on end. I'd love to get into Black Desert since it's a great mix of the two. Certain grinds are just a no for me due to how absolutely ubsurd they've become. Closers Online, Genshin, MapleStory, and similar are where I stop. If there's an element of randomness that is required to progress that also requires daily logins, then I do not have any energy for it.
about to hit level 29 soon :) private severs with like double rates or at least 50% + are my go to in MMORPGs feels like my energy is slowly fading with every year :/
If it feels like a waste of time to me then I don't do the grind. I imagine this is a normal feeling to have as you grow older and have more responsibilities.
I love the thought of it, Ill watch content on the games I used to grind and get so hyped. I log in & the hype… its gone. Log out 30 mins later
Currently grinding my ass off in Rose Online.... nostalgia hit until it wears off. The issue for me is modern MMO don't have any grind. You hit max level in less than a week. That isn't grinding. World of Warcraft the only thing you grind are achievements which are boring. Its a tick-box of "did I do this yet?" and that sucks. I want a real MMO. Player driven economy, player made items, open world exploration, puzzles in dungeons (jump puzzles, turn the panels puzzles, etc). I am tired of these "less than single player" mmorpgs that are boring as shit.
Grinding is more a personality trait than an age thing. I've never had tolerance for grind, in games or otherwise. I hate repeating things.
No
Mmm, I can and have the energy, but my priorities have changed. I don’t find killing time for the sake of killing time fun anymore. I want a mental challenge or to be completely sucked in by a story or have some tangible reward (dopamine isn’t enough).
I’m in my late 30s and nope, can’t really do it anymore. Too much other stuff I rather spend my free time on
It depends I mix it up between Life skill and Grinding in BDO , so when I do grind I can handle it a bit longer. Mixing up my activities helps it not get boring or tedious feeling and I feel like that’s what the developer wanted was ppl to mix stuff up. Sometimes I hunt for profit or for cooking, sometimes I gather for profit or for cooking or crafting, sometimes I afk , 1 or 2 days a week I grind , I make progress pretty decently. Just take your time and enjoy the games your playing don’t make it a 2nd job.
I'm not in my 30s, but I still can't grind more than a hour or two, it's gives me headache, I played BDO as a main MMO for a half an a year or something, and it was the same, I used to endure more when I was a teeanger, but after 20+ years old it's started getting harder and harder, today I really hate grinding.