After reading Zubon's, Suzina's and Sweet Cherrie's posts about Legendary Items, I'm reminded that one person's idea of joyful progression can be another's grind.

'Grind' is probably the biggest and most common complaint about MMORPGs. That must drive designers a bit nuts, because progression (real and illusory) are an important aspect of any RPG. An MMO without progression is likely to be criticized as a bore, but you cannot escape that someone will inevitably call your game's progression a grind.

The Legendary grind is an illusion:

That's been my subjective opinion, mostly because Turbine has dropped in a bunch of shortcuts to item leveling that almost trivializes the progress of any given weapon.

I'm not right per se, because ultimately nothing is inherently a grind, it comes down to each individual's perception. So whether the grind is as deep not as deep as people say, it's a bit moot. If it seems like a grind to them, then it is a grind for them.

I wanted serious progression in the Legendary system and I'm almost disappointed that it's too easy, too quick to almost max out the potential in the system. Part of that is due to the curve, because at some point the differences become small, making not much difference between a 'good' to 'great' Legendary.

It's also true (as noted by Zubon) that getting a great Legendary weapon is more about sorting through the trash caused by the random nature of stat generation. This part of the system disappointed anyone who was hoping to get 'One Sword to Rule Them All'. Instead of keeping a weapon as you progress, you're likely to disassemble dozens as you slowly upgrade.

Turbine is also being rather conservative on how powerful these weapons can become. Obviously they don't want Legendary Items to trump their content balancing, but at the same time, that reduces just how... Legendary these items can be.

I find myself at odds with some of the complaints though, because overall I love the Legendary system. Oh I can imagine ways it could have been better, for sure, especially with the toss-your-old upgrade paths, but this is what's in the game and rating it as-is: I'd say it's pretty good.

Just the aspect of having something to level once my character is at Endgame, that alone is a boon to me.

This sort of thing must drive MMORPG devs a bit nuts, because progression (both real and illusory) is an important aspect of any RPG.

With an audience of 10 million, what's so bad about World of Warcraft?

Last night I defended Richard Bartle's stance that MMORPG games could be so much better. He uses World of Warcraft as his example in a rambling sort of way, but this part is key to me:

Forgetting the specific example of Kharazan for a moment, there's the pissing on the players quote and it's bang on the money. Exact. I don't need to pull a bunch of Tigole faux pas quotes from Blizzard to tell you that there's a hamster wheel grind intentionally inherent to these games and WoW specifically.

When WoW was released, it was heralded as the solution to the grind in MMORPGs. What happened? It wasn't, that's what. Blizzard applied bandaids like removing XP loss on death, but then kept the base model of Everquest with "The Vision" still at its core, refining it even deeper in their Endgame as time went by. They discovered very quickly that it was cheaper to stretch content than provide as much as players wanted.

The defining part of "The Vision" is that the game's progress traps the player in, making them continue playing not just for fun, but for rewards that lead to further rewards.

It's no mistake that these games are often labelled as addictive, because from an outside perspective there's wonder that people will play past their enjoyment. Gordon Walton has summed this up:

Just like Everquest, mark my words, if Blizzard continues to inflict tasks on players without enough corresponding fun, it will slowly move from accolades to vilification. I've become jaded about the game myself and I encounter more and more other players that feel the same way.

Now I'm going to *gasp* say something positive about WAR. Mythic has focused much of their development efforts on reducing the grind. They've specifically catered to those that want satisfying PvP combat from level 1 up. They've improved many of the "oh god, not this again" moments in questing. They are in the good space that Blizzard was 4 years ago. If this stuff bugs you but you still want to play MMORPGs, then WAR may be your best tonic.

But I do wonder, with this push to improve, why are they still on the base model of Everquest? The same goes for Age of Conan, where the attitude at Funcom is that of course you have to start with that, it's the base right? Thank goodness for the awesome combat in AoC.

As much as I'm enjoying these games, I think evolving on the EQ model is an uphill battle against what its core design principles stood on. Standing up and questioning the trappings is something players should do if they truly want to see the grind go away.