KingsGambit
Caldari Knights
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Posted - 2009.07.09 18:41:00 -
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I know what you mean about the grind, but the need for one only comes about because of a) some sort of economy, b) an experience/usage based skill/lvl up system and c) something worth grinding for. The grind is simply the most time efficient way to level up, skill up, earn gold or craft an item, within the rules of the game. You can acquire all the above thru normal, casual play, forsaking the grind but it will take longer and to be competitive with the social misfits that form the elite of any MMO (by way of having much more time, for whatever reason, than ordinary people to spend playing) you have to grind.
That includes running the same Eve asteroid belts/deadspace, WoW raids/instances/battlegrounds and so on. The secret to keeping people p(l)aying is to make the grind as interesting as possible (so it doesn't feel like one?), knowing (or learning from observation, word of mouth and forum posts) that players will find anyway to get ahead, keep rewards in line with effort, give the majority a fair shot at getting the +5 Sword of Power and make sure you release a +6 version in a future expansion. 
To get rid of the grind...I don't know, you'd have to eliminate the reason people grind in the first place. No Swords of Power = same/generic/micro-transaction ONLY equipment across the board, with no in-game items to aim for. No player economy and a skill/experience system that isn't usage/play-time based, eg. Eve, or no levels at all. The only thing I can think of that would work like this in an online setting is not an MMO, but shooters like UT and TF2. With nothing in particular to aim for (TF2 does have acheivements for glory hounds, but can be ignored with no impact on your capabilities) it's always an even field of players logged in purely for fun...and perhaps the odd griefer.
But in any persistent world, unless you deny players any form of customisation, advancement, advantage over newbies, etc there's no way to get rid of it. Players will always work out the fastest way to acheive their end, be it cheating/an exploit, camping, griefing or like that CoH/CoV article in this forum, stand around chatting with your enemies in a free-for-all PvP zone.
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