@dev team ->> Thanks for bringing back party grinding, -really-

[darkstarpoet1]

I have played the quest driven MMOs. You are correct that stones are not npc's, and wow quest lines do take you through a some what linear path (this is really bad in AOC and AION) through all the different zones leading up to the end game content. However, its still an endless string of kill 8 of this and bring me 10 of that, and help grandma poopy pants clean up her garden. In the end, they are the same, one you strip them down and look at them for what they really are. A mostly solo grind.

I do not require a NPC to get me to go adventure and explore a world, nor do I need a reward to do so.

What I do need is a group of people to go do it with and have fun with.

As far as your commentary about why people left, I can sum it up since I played through all of it.

Party play at the outset was a zerg with no strategy and unpredictable experience points. The only way to really progress effectively in a grind style party was to do it with 24 ppl or whatever the limit was, its been so long ago now I have forgotten. Once they stablized exp, those grind parties died, because partying at that point was NOT EFFECTIVE for leveling up. That left leve's, which you know where I am at with, and much of the community (as seen in this thread) agrees.

People left because of a lack of a "Fun" way to group together and party.

you are wrong. parties have ALWAYS been an effective way to level up. you are fooling yourself to believe otherwise. you add things saying zerg style 24 man parties were the norm when you know as well as i do that parties were NEVER allowed 24 people to start with nor was max party size EVER the most effective way to level up. parties since the sp patch back in november people have always had grind parties. groups of 3-6 have always been the best sp. i hate to break it to you, but it is true.

sure you could get good sp off doing leves, but that is only a few hours every 36. people still grinded in between leve parties and worked on their other classes. not to mention you talk about grouping and doing leves is not any different than it is doing the same boring pull and camp of mobs. if anything, the leves were more exciting.

if the majority of mmo gamers felt grinding by pull and spank camping was the most fun route then xi would have been the most popular the entire time it was out. the truth is that it is not the case and that is why it never happened. many people believe many different things is fun to them.

am i saying your way is wrong? no, not at all because you enjoy what you enjoy, but you must realize that other people enjoy other things also. to ignore them is just leading down a path of failure. to have success you must find the things everyone enjoys and find ways to please each group. to me it would be best if i had 10 different ways to level so that if i got bored with one i could do something else. doing any one thing gets boring whether it be quests, grinding, soloing, raids, or leves. no one way should ever be made the only effective way to do anything.