Grinds Done Right.

[Lemuria]

how about dodging 100 lighting bolts in FF10?

As I recall, it was 200... and one of the reasons I never got Lulu's celestial weapon upgrade.

Honestly though, I think MMOs comparing themselves to each other is a big reason for the genre's homogeneity. I really wish more MMOs would look outside their own genre for ideas and ask, 'That looks fun...How we can do that in a massively multiplayer world?'

While I understand the sentiment, it's important to understand the distinction between a single player experience and a multiplayer online experience.

There are a lot of mechanics which simply don't transfer well because the onus is to encourage party play. Furthermore, in a single player game you pay once for the game and there's no subscription. With an MMO, the company needs a steady income to maintain the service we all know and love. To do this, it needs to keep people playing, which is why a lot of the grinds often take longer.

Grinds also need to consider this longevity in their rewards. They can't go making everyone a super powered warrior dealing 9999 damage on every strike, so things have to be balanced over time. As a result, the grinds are designed to bridge the gap between today's gear and tomorrow's gear.

Now, despite this I won't go saying that I love the relic grind. I loathe it. I'm currently grinding light for my nexus and it feels like it's taken an eternity already. It's not very well paced, and it's not very fun. But despite not enjoying it I understand why it exists in its current form.