Quote Originally Posted by Punainen View Post
I have been playing Tera for the past 3 days...I'm to level 26, and so far it makes me realize that non-stop quest grinding has a way of feeling just as lifeless as regular grinding... There's no occasion to kill mobs never listed on a quest, there's no occasion to stop and look around, no reason to ever return to an old zone, there's nothing but being shuffled from one place to the next like cattle with all your leveling practically being done for you, in a never ending stream that begins to feel mind-numbingly linear. Last time I turned Tera off it was as I sat back and asked myself what the hell I was doing, and wondering was I really enjoying this, or was I just stuck in the loop? Then I had to turn it off when I realized it was just a loop and there was nothing really enjoyable about ANY of it.

I guess this could be dealt with in ARR with epic storylines, plot twists, and humorous or touching sidequests. Some truly innovative quests. Or even the occasional break in which regular grinding must be done for even just 2-3 levels before the quest loop begins again. I want to feel like I'm involved in the game's world and lore, where my level is raised by showing courage and skill...not feel like I'm rolling down an assembly line.

The one thing Tera DID seem to have going for it was small details like the stuff you would occasionally see floating by (seeds, or petals, or leaves), the fact that when you follow a river, it actually GOES somewhere that isn't an invisible wall. The bustling sound of voices and pets in the centers of towns, the epic splashes and sprays of blood as you slice into a mob, the little woodland creatures walking around just for show (some which you could kill for no real reason).

That said, Tera completely misses almost all the broadstrokes. Sure the combat system is kinda cool (though purely-action combat would never really work in ARR), but other than that, the story goes too long without giving you any INTERESTING details, every sidequest plot in each area is identical (kill X amount of mob to thin the herd, kill such and such mob to get 'special item, repeat).

Originally I had gone into the 'quest grind' topic uneducated. I liked quests, more quests sounded like more fun. But now I know that there needs to be moderation, or too much of a good thing becomes an incessant flood of whiny NPCs whose issues I quickly cease to care about.


TL;DR: SE really should be very careful about how they approach this whole 'you'll be able to quest-grind all your classes to 50' thing.
Isn't it the same with old group grinding?

The first few levels in groups are always fun, especially when you get new mobs and need to learn what the most effective way it is to kill them, but when you done a few of them it gets boring and very repeative.

Sometimes you have a nice group that talks etc. but in all mmorpg's I played, it usually is just about killing as fast as possible without a chat. I had this in all MMORPGs, also FFXI which I played from 2003 till today. (since abyssea it is really gotten much worse)

The same is with questing, but then I will prefer questing above old school grinding.
Also it depends if the stories are interesting from the quests, as you said, you need something interesting in the quest. If you learn more about the world in the quests then questing can be a good thing.

Still people can ignore the story off course, and then they will not enjoy the questing.

Also while there is questing, why can't we still group and old school grind? What is stopping us?
Has anyone tried it out how good it is?

Also why can't you look around when questing, why can't you talk like in a grinding party?

The social aspect of the game is created by the people, to believe we just have to go fast from quest to quest, or from grinding mob to grinding mob, without a look or talk, it is all created by ourselfs, we want to go as quick as possible to end game.

For me that usually is the reason why I prefer to solo. I can look around and play my own story, while chatting with the LS, no one is pushing to go to the next objective, may it be a quest or mob.

I played MMORPG's from 1999, and I am done with level grinding as fast as possible to max, when I go in a group I want to have fun, and don't care about leveling. When I do quests I actually want to read them.

I do hope to find people who have the same mindset, because a party can be more fun, with the right people.
I hope the community doesn't wait for SE to force them into group, you only get bad groups from that, just people who only want the fastest way to the end.

I hope we can make it a fun game together, helping eachother, talking to each other.
But it is something we have to do ourselfs.

Anyway that is what I believe.