MMO on rails confirmed!

[Sephrick]

self-directed gameplay is more interesting than doing what some nobody farmer tells you to for no reason. Maybe you dont want to help him kill 10 marmots or whatever other bullshit.

Open world grinding is not self-directed.

The developer controls mob populations and respawns just the same as the do the number of floating exclamation points.

Choosing between the two or three camps for your exp range is the same as choosing between a handful of quests. You follow the trail the developers want you to and get as much exp per hour as they allow you to.

The thing is, Yoshida has said from the onset that he's making a fan service theme park game. If you go to Disney, they don't tell you you absolutely must ride It's a Small World for seven hours before you can do anything else.

As has been explained to this chicken little many times: yes, mob grinding isn't the most efficient means of gaining exp, but nor is just spamming quests. The devs want people to mix it up and use all sorts of methods to break up the monotony.