gw2 is a bigger grind then ffxiv. the only diff is they make you grind dungeons and events, you gotta run between each one of them so a weaker mind would think it's not a grind cause you can stop inbetween more. 40hours of doing any to max is 40hours, 80hours is 80hours don't matter what your doing it's grinding. there was a spot in gw2 where u could fail one event and it triggered 4 events back to back rather then 20minute wait for the next event in same spot. people grouped up in parties there, was the only time i had a 4man party with another like 20+ others around doing the same thing and felt like a mmo. next day they removed it. that shows how much running around doing nothing and how much time between each event and killing they know there is. that is way worse then a grind. and you don't grow to know the community that way. in ffxi you spent hours grinding ..same mobs maybe but it wasn't being covered with coffee breaks or teleporting or running from one spot to the next. and on side note ffxi had lots of exploring, it was seperate from the grind, every expansion first thing everyone was doign was running together zone to zone questing and all that stuff.