Breakfast Topic: How do you tackle long grinds?

“Grinding” is a term that has become ubiquitous in the MMO community. Whether it be resource farming, reputation gains, mob counts, or whatever tickles one’s fancy, the act of grinding is one that MMO players are familiar with. Indeed, it’s interesting to note that “excessive grinding” is a common complaint for many newer games in the genre, and that World of Warcraft is often praised for steadily phasing out the more arduous grinds of its time to become more accessible to a larger playerbase.

Regardless though, some level of grinding remains in the game. I’d argue that Warlords of Draenor brought back an uncomfortable prominence to the notion of excessive grinding, given that the only way to obtain reputation with various factions in Draenor is by killing designated mobs (no daily quests, no special missions, no turn-ins, etc). In patch 6.2, it’s been revealed that reputation grinds will be key towards unlocking the ability to fly in Draenor — thus we’ll likely see a much larger portion of the playerbase partake than before. Even without such prominent rewards, things like mounts and vanity items inevitably appeal to a small fraction of players enough that they are willing to tolerate truly brutal grinds in order to get what they want. Original Winterspring Frostsaber grind, anybody?!

Speaking from personal experience, grinding is something that I see as being a necessary evil in some parts of an MMO. I dislike the idea of long grinds being gated by limited availability (i.e. how the majority of legendary quests have been), and much prefer the only limiting factor being the time requirement put in by the player. I also see the inclusion of long grinds as a particularly potent spice: Too little and it’ll get overlooked, too much and it can overwhelm the rest of the dish completely. A balance must be achieved!

What types of grinds have you encountered in WoW? Did you find yourself particularly invested in any? Were there any that you found particularly arduous? How do you approach a new grind in game — by breaking it up into small bits, or by trying to slog through as much of it as you can in one go? Let me know in the comments below.