Question time: What makes a ‘good’ grind in an MMO?
An article from PC Gamer challenges the widely held assumption that grinding in MMOs is inherently negative. While acknowledging that modern players have less tolerance for repetitive content than in previous eras—particularly compared to the attunement questline era—the author argues that grinding isn’t necessarily detrimental to the MMO experience.
The piece defines grinding as any repetitive activity performed multiple times to achieve a specific goal within an MMO. From this perspective, some form of grinding is difficult to entirely eliminate from the genre, given that MMOs are fundamentally role-playing games built around progression systems, character levels, and long-term objectives.
The article explores the tension between player expectations for quality-of-life improvements and the structural role that progression-based grinding plays in MMO design. Rather than dismissing grinding outright, the author raises the question of what distinguishes a “good” grind from a poorly designed one—suggesting the issue may not be grinding itself, but how it’s implemented.