Grind mechanics were always shit and are purely an annoying trick that developers use to pad out gameplay and prevent you from finishing the game through an artificial barrier.
Alternatively thanks to muh 'modern' gaming trends, it's used as a way to prevent good players from getting cosmetics and making sure they have a painful time accessing content generally that's locked behind a pay wall. Stating the obvious I know, but grind mechanics have gotten far more insidious than what they used to be. It's another one of those features in a game that I deliberately look out for to avoid. They all do it to a degree now even on singleplayer games which is why I claim there's fuck all out there to play, paywall live services don't count as games in my eyes.
I don't mind some basic exp or skill point grinding ala Kenshi or Fallout but I better be able to do it within a fairly short span of time.
It sort of takes the idea of progression in something like an old-school tabletop or pen and paper RPG, and then tries to stretch it out much much further for the sole purpose of extending the amount of "game time" a player is expected to go through to reach their goals.
Which is then further compounded when it's so easy for the developers to add what amounts to an infinite potential for grind and loot, without end. Which is something that you technically could do in something like a tabletop RPG, but it would be glaringly obvious and wouldn't really fit into a finite campaign-adventure.
Grind mechanics were always shit and are purely an annoying trick that developers use to pad out gameplay and prevent you from finishing the game through an artificial barrier.
Alternatively thanks to muh 'modern' gaming trends, it's used as a way to prevent good players from getting cosmetics and making sure they have a painful time accessing content generally that's locked behind a pay wall. Stating the obvious I know, but grind mechanics have gotten far more insidious than what they used to be. It's another one of those features in a game that I deliberately look out for to avoid. They all do it to a degree now even on singleplayer games which is why I claim there's fuck all out there to play, paywall live services don't count as games in my eyes.
I don't mind some basic exp or skill point grinding ala Kenshi or Fallout but I better be able to do it within a fairly short span of time.
It sort of takes the idea of progression in something like an old-school tabletop or pen and paper RPG, and then tries to stretch it out much much further for the sole purpose of extending the amount of "game time" a player is expected to go through to reach their goals.
Which is then further compounded when it's so easy for the developers to add what amounts to an infinite potential for grind and loot, without end. Which is something that you technically could do in something like a tabletop RPG, but it would be glaringly obvious and wouldn't really fit into a finite campaign-adventure.