lol, swtor was not a grind? I specifically remember being told to go out and kill so and so things except rather than some text, I'm hit with a cutscene about reasons I don't give a damn. SWTOR ended up being a 'spacebar' through the cut scenes for me anyway and in terms of levelling, was not different to any other mmo I've played.
hitting max level in an mmo needs that sense of achievement and developers know that, we know that, but WHILST many are levelling, they forget that and feel that they'd rather not be levelling and be max level already.
I'm sure later on, there will be new ways of levelling that won't be what it is now, but atm, the "grind" as so many put it gives that sense of progression and achievement. It needs somewhat a feeling of 'work' as you build upon and level up your character.
Games like gw2 and swtor tries to mask it, it doesn't actually revolutionize it at all. As much as one may say voiced cutscenes help the immersion of questing, honestly, who gives a damn about it after your 2nd or 3rd toon?
Bottom line is, you need to work to get to max level, and get your character powerful. that's the only way you will feel the achievement and satisfaction of it. Where single player games may use difficulty as that means of creating this sense of achievement for beating the game, mmo's strive to make their players feel a sense of connection to their characters, and nothing creates that more than spending the time to level it.
No he edited the quote from the person raging above that i was laughing at.