It's been a perennial subject on here. It's been contentious, with some folks saying that you absolutely have to grind in ED, others taking a diametrically opposed view and neither of these groups being unanimous about whether the experience they describe is a good thing or not.
The subject has recently raised its head in a few threads again so I'm throwing in my 0.02.
First up, let me say that I don't grind. At least it never feels to me like I do. And yet, looking at other folks anecdotes it seems to me that I "progress" in a given area of the game at a rate roughly equivalent to anyone else - even an avowed "grinder" - when that rate is considered in proportion to the amount of game time I spend on it. In absolute terms that's not as fast as others achieve, of course, but then I don't play every day and my game sessions are usually no more than a couple of hours in length. But to get a roughly equivalent "progression per hour" I must be "grinding", right?
Except I'm not.
I usually decide what I'm going to focus on before the splash screen has finished loading. I think the thing that makes it not feel like a grind is that this is very rarely the same choice as I made in the previous game session, whether that choice is "bump my naval rank with (superpower) a bit", "stock up some mats","pad the balance a bit", "test a few loadouts on (ship)" or anything else either vague or specific. I also am aware that next session I'm likely to be focusing on something else, so I tend not to end a play session painted into a corner and constrained for what I can be doing next time I log on. This is probably why I hardly ever fly anything but multirole loadouts - cramming in the very last amount of cargo space to the point I can't productively do anything but haul cargo almost never happens, nor does stripping down for max range to the extent of losing the guns or not retaining enough powerplant to run them effectively. Long runs take a bit longer as a result and credits per hour aren't completely maxed for any particular way of earning them but if I'm playing focused on a particular activity (and in a given session I usually am) the difference really isn't that great.
So while I still progress equally rapidly on a given area, I'm effectively simultaneously working towards so many goals that the effort devoted to each one is spread out and never becomes the kind of grind I've felt in other games.
I used to be one of those who vehemently declared "the grind is in your mind!" but while that's not really wrong I don't think it's really right any more either. If you allow yourself to be focused on a single goal so singlemindedly you do nothing else at all, that until you achieve it you cannot focus on anything else, if you insist on flying ships insanely maxed for that particular goal until you are done with that task, then you're going to feel the grind whether it was in your mind at the start or not. On the other hand, if you play towards each goal in a way that's no less focused when you're actively pursuing it but allow yourself to focus on other things in other play-sessions you won't and you won't be playing "casually" either. Your "progress" will be no less rapid overall, you'll still complete A, B and C in the same time it takes you to complete A then B then C but without the feeling of grind.
So the grind isn't in the mind entirely. It's at least as much in the approach and playstyle. But at least, that being the case, while it's real it's possible to avoid feeling it with a little careful adjustment of one's approach.
The subject has recently raised its head in a few threads again so I'm throwing in my 0.02.
First up, let me say that I don't grind. At least it never feels to me like I do. And yet, looking at other folks anecdotes it seems to me that I "progress" in a given area of the game at a rate roughly equivalent to anyone else - even an avowed "grinder" - when that rate is considered in proportion to the amount of game time I spend on it. In absolute terms that's not as fast as others achieve, of course, but then I don't play every day and my game sessions are usually no more than a couple of hours in length. But to get a roughly equivalent "progression per hour" I must be "grinding", right?
Except I'm not.
I usually decide what I'm going to focus on before the splash screen has finished loading. I think the thing that makes it not feel like a grind is that this is very rarely the same choice as I made in the previous game session, whether that choice is "bump my naval rank with (superpower) a bit", "stock up some mats","pad the balance a bit", "test a few loadouts on (ship)" or anything else either vague or specific. I also am aware that next session I'm likely to be focusing on something else, so I tend not to end a play session painted into a corner and constrained for what I can be doing next time I log on. This is probably why I hardly ever fly anything but multirole loadouts - cramming in the very last amount of cargo space to the point I can't productively do anything but haul cargo almost never happens, nor does stripping down for max range to the extent of losing the guns or not retaining enough powerplant to run them effectively. Long runs take a bit longer as a result and credits per hour aren't completely maxed for any particular way of earning them but if I'm playing focused on a particular activity (and in a given session I usually am) the difference really isn't that great.
So while I still progress equally rapidly on a given area, I'm effectively simultaneously working towards so many goals that the effort devoted to each one is spread out and never becomes the kind of grind I've felt in other games.
I used to be one of those who vehemently declared "the grind is in your mind!" but while that's not really wrong I don't think it's really right any more either. If you allow yourself to be focused on a single goal so singlemindedly you do nothing else at all, that until you achieve it you cannot focus on anything else, if you insist on flying ships insanely maxed for that particular goal until you are done with that task, then you're going to feel the grind whether it was in your mind at the start or not. On the other hand, if you play towards each goal in a way that's no less focused when you're actively pursuing it but allow yourself to focus on other things in other play-sessions you won't and you won't be playing "casually" either. Your "progress" will be no less rapid overall, you'll still complete A, B and C in the same time it takes you to complete A then B then C but without the feeling of grind.
So the grind isn't in the mind entirely. It's at least as much in the approach and playstyle. But at least, that being the case, while it's real it's possible to avoid feeling it with a little careful adjustment of one's approach.
