the never-ending grind?

In many MMOs players spend a lot of their time grinding. Meaning: stupid and repetitive killing of monsters without influencing the virtual world at all to gain experience, faction points, reagents, gold, and so on. That's because the actions of a players are and have to be limited and because there isn't really a difference to the normal „real life grind“ (earn money to live, repeat certain actions daily / weekly / monthly).

But what about the escapism? Don't we log in virtual worlds to escape from the daily real life grind? So why do we accept grinding in virtual worlds? Economists say this is due to the 'homo oeconomicus' – the benefit is greater than the cost. But are we really benefit- or even profit-oriented in virtual worlds? The other model is the 'homo sociologicus' – we repeat actions to take care of our character (we farm health potion ingredients to increase our survivability in cooperative battles).

Overall, it's all about gratification: we grind to increase our character's abilities and skills, to fill some bar to it's end to gain access to the ultimate abilities of our character. We are rewarded, but the reward is fleeting. This lacks in long-term motivation, though. And this is what makes players stick to a game, to continue paying their monthly fees. Thus, games should provide long-term motivation, put an intrinsic meaning in every action of the players. And not provide another time sink.

self-portrayal...

... but data mining, please.

It all began with players sharing their WoW character profiles with each, comparing their virtual e-penis. Anything below purple was 'em casual gamers. You're only something in Azeroth if you wear the best items available on the instance and PvP market.

This has now been automized. The development studios themselves provide websites where players profiles are automatically updated and published. It links the players to their virtual properties like houses, guild achievements, items, or professions. The Vanguard character side even creates automated blog entries when a character discovers something for the 1st time and so on.

What matters is not the player but the property he owns. Players care less about the personality of the character and care more about the players possessions. A part of the desired escapism is reversed.

„You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank, you're not the car you drive, you're not the contents of your wallet, you're not your fucking khakis. You are the all singing, all dancing, crap of the world.“

Instead of data mining the players, the developers should rather provide web space for the players to portray their characters. To freely express their experiences, their game-related views but properties and virtual monnies.