"you're free to join your friends in the most epic adventures right off the bat." The Grind and knowledge isn't wrong either. If you go at it like a typical MMO grindset, sure it's not really any different. I can get into the game, using the base setup you are given for the archetype you chose, group up with some guys, and go out and kill the mobs needs to gain the knowledge on them to get the skills you want. Through collecting and discovery in the processes of gathering the things you want, you will grow your talent pool. This is nothing like the typical MMO experience today. Conventional would be I pick a mage, do the quests in all the level appropriate areas as I work my way up my level to unlock new content that I can do to get the next level appropriate item. I will get the same skills as every other person that chose to play a mage, but I'll have some way to build a different mage as every other mage that is built exactly like me to do the same content I do. FO put the rewards for killing that thing in actually killing that thing. It's not just an xp number, it's also the lightening spell I want, and the gold and material I'm looking for. Grind isn't just killing crap over and over. It's killing crap over and over in order to get to some defined point. That is a convention. Mobs are an actual resource here. Everything is a resource, and you do not stop needing resources because you hit level 60 and need to start raiding now. You will be killing an awful lot of things, over and over, because it's a game and there are game things you will be doing, and killing stuff is one of them! Were you expecting something more like a MOBA, set in a persistent world? Based on what you expected of the game, what did you expect the daily gameplay loop to be? Because the blurbs you pointed out aren't false, they just aren't what you were expecting; so what were you expecting?