Echo Bazaar is a terribly fun browser-based text game. It's got great atmosphere and has adapted the basic RPG "adventure, gain XP and loot, sell and heal, adventure" formula remarkably well to its medium. However, in one place the formula really grates: the quest grind. In general the game offers a broad palette of actions to advance your story, allowing you to pick whichever at any time. But a few are more directed and quest-like: you get a goal, and you have to repeat the same action (or two) until you build up enough successes to progress. It's the age-old quest grind, merely transposed to a new medium--which is why it's surprising how poorly it works. It's really, really annoying to click that same button over and over. It's instantly mind-numbing in its repetition.
This got me thinking: why isn't the quest grind as annoying in other RPGs? After all, it's equally repetitive. It's because in most RPGs, the action you're being asked to repeat is inherently fun--you're killing a monster, solving a puzzle, whatever. But there's nothing inherently rewarding about clicking a button. The only reward is the text description you get and the progress you make. Once the novelty has worn off, it's bare boring waiting-for-the-screen-to-load.
Games, especially RPGs, draw their strength from being fun on multiple time scales. To some degree fun on one level can be sacrificed to fun at another (as anyone who has spent an hour getting their party inventory in order can tell you), but there's a limit to how far that can go. Grinds need to be balanced out by grinding an action that's intrinsically rewarding.
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