RE: Grinding for points, have you played literally any MMO out there? They all have their own versions of a grind, and nobody so far has managed to invent a system that wouldn't be grindy, and yet would provide new unlocks over a stretch of time as opposed to making everything available to a player at the same time which means everyone is the biggest, baddest mother straight from the start. Which might sound interesting as a thought experiment, but in reality most people would log on for the first time, try out the caps, say "cool" then dock and log off and never play again. And in the mean time because precisely they were not forced to engage in "grinding" activity, a whole bunch of smaller nuances and fun activities here and there pass them by because they simply didn't stay long enough to see the detail in the big picture.
The mod is kind of like a painting, the longer you stay and interact with it the more details you see, the more satisfied you might be. On the other hand gaming culture is so casual, everyone just wants to try out the cool toys and move on. What other way to show off the "slightly less cool toys" that might actually seize someone's attention and yet are not talked about as much, than by involving some grind activity to encourage a longer stay?
That's my theory on it anyway. I've seen threads before where people complained that a lack of ingame money is stifling their RP. To me that always sounded silly, there's so many ways one can get required cash and/or help for stuff, all that is needed is some awareness of methods. And the only way one gains this awareness is by interacting with the community on the server. So maybe the grind is important, if just for nothing else than awareness. I had fun grinding away for my first billion and seeing things around Sirius for the first time. Getting stopped by pirates, navy, police, sometimes other corps, trading in a group or alone, finding myself in a system I shouldn't be in and realising that only when danger happened to chase me, having to talk my way out of sticky situations... and yet I'd be lying if I said that my only reason for coming here in the first place when I joined wasn't "look at all these cool big ships".
