Gamasutra has posted a talk from GDC: Dave Jones talks about APB[^].
This guy has some really good points!

He talks about how the level grind of the old days-MMO is absolete, or in his own words:

One MMO concept Jones also eschews is the traditional level grind. “How will people be playing this in six months? What’s going to keep them playing again and again and again?” He asks. “How long will I have to get all the cool stuff and level 99? …I think that’s wrong, it’s broken.”

I couldn’t agree more! There are so many other things one could incorporate into a MMO that don’t involve endless, boring grinding of some sorts..
Like player generated content, player-made stories, player-made communities. Put the player in control, and stop forcing them to blindly play with [the company’s] content.
Like he mentions too in his talk:

So Jones eliminated the concept of character levels for APB. “I didn’t want any grinding. It’s a very broken instrument to drive gameplay. It’s customization that’ll drive players.”

The day [Kybernesis] makes a MMO, we’re gonna focus on the same.. Customization, player-created content, making the world so the players make it their own world. And not giving players access to a static world of [Kybernesis’] design.

All MMO’s today brag about being dynamic, persistent, listening to their community.. Granted, MMO’s are persistent, but not all dynamic.. The only dynamic today is when the company decide to release a content-patch or an expansion. Then it just goes back to be static again… Ugh!
It has to stop!

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