I've been playing for years, since the Atari days, console and PC, and sometimes I move from one to the other with some gap years in the middle.

I'm not a fan of Mobas, or MMORPG's, prefer to quest alone, like you do in "The Witcher", "DragonQuest", or "Skies of Arcadia".

I understand RPG levelling up as a barrier, but in games where I can't see how that would make the experience more fun, it seems to be an accepted and wanted part of gameplay.

That's a lot of generalising I guess, but I refer to "No Man's Sky", and "Elite:Dangerous" as examples since I have time invested in them both.

Both games are space-based ship "simulator" games, where one flies from point a to b, completing missions, exploring, engaging in combat. You pilot a ship, where in game currency provides the means to upgrade to a new ship, or upgrade the one you currently have to jump further, be more effective in combat etc.

The cost of these upgrades in Elite Dangerous is so ridiculous that people watch Netflix or play console/handheld games while grinding out delivery missions (pamplets), or grinding out looking for materials for upgrades, just to afford to be able to compete both in PVP and PVE gameplay.

I can't fathom how that is fun, and if I have to play another game to occupy my time while I'm playing your game, I think something went wrong somewhere.

No Man's sky was less grindy, where you could play through the whole game and not miss much by keeping your starting ship, since constant forward movement was a stated design goal.

Recent updates have made it so that you can build a base (thereby stopping forward momentum), and also literally farm flora, harvesting them for materials to be sold for credits to build better items for your base and storage space for your items you now buy with the credits you farmed.

So now, the sub-reddit is filled with people posting pictures and guides of how to "farm 1 million credits per hour", which seems to go against the "explore/fight/trade" mantra that the game originally started with.

I'm not saying the players are wrong for doing that, but I don't understand why this is a satisfactory way to play these types of games.

I've played Harvest Moon, and that other PC one, and the literal farming you do is fun, and is a well designed and integrated part of the gaming experience, but when I'm Han Solo tearing around the galaxy only to be be told "Hey kid, park the Falcon at this base, and spend the next six months growing lettuce leaves/delivering pamphlets" is outright ridiculous.

I will say that I prefer games with ZERO grinding, where you get better access due to playing better (Racing games, third person shooters, Action-RPGS like Zelda, platformers like Mario or Sonic), so maybe I'm just not wired to do repetitive tasks.