This thread made me create account here.
I remember L2 it was and will be best game I ever played, it all started when my friend showed me a less grindy mmo (at the time I was playing knight online) where at medium levels farming with aoe mage party 8 hours would get you about 5-10%, at end game high levels 1 month constant grind about 5%~ that was really grindy but I still loved it.
People who say that games who need grinding are boring or outdated; the point of grindy game is not about rushing end-game and staying there forever, its about enjoying the game from level 1 and not leaving things unexplored.
Old Lineage 2 did it perfectly. You had gear grades, but they weren't limited to that, every grade you reached was a new experience to you, once you were poor, then medium, then poor again and so on, there was economy and strength balance, at some point compared to others you were really strong, then again really weak that was fun, it was different and still is.
It was really involving game, times when you wanted to save 5000 adena and better ran by foot to other town instead of teleporting. you were exploring lineage 2 world and story that way, you would encounter new places, monsters, world was lively and full of adventures no matter what level you were, there was no need to rush to "end game" there was no point in rushing exp, because you could enjoy lineage 2 from level 1.
Tons of people, tons of action and tons of pvp. You are level 1-10 you are getting pk'ed by high level karma, then going to town making 3 parties of newbies to hunt that karma down, excitement when you kill him, making some new friends out of it, then going to exp or trying to kill raid and all of your new mates dying, It was involving and fun, then at higher levels trying to avoid PK parties and sneak around them to your desired exp zone, all world was full of action, your levels meant nothing, you could have stayed lvl 10 few months and would never run out of content anyway. That was l2 that was golden times of it, those were the days I miss.
The only end game there was for you to rush - castle sieges.
But even without them you had loads of fun, when party meets another party or clan wars and suddenly a mass pvp for a better place to exp. You lose or get pk'ed then you rush for revenge with friends, or bought buffs etc Lineage 2 world was full of surprises you could never know what you will encounter and how things will turn around, I just loved that.
Even when I was lvl 43 summoner back in early c3 I still got into castle siege, average level there was 55-62~. And I still did pretty decent and had loads of fun even when being under leveled, I just never saw a point in rushing exp or grinding in lineage2. I simply enjoyed that game, and leveled lots of characters at once and never got bored of it. Lineage 2 was full of everything, atmosphere was just insane you got lost in that game so easily. All those years have passed, I am a grown man now, I tried lots of different games, heck even new "ruined" L2, but I never felt the same vibe and excitement with any other game and I doubt I will. Good old days, childhood memories.
SOrry for a wall of text.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSwHhd_VeA Hunters village theme, to this day I doubt any game out there have better or as good soundtrack as L2 had. I didn't even listen to music while I was playing L2.