I think what I'm looking for in ICO is not so much grinding, but timewasters. I know the term sounds negative, but the fact is, we as human beings love timewasters. It's why we play the silly little web games and watch TV we don't really care about.

Why would we want such a thing in ICO?

For me, the main purpose is to have something to do while waiting for others to show up. The alternative is to just shotgun log in various alts (which I don't have) to see if there's anyone who will deal with them, to sit silently in some room and hope you don't space out and have someone talk to your character while you're AFK, or to log out and try another time.

The benefit of staying in the game to wait for others is subtle but powerful. When someone logs in, and they see a lot of names, it gives them hope that they'll find something to do and someone to talk to. If the people are doing something, and not just idle (which timewasters should hopefully accomplish), they will be aware when other people are logging in, so they can stop the timewaster and go interact. It also creates a habit in the player doing the timewaster, to log in and remember that the game is there.

After years of RPing, that's pretty much the pattern I'm comfy with. I like to have something to pass the time which keeps me in game without letting me forget I'm in game altogether, so I can keep checking for turnout.

I don't even need for it to be a benefit to my character, but that is icing on the cake. My personal preference is that these timewasters not be activities that should be reserved for exciting events; for example, I'm pretty fundamentally opposed these days to using 'real' combat as a timewaster. It has a lot of weird effects on a game that are hard to mitigate: It makes characters into people who literally spend all their time in the pursuit of slaughter, it makes it hard to explain why there's so many things to kill, one way or another (either unkillable mobs beseiging the town or issues with bluebooked travel and time confusion), and it turns what should be one of the most exciting things that can happen to a character into a daily trash-taking-out ritual.

I'd vastly rather my combat-oriented character just go to the practice field and smack a pell around for a while, which doesn't do anything weird and unexplainable to the game or my character's mental state, and allows him to just drop it whenever he wants to go talk to people.

Similarly, it would be neat to let people go outside the walls and farm (if their characters are commoners),  work with drays, clean the streets, whatever. Do these sound dreadfully exciting? No, but in my mind, that is exactly fine because it serves the purpose: semi-interesting time wasters that people can drop as soon as RP presents itself, that can be done daily because they are sensible, daily activities that do not skew the mindset of the players or the characters.

I think all the neat ideas I've heard about ways to go out and fight, such as to protect caravans or help villages or what have you, should be EVENTS.

My 2 cents.

I figure this is where I can consider the game system and roleplaying and all that stuff. I really don't expect that anyone will find my thoughts all that riveting, but I find that writing stuff down helps me sort it out.

I find I wish there was more to do. I completely understand the difficulty of this in a game the size of ICO, with the small number of staff and all that. It's just interesting that I find myself wishing there were some grinding to do so I could pass the time in the game sometimes, watching the numbers roll by while I wait for people to show up who will interact with me. I've spent a weird amount of time fishing just so I can give it all away for no coin whatsoever to the fishmonger (he has never ever needed to buy my fish), just to see something go by on the screen.

 This is weird because in most games, I'm the anti-grinder who spends the most time just RPing with or without system enhancements and working outside of the system to create RP driven events. And anyway, I wouldn't rationally wish actual GRIND on any game that bills itself as an RPG...

So what would I want to see? I'm not sure, hence the post to try to sort out my thoughts. Obviously, more 'events' but they shouldn't be the entirety of a roleplaying game... it's not good to have an entire game population just waiting around for staff to show up all the time. Yet, I kind of feel like that's what's happening anyway. A lot of waiting for something to happen so people can react to it.

I've noticed that there are a lot of people in the game that bill themselves as not looking to spend their time with TS (according to their posts in the forums.) And yet, let's be honest, TS is one of the few things to do in the game that players can instigate at any time, have full control over, and have something HAPPEN. I think this may be why so many are bundling off in private. It's been tough as hell for me because my character is not really likely to be involved in a sexual soap opera. I've nothing against such things, and they can often add to story, but it'd be contrary to the RP of the character if he was just ripping off his clothes all the time. I've had a fair handful of folks start to RP with Bernard, then sorta poof once they realize he's not likely to throw them down on the couch.

I believe quite sincerely that Azrael wants to come up with stuff to keep players entertained, so I'll try to think ideas up and pass it along. If anyone reading this has an idea, please send it to Azrael also, or post on it in the forums. I'd be curious to see what people say.