
This isnt as much a MMORPG as it is a life simulator. The fighting in this game is far from the best things I have ever seen. Acctually, its pretty damn dull, difficult and I don't even bother with it. So if you like fighting, then this isnt a game for you. In fact, this game is a matter of liking tradeskills. Making things yourself, digging tunnels, building houses and walls and alternate the terrain with digging. Ships was just introduced, so I am gathering the materials now to build a boat so I can sail the seven seas....or something like that.
Any grinding here you ask? Well...show me a MMO where there isnt any grinding. Some skills increase by itself automatically while you gather materials. Others need to be grinded as you dont realy put out enough items for it to increase by itself (see fine carpentry). Digging however, or mining goes up faster, as you constantly dig or mine to either carve out the landscape to build your home, or get stone or other materials for your forge.
There is a lot to be said about wurm. You either like it, or you dont. If you like it, you tend to log on every day. If not to play for several hours, then just enough to tend the fields, as they will overgrow and rot if you dont tend them.
If you enjoy tradeskill on a massive scale, then I strongly suggest you take a look at this game. Its strightly java based, and you dont need to download tons of megabytes of gamefiles. And you be suprised of how good the graphics acctually are even tho they used such a simple engine.
http://wurmonline.com/ is the place to seek.