It's easy to grind in a game where death only brings some minor penalty, like lowering skills a little bit. In life, death brings the end. I quite like fantasy stories where this plays a role. Of course it needs to go hand in hand with some other details as well, such as there not being any exploit type ways to level up. This series actually does sport one of the worst exploit flaws: the one to deal the last blow gets all the exp. Outside of single player games, where it naturally doesn't really matter, it's so idiotic that no languages of men, elves, or ents have words to describe just how stupid it is. Though I don't particularly like it in SP either. Elder Scrolls' skill-based level up system is vastly superior.