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You like grinding? Really!?!?!?
LovrNoFightr
Member Posts: 218
Some people think that grinding equals fun. Doing the same things over and over again.
Why is that?
I'm very happy to see that many MMOs allow us to buy things instead of grinding for them. IMO everything in a game should be able for purchasing. Equipment, races, levels and what have you.
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SWG pre cu - never forgotten.
Comments
To each their own.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
I know a handful of people with diagnosed autism who enjoy grinding for hours in an MMO. The repetition is calming to them, or something. Not saying that all people who enjoy grinding have autism, but it exists.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-11/15/gamers-with-autism
A little Barry Manilow does make the grind pass more quickly.
Personally I can enjoy grinding assuming that the process is at least somewhat entertaining. Like farming ores in WoW when i played it was something I enjoyed because even if I was just following a pattern I still had the added risk of getting ganked or attacked.
Then I went to the AH and sold said ore and made fairly nice profits. I also remember when my mate joined me for a run and immediately after crashed the market by selling all his ores for 20% of the market price.
But it really comes down to the fact that grinding is supposed to be boring. It mirrors a long day at work. You feel really accomplished when you've reached your next milestone even if it was boring as balls to do so. Now you can be the one in full PvP armour that wrecks everyone.
And I can see how that loses its appeal once you actually get a job and would prefer if you could just buy everything you needed to do the fun parts of the game. But in that case you should be playing single player games since that'll be a lot cheaper.
Depends on the mechanics within the game. Games with a rich character building/crafting mechanic I can grind all day. SWG Springs to mind.
In MMORPGs with shallow crafting/character building grinding just isn't fun.
I can grind PvP all day however. Not just in video games, chess, monopoly. Heck any game when it comes to PvP.
I dislike grinding - maybe mats grinding for 20 mins or so I have the nerve, but no more.
BUT: if I am in a group and xp-kill mobs, then I don't mind so much. But not for multiple hours. Problem in most MMOs today - there are no groups anymore unless you have a RL-friend or a very very good (and large sized) guild with people on all levels.
People who talk nostalgically about grinding I believe the problem is just that - it's nostalgia. SWG, EQ... It's been 10 years ago or so and those peeps are all older and have a different life now and couldn't do it as in the past. Ok, maybe I should state this different - at least it is for me that way. Grind in SWG - yes, great! (then). Could I do it now? I doubt it.
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Youtube newb:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC96N3cxBuqKTPV2BQNlzGUw
originally while grinding a camp of mobs you talked with the ppl in your group whom you got to know somewhat, plus it was a means to an end, which is much more satisfying then what happened the other day, LFD interface popped while I was fighting a mob so it was a few seconds till I could accept, group had allready started, they where so geared they never stopped just kept going AoEing I never caught up and did anything, no one ever spoke a word. IMO that is not what playing MMoRPGs is about, but thats what they have become, becuase there is no grind anymore at all.
Grind has become a miss used word, now having to do anything at all is a grind, why do you ppl even play this genre?
Godz of War I call Thee
I like "grinding" in Minecraft, because I don't really know / feel I'm grinding.
Sure, I'm grinding for wood, cobblestone, coal so I can grind for iron, diamond, nether quartz, and so on. But along the way I'm using these materials to build stuff in my own little sandbox. Its no different then WoW grinding at the end of the day, but it just feels radically different and more satisfying for whatever reason.
How is it any different the playing FPS games where you shoot and kill things?
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Both are repetitious in nature, yeah. FPS games you're just aiming and clicking to shoot, MMO games you're just tab-targeting and pressing hotkeys.
The difference though is that no FPS match ever plays out the same. I've played hundreds of Battlefield 3 matches and each was different.
MMO dungeon grinding is just the same thing over and over again, literally. The mobs are always in the same spot, you always take the same path through a dungeon, etc.
Of course, you said "FPS games" and not "FPS multiplayer matches", so you can argue that FPS games are the same as dungeon grinding because you're just taking a linear path through levels and shooting things that are usually in the same spot. Of course, you don't "grind" in an FPS, unless its Borderlands.
I don't know the point I'm making here, honestly.
This exactly.
A grind is only a grind if you dislike what you are doing. Some games make repetitive gameplay actually FUN. I know it is rare. Actually not to be seen in current gen MMOs, but there used to be games that made it so much fun that you did not want to stop AND made new friends while doing so.
Not a grind if you don't dislike it, really.
MMOs finally replaced social interaction, forced grouping and standing in a line while talking to eachother.
Now we have forced soloing, forced questing and everyone is the hero, without ever having to talk to anyone else. The evolution of multiplayer is here! We won,... right?
It's partially because some MMO gamers have a different definition of 'grind' than the rest of the world. If you ask them if they felt what they were doing was enjoyable or a laborious task, they'd say the former. So, in reality, NO ONE like grinding except maybe the occasional masochist.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Some players like contrasting experiences. "Grinding" makes the easy stuff better.
Some players like the familiarity of doing the same over and over again.
Some players like what happens while they are grinding, like group interactions.
By definition, no one should enjoy grinding. "Grind" infers not having fun. Otherwise, it is not a grind
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
That's what I get out of Minecraft, though technically you're grinding for mats. But what makes it fun is the hope and excitement of finding a dungeon or big cave when you're down in a mine tunnel.
Personally I cannot stand grinding, in just about any form. That is unless they are able to mask the grinding fact
Quest Grind - No problem, I'm one of those who seek out as many quests as I can do as I LOVE to see what the writers have dreamed up as part of a storyline.
Exploration Grind - Some games have it some do not. I love climbing to the tops of vistas and looking down on the tiny towns below. some of the best views of the game are found here
Raid/Dungeon Grind - Sorry I hate running the same hallway, 4 billion times to get my tokens for T1, then T2, then T3. only to have a Ninja in every 6th group
Reputation Grind - if it is incidental, no problem. If all I'm doing is killing spawns to get 5 pts. nope sorry
There have been two games where I did not mind "Intentional Grinding"
1. Tabula Rasa's base attacks - For some reason base defense and base capture never felt like a grind to me, even though it was. Somehow the feeling of sitting in an outpost as the warning sirens went off and seeing that there were 5 people there, 2 of whom take for the hills leaving you 3 stranded and fighting a desperate outpost defense surviving by the skin of your teeth was FUN.
2. Rift - They had the Onslaughts, they felt "close" to the TR base defense. It was not the same, and I could handle doing it for a while, but there was no clear benefit to holding these unlike in TR
--> http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs <--
Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
it depends upon the grinding.
i often find that grinding mobs or hunting can put me in a relaxed sort of 'zen' state. i also like because i can gather random loot to breakdown, sell, or give to an alt. and vendor trash is trash, but the vendor will take it.
however, while i love crafting, and have all but one EQ2 crafter to 95, grinding those crafting levels makes me pass out. i nod off all the time doing that. but i love being able to craft so much that i put up with it and try to burn through it as quickly as possible.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
Grinding means different things do different people. For example if I'm playing a strategy game like Civilization I do not want to start with all my cities maximum size and technology researched. It would be "easier" but would also completely negate the point of actually playing the game.
Some MMO players have the idea that getting loot is the whole point of the game but really it should be about having fun. If you aren't having fun then why the hell are you even playing the game? So no I don't think anything that amounts to developer sanctioned cheating should be for sale in shops and I think if you consider everything about the actual gameplay a grind you should uninstall it and find a game you do like. No one cares about your virtual bling anyway. Stop wasting your time playing games you don't enjoy.
the same reason people like fishing over studying rocket science.
Grinding is a time to let the brain go on auto-pilot. The opposite of that is learning (activating the brain) and that is exhausting over long peroids of time.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
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Mindless grinding no: Doing the same daily every day with no change in the static quest. No thanks!!!
Challenging grind yes: Running dungeons when bosses dont do the same order of attacks every time is fun. Having to adapt to the dungeon because of what classes you have is fun (takes a mmo with a good class system to do this like EQ1 and EQ2)
Doing the same content over and over is not a bad thing when devs learn to make it so its not 100% the same every time. BAd devs set up a track that has the same hoops in the same place need to be fired. EQN maybe a game that takes the slat and paper out of the grind and give us some real spice.
I define grind as a chore, so I dislike grinding in general. Yet, I enjoy some kinds of grind, like gathering. I'd guess it's related to the purpose and the result.
One of the grinds I dislike and generally refuse to do is dailies; they seem like mindless filler created by lazy devs.