Video Game Musings #2

If you're not familiar with this section, these posts are meant to get my ideas and questions out concerning some aspect about video games. I encourage all opinions to be voiced through the comment section.


2. Why do people find grinding fun?

              I hate grinding. Seriously, I find grinding to be one of the worst things that ever happened to video games. Why? Well, because grinding gives a developer free gameplay hours by making the player do meaningless shit. It's essentially a roadblock stating, " we know you paid 60 bucks for this and we do have all those things you want in a game, but we don't have a lot of it, so instead we'll hope you waste your time with this stuff." The thing that shocks me is that certain games are so grind heavy and do well. World of Warcraft is a game of almost all grind. You grind to level up. You grind to get gold. You grind to get items. Grind, grind grind. It's like people enjoy doing repetitive tasks that have no differing qualities beside a slight change in scenery. But I understand why MMOs are so grind heavy. You can't have people going through material in a matter of days. Power creep and all that jazz. What really irks me are games that are all grind and people herald them as great. For example...

If you think Borderlands is a good game, then you probably shouldn't read my blog. Borderlands is a game where either you're a sucker for reward systems or you're a junkie for doing shit and Borderlands has a lot of shit to do. If you want a near novel look into Borderlands check this guy out.
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2012/03/borderlands-gun-collectors-club.html .
He spends a few pages explaining why Borderlands is such a good game, using mostly the reward system and the different ways it gets people hooked as evidence. I would like to remind everyone that there is a difference between enjoying something and being trained to enjoy it. Mindless grind games like Borderland are akin to the reality tv show reruns we've all been guilty of indulging in. The difference is that the people who defend the quality of these things are suspect. I know I'm running against a bunch of reviewers and people who speak for video games, but I don't care. I'm not just claiming Borderlands is a bad game, I'm explaining why. Granted not as long as Steve up there, but that's because I like to think my audience has something better to do than listen to me rattle off on every insignificant part of the game. When triple a video games are introduced to broader audiences, you'll find games like Borderlands being tossed to the wayside as generic crap. The only reason it's so revered now is because the gaming community consists of a specific demographic of players that have been trained to think grinding is fun. Well here it is. Grinding isn't fun. It might be necessary, but anyone who finds it fun is mistaking the joy of receiving a reward, for the joy of engaging in an experience.