What having an incurable competitionist mentality does to a MF. I can’t stop myself from needing to 100% any game I play, and so many have at least a few things that are just too grindy or boring to complete so it ends like this instead.
I have that same mental disorder but I kind of reframed it and stopped burning out as much as I used to. It’s not that I enjoy the grind, but multitasking, hanging with friends, and keeping short term goals make it more fun. I’m getting a lot more 100%s and chronicle the min/max I use to help others, too.
Me with Stardew Valley
I’ve got 2 1/2 big sheds full of kegs and i need more kegs dammit
I’ve had to specifically tell l put a hard stop on my usual thought process while playing games, in an effort to get back to how I played as a kid. If I catch myself strategizing too much to the point where I’m not even playing anymore, and am just going through the motions I already planned out, I purposefully make myself do something completely against the plan just to put myself in the kinds of situations I’d be in as a dumb kid who did the wrong thing, since that was the last time I had real fun playing games. It doesn’t always work, but I do have more fun than I did earlier in my adult life.
This has really worked pretty well for me. I have to stop myself from researching optimal builds and strategies when I’m learning a game because it always accelerates the path to no longer enjoying the game.
The most fun I have is when I approach it the way I would’ve as a kid: what looks cool?
Turns out games are a lot more fun when you’re discovering everything yourself and learning as you go!
Yup, and it’s more fun when you let yourself have challenges. Sure, it’s easier and more efficient to stealth behind an enemy and stab them in the back, but it’s more exciting to go in swinging, even if you’re only wearing leather armor and haven’t trained your sword skill very much!
I forget exactly where I heard it and the examples given, but the quote stuck with me. Given the chance, games will optimize the fun out of a game. It’s a big game design problem.
Ugh this was death stranding for me. I’m 40, and it felt more like work than a game. Beautiful game, but unfortunately couldn’t finish it
It kinda is like work, but I enjoyed that for the same reason.
I’ve got no time for grinding at my age. Single player game, some cheat engine, and skip grinding when it gets boring.
What’s the point of a game? Having fun. If it isn’t fun anymore, don’t play it. There are probably still other games to play.
This also extends to:
You don’t need to get to a Steam “backlog” just because it is there. Just play games you enjoy and ignore the rest.
If you’re partway through a game and it doesn’t feel fun anymore then just abandon it.
If an old game is going to be fun to replay, then there’s no rule to say you have to pick something new. Play the old game for the thousandth time and enjoy. I’m aging Ballionaire like a maniac while my wife judges me for continuing to ignore Expedition 33.
If you enjoy doing dumb shit in a game then it doesn’t matter what the optimal play is, just do the dumb shit you enjoy. We all loved finding ways to kill sims.
Depending on the game, this is why I install balance breaking mods or just use cheats. I play games to get away from grindy bullshit, I don’t need that in my games.
I always procrastinate on playing and when I do, I wonder why this is so much fun.
It looks so strange when I see people playing a lot of one game and what they do seems to be mastering mechanics. Everything is a stat to them, you can optimize builds etc.
It just seems like a job
They log off from their real job where they optimize something or other and hop onto a game where they optimize something else and coordinate a team etc.
It’s so weird to me.
This is a flaw in game design rather than a flaw in the player.
Me playing Pokemon: All of my Pokemon have to be kept at the same level.
Me 3 weeks later: I never want to look at this game again
Tried picking up a pokemon game after a few years of not touching one. I realize that it is often a kids first pokemon game so they must be taught how the game works from the ground up but it would be really nice if there was a “I’ve been playing Pokémon for 30 years I know what a fucking pokeball is” button.
Oh RuneScape. I’ll still come back and start the cycle over and over
This is why, with rare exception, I’ve stopped playing open world games.
I either quit before I finish or I stick it out and end up being sick of it by the time I’m done.
I haven’t stopped playing them but I have stopped finishing them.
I play until I feel I get my “moneys worth”? Which is a lot easier if you’re patient and then I uninstall
Some of the most fun is discovering the new setting and art models and special effects for the first time.
Seeing the majestic six-legged Porco-Taur charging at you through the sun-drenched savannah of King Arthur’s Burg in the Realm of WizardTopia is fun the first time it happens. And then you figure out the monster’s pattern of attack, get to know the burrow by the lake where it spawns, and can knock one of these creatures down with a few button clicks. So it’s not fun anymore.
Pick up a new game with a new style of monster and a new attack pattern that employes different abilities, and now it’s fresh and exciting again.
The new attack pattern? You guessed it.
Yet another delayed attack. Hold… Hold… Hollllld… Flinch …Swing stupid fast
Ooooo new game +
Its almost like a game that requires or significantly involves regular monotonous grinding is … like, definitionally, a poorly designed game.
You can have a regular, repeated activity or loop.
But if that loop itself is boring, rote… the game has failed at actually being engaging, thus rewarding.
The loop itself should be what offers the potential for reward, and that reward should be experiential, not… systemitized sequential progression.
