Grinding: Where does it fit?

[Jdb]

I describe grinding as "preparing to play a game before actually playing it" and "victory does not mean advancement." Examples of these are farming materials for required power-ups and random drop systems.

Grinding is bad because the only thing it challenges is spare time. It's not engaging and it's hard to get a sense of satisfaction.

 

[BENZOOKA]

I like how in Fallout (3 and New Vegas), when you kill things to Death. They. Fucking. STAY. DEAD.

Exactly! It works so brilliantly. That kind of a system should be implemented in real life as well... Wait.

OT: I really can't think of a game I'd played recently that forced you to grind. So, I suppose nowhere. But it's an essential part of many extremely popular MMO RPG's, where it's generally an obligatory evil. I guess people don't mind that much.

 

[Monkestful]

What about MMOs? How does an MMO justify having Grind in it?

MMOs use grinding as a way to get players addicted. Rewarding the player just enough to give a sense of accomplishment, but keeping enough away that the player yearns for the next tier item, or level, or whatever.

They don't need to justify it, because the success of that formula is justification in itself.

 

[Squidden]

I kind of enjoy grinding mostly because I enjoy the accomplishments that come with it. I would, however, always prefer a quest or mission or adventure to get the accomplishment instead (Say, going to look inside of a cave in a dark lush jungle for an enchanted chestplate rather than killing 30 pigs and being handed it to me by the quest giver.)

Grinding ?? Like Grindcore ?!? Check out Wormrot and Pig Destroyer, awesome bands.

Is this some sort of bad trolling attempt?

 

[moretimethansense]

"Grinding is a term used in video gaming to describe the process of engaging in repetitive and/or non-entertaining gameplay in order to gain access to other features within the game, or to allow the player to "grind" better/faster."

So where does Grinding really fit in gaming?

Where does it work best?

Where is it absolutely necessary?

Where should it never occur?

Also, as a gamer, do you personally enjoy grinding? Is it the act grinding that you enjoy or the tantalization of the rewards of grinding that cause you to grind?

Dish out your thoughts, people.

It should be like this:

If you skip a number of enemies and don't grind, you can complete the game with a lot of luck, liberal use of items and a thorough grasp of the mechanics.

If you don't grind but don't skip anything it should be possible to beat the game with a good grasp of the mechanics good use of items and a decent use of tactics.

If you don't skip and grind ten or so levels it should be possible to beat the game without any items if you're really lucky and only a moderate amount otherwise.

Optional bosses should be ungodly hard to beat and should require tons of leveling, a thorough understanding of the game, liberal use of items, the special ultimate weapons and accessories, a decent amount of luck and six attempts.

Unless it's an ATLUS game in which case the last one should be the first one

Captcha: SUPREME untaft

 

[Lucane]

Grind has a place in any(and should be in every)non-linear game of any sort because then you end up playing in a route that the developers mainly want you to go where difficultly won't ever be to harsh or something completely random that has you fighting space-fire dragoncats they don't recommend anyone fight unless top level with a Crystal weapon.Now depending how attacks and health is managed you would either never stand a chance without the proper level/gear or you'd be at a constant one mis-step from death and ticking away at it's life but you could never Grind then you'd never really be able to get a upper hand or handicap(short of not visiting the last town's shops)with fights mean the 3rd dungeon boss never changes difficultly sense you can't find a place to grind for a while.

Grinding in (Needed to be done to complete game)Story Missions with kill X# of Y Creature need something for you to do they can't all be go to here and fetch Z or enter Mount Hellfire and Slay the Deafweaver(Not a typo) Those would just start to get complaints for being the only thing your ever doing even if you have to face a small army to get to them or sneak by.

I hate grinding. It has no place in any game. It's boring and drains me of energy. This is the reason I quit WoW within 20 minutes of the free trial, I asked a friend what I have to do and he told me I had to grind the first 10 levels before the game gets fun...Any game that takes over an hour to become enjoyable shouldn't be that successful!

I'm sure a lot of people won't mind 1hour if it's followed by 1000s. (Player mileage will vary.)

Edit: And outside of MMOs and FPS online multiplayer I don't see much Exsessively high Time/point/exp needed to level up around that you would have to grind to complete the game with moderate understanding and skill(Even if certain games want you to do some for the special/real/true ending).