Mundane Tasks in Video Gaming... SO MUCH FUN!!

[Ikasury]

sooo... i been playing Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, and the thing i like most about the game is the crafting and gathering... i could honestly (and have) spend most of my time just gathering mats, using said mats to craft stuffs, then go get more when i run out... hell, this is the first game i actually LOVE FISHING!! what?! i HATE fishing in games!! its ALWAYS THERE!! damn you NiER and Dark Cloud!! *cough* so why is it i actually find myself LIKING that damnable pass time? *shrugs* who knows...

this just reminds me of various other games i would play where i actually just like to stupid mundane things: Sorting books and decorating my house in Skyrim, Building cities and talking to people in Dark Cloud, throwing people into the everfall in Dragon's Dogma, just popping wheelies and running around in any Saints game, Playing blitzball in Final Fantasy X, Playing poker in Xenosaga... no plot, just random, mundane things...

i find it funny getting people yelling at me to go do 'combat classes' stuff, and sigh resignedly when i have to... for money and mats in FF14... or due to some 'plot' thing in other games...

So Escapists, tell me about those weird mundane things in games you end up liking for no discernible reason... its just oddly 'fun' to do :3

 

[shrekfan246]

When I was younger, I'd spend a lot of time playing the terribly unbalanced card games that were in Final Fantasy IX and Digimon World 3.

Lately I've been replaying through the Kingdom Hearts franchise on each game's respective Hard mode and going for 100% completion, which requires a whole lot of grinding and mundane busywork... still at 94% in Birth by Sleep, but I'm ridiculously close to 100% in Dream Drop Distance now.

A friend and I used to make a game out of dungeon diving in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker too, narrating the thoughts of all of the nameless mooks as I'd drop down level after level, constantly destroying them all.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I like to spend ridiculous amounts of time organising every item on the shelves of my house in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Every item just has to line up perfectly.

Lately I've been replaying through the Kingdom Hearts franchise on each game's respective Hard mode and going for 100% completion, which requires a whole lot of grinding and mundane busywork... still at 94% in Birth by Sleep, but I'm ridiculously close to 100% in Dream Drop Distance now.

Does getting 100% in Kingdoms Hearts 1 require you to beat Sephiroth? I couldn't even do that on normal let alone hard.

 

[shrekfan246]

Lately I've been replaying through the Kingdom Hearts franchise on each game's respective Hard mode and going for 100% completion, which requires a whole lot of grinding and mundane busywork... still at 94% in Birth by Sleep, but I'm ridiculously close to 100% in Dream Drop Distance now.

Does getting 100% in Kingdoms Hearts 1 require you to beat Sephiroth? I couldn't even do that on normal let alone hard.

I'm not positive, but I imagine so. Counts toward Journal completion I believe.

I beat him in Normal, but this'll be my first time trying on Expert whenever I get that far again. I've been spoiled by Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance, which make it really easy to cheese bosses because you don't have to manage any magic resource and most of the time can't hit the harder bosses with normal Keyblade swings in the first place.

I recall that my first conquering of Sephiroth involved a lot of Strike Raid and Elixirs... he was a lot easier in KHII.

 

[piinyouri]

Mining just for the sake of getting something out of the way in Minecraft.

When I'm exploring it's fine, but anytime I'm trying to build a large structure, clearing away the necessary space is AWFUL.

 

[Zhukov]

The most fun I ever had in Skyrim was arranging my collection of Lich masks on a shelf.

Also, collecting books that I thought my character would keep.

 

[darth.pixie]

I added a lot of food mods to Skyrim for fun and then spent the best part of three days gathering ingredients, gardening, cooking and stacking the shelves with the food.

I could have fed the entire Imperial army with those. I didn't even have a survival mode so there was no need to eat.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Organizing my attache case in Resident Evil 4.

With each new herb or granede I had to dive into my case to make sure it was properly placed.

 

[Altorin]

I like to spend ridiculous amounts of time organising every item on the shelves of my house in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Every item just has to line up perfectly.

Lately I've been replaying through the Kingdom Hearts franchise on each game's respective Hard mode and going for 100% completion, which requires a whole lot of grinding and mundane busywork... still at 94% in Birth by Sleep, but I'm ridiculously close to 100% in Dream Drop Distance now.

Does getting 100% in Kingdoms Hearts 1 require you to beat Sephiroth? I couldn't even do that on normal let alone hard.

getting one of the Keyblades requires beating seph, not sure about the difficulty, but I did it... bloody great fight that was..

 

[krazykidd]

I liked the card game in Final fantasy 8 . That shot was fun , especially since your playing for keepsies. When you got later in the game and different rules became available it became real fun . The card gamme in FF9 was complete trash though.

I like grinding in SMT games . No idea why . I could grind from hours in SMT:Nocturne without getting bored .

 

[Qvar]

Transporting tons and tons of different kinds of items from one house (let's say my armory house) to another (wizard tower), and from there other kind of items to the first one and a third one, just for the sake of having all the shelves and showcases filled and theming up each house, in Skyrim.

 

[viranimus]

Any more it seems that most games I try to sit down and play quickly devolve into nothing but mundane tasks. Personally, I want/need a game to compel me to take the action it wants me to take. I dont even want to wade through the sea of human filth to go grocery shopping for myself, What makes developers think that sending me off to go track down 10 mutton chops, 5 venison flanks and 3 bundles of wheat in pursuit of becoming the virtual worlds greatest grocer all for the benefit of a polygonal construct of scripted interaction virtually personified sounds like an activity someone would want to do to be entertained?!

(seriously... I got like three of those type of quests in Nier within 2 hours of gameplay and now I would rather contemplate things I would rather be doing than going back to finish that nonsense)

 

[G32420NL]

Farming simulator....that is all.

Atleast from the moment when my friends drown the all the golfcarts so i have to be all serious

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Gambling!! Despite not having much love for The Witchers, its poker dice rocks! I can't stop playing it I must have spent hours on it alone.

For Yakuza games I love karaoke and mahjong! (but then I like them in real life too)

 

[Shinsei-J]

"Octodaaa~~~ad he's got a good thing going."

Spoiler: Trailer

The whole game is nothing but mundane tasks and it looks like the most fun I'll have that month.

 

[SonicWaffle]

So Escapists, tell me about those weird mundane things in games you end up liking for no discernible reason... its just oddly 'fun' to do :3

Well, it wasn't exactly pointless as it allowed you to purchase upgrades, but I loved planet mining in Mass Effect 2. Very soothing, very relaxing, and absolutely fantastic for a hungover Sunday morning. Spend a few hours scanning planets until everything stops hurting, use the resources to upgrade your guns or powers, then go kick ass and take names.

 

[SonicWaffle]

When I was younger, I'd spend a lot of time playing the terribly unbalanced card games that were in Final Fantasy IX and Digimon World 3.

I liked the card game in Final fantasy 8 .

Card games. Oh, lordy, the card games.

My friend and I spent more time playing Arcomage in M&M VII that we did actually saving the world. It was an addictive little beast.

Gambling!! Despite not having much love for The Witchers, its poker dice rocks! I can't stop playing it I must have spent hours on it alone.

Agreed, I thought it was a really clever idea, and actually enjoyed it much more than the combat. I've left the game somewhere around act 2 because I'm bored with it, but given the choice I could happily play dice poker all day long.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

One of the mini games in The Legendary Starfy was making octopus balls, and I'd spend way too much time on it.

Training my Block/Restoration skills in Skyrim by sparring with a mudcrab. That right there is srs bsns.

 

[DyqstARD]

Most of the things you do in MMO's are mundane.

 

[Bertylicious]

Y'all nuts. The only thing I ever like in that vein is adding crafting stations and ready made items that bypase crafting; like the Big MT home in F:NV that had all the crafting stations with handy storage, as well as the machinery for manufacturing soylent green that meant you never had to mess about with gathering herbs, roots and other rubbish. Efficency!

I should add that my ultimate meal would be a nutrient sludge called "eat this to not die" that could be rapidly consumed with a straw.