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

[Guffe]

Mainly in MMOs like Guild Wars, WoW and Lotro I really enjoy the crafting things and in Lotro to get the big house and get it decorated until it was perfect was so much fun
I am more of one of those "not so serious" players who like RPing and such so I am pretty much in that boat.
Not playing any MMO at the moment though.

 

[The_Echo]

Basically the entirety of Kingdom Hearts χ is mundane busywork. And I can't read Japanese (yet) so it's not as though I can enjoy the story.

But here I am, at LV80 and still going...

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.

Jesus Christ, on Critical? I can't even beat Ansem on Proud...

And the Dream Eater grinding... fuck that man.

 

[Vern5]

I once did a very specific playthrough of Skyrim where I tried my hardest to Not be an Adventurer. I refused quests that even sounded like they would involve killing things, I avoided Guilds, and I scoffed every time a guard would say he was an "Adventurer like me".

That was the most fun I'd ever had playing Skyrim, which is bizarre since the main bulk of Skyrim is dungeons, killing, and killings things in dungeons. I avoided any fight our quest that didn't walk right up to me while I spent my time making food, delivering trinkets, reading books, and visiting fascinating locations. I made substantially less money than I would have if I took to a life of dungeoneering but I felt much more satisfaction over the gold that I earned collecting crops, crafting potions, and delivering Void salts.

 

[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.

Jesus Christ, on Critical? I can't even beat Ansem on Proud...

And the Dream Eater grinding... fuck that man.

Oh, not Critical. It's my first time through Dream Drop Distance, and I'm not so masochistic that I want to try the hardest difficulties. XD

But yeah, my DDD save is sitting at something like 97% completion on Proud right now. Got three more Spirits to create and then a few items to find, and then I have to decide if I want to go for a real full 100% and get all of the trophies or just half-ass it and say "Good enough" with one or two of them missing (because seriously, getting all of the Spirits' Affinity levels to max and beating on Critical mode just sounds tedious--Even compared to what I've already done).

And those Ansem fights were pretty sweet. Actually a little more difficult than the final boss. The secret boss is far easier than either of the ones in Birth By Sleep though. ... course, that might be because Balloon spells completely break the fight.

I did get a lot of grinding in before I actually went and finished up the story. Sora and Riku were both over level 50 because I was clearing through Special portals and grinding Link Points for weaker Spirits to get abilities, so that may have impacted how difficult the last few bosses were for me. >.>

 

[Sack of Cheese]

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.

Witcher 2 has poker dice too.
It looks prettier graphically, but its pace is so slow hence it's not nearly as good as the first. What an irony because Witcher 2 improved a lot of things in the original Witcher.

 

[TheDoctor455]

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.

Ha! I thought I was the only one that collected books.

I really wish they'd think to have books of different ages in their games...

older and newer editions... and differences between those editions...

would add more fun to book hunting... and you know...

a more believable reason for the book-shops to exist.

Would also be nice if the books were the most expensive items in the game.

They were in the ACTUAL middle ages... so why the hell are they always relatively cheap in medieval-esque RPGs?

The fonts don't exactly suggest a printing press.

Anyway...

Pazaak in KOTOR 2. In 1, its a pain in the ass, but its more reasonable in 2.

Hmm...

oddly, just driving around in games like Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row 3 (haven't played 4 yet... have to wait for Onlive to add it; great service... but fuck they're slow to get new games anyone gives a damn about).

I think the main reason that 'mundane' activities in games are appealing is because it reminds us of something we do in real life, or could do in real life anyway... thus making the setting, and the game itself, more relate-able.

 

[blackrave]

Minecraft
Just minecraft.
Mining, growing&harvesting crops, growing&breeding bees (forestry), automating mining, manufacture, etc.
Whole game is one big mundane task.
Do I like it? Hell, yeah!

 

[Strazdas]

mining/chopping/ect and otherwise skilling. and anything that makes statistics. im a statistics whore. i love statistics and i think ALL games have way to less statistics. i would go around in circles to rause "KM walked" statistics to give an extreme example. and i would have fun doing it!
I also like to "Earn" skills. for example in morrowind you can easily buy all skills. the money in that game is so non issue that i could buy the whole world 10 times over with the amount of money i had at the end, and items in my house was worth twice that. however i still skilled manually, going "naked agiasnt a rat" and such becuase i wanted to "Earn" them. and it does not matter that i stand AFK while 4 turtles hit me for 15 minutes, i chose that.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Trading with myself in Pokemon, it is horribly mundane, yet I'm always trading important Pokemon and items so I figure it's worth it in the end. Still, after sitting through over 50 trades at once time, my brain starts turning to a weird Poke-mush.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Skyrim. I spent a lot of time finding a copy of every book in the game and placing it in my Lakeview Manor library, in alphabetical order. I got a mod that gave all books unique covers, just to make it look nicer.

 

[Noswad]

Surely that's the entire point of Papers Please.

Also i remember in X3, although i auto piloted everywhere while reading a book, i always insisted on docking manually, it just appealed to my inner Sci-Fi geek so much, its just a shame there was no docking animation, you just reached a certain point and jumped into the docked position.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The casino mini-games in the Dragon Quest games. Man those are dull, but often required grinding to get the best weapons.

 

[Keymik]

I have a save game in GTA4 where I only play up to the point of where you can drive Roman's cap around and make some money.. It's somewhat soothing to pretend to be a foreign cab driver just getting by.

 

[Krantos]

Minecraft. All of it.

I really had this revelation the other day when I was playing with a buddy. He was building a wall, I was building a corral for our horses, when I realized, there is no reason we should have been having that much fun doing such meaningless things.

Damn that game.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Can I say an entire game based around a mundane task? Because at first I was hesitant to buy Euro Truck Simulator 2...but I don't regret it at all. (It does help it was on sale though on steam..) I don't know why, but I REALLY enjoy playing it. Essentially, it's just driving a big truck, but it's kinda like a racing game as well, since you have to make deliveries as quick as possible to get more cash and experience. I guess it's the sense of progression that appeals to me the most, but hey, I'm not complaining if I enjoy it. I'm actually planning on buying a racing wheel for my PC for this game (well, all my other racing games as well like GRID and GRID 2.)

As for the mundane tasks in games not strictly based around them?...I guess the social aspects of Persona 3 and 4. You know, going to high school, trying to have high scores, keeping up with all the relationships, after school activities. Sadly, I think it's because that's the type of stuff I didn't really get to experience with high school. None of my friends were really...active? I wasn't exactly the most popular. But otherwise it's because I found the side characters in the game so interesting at times. You could say I liked it more than the combat parts of the game entirely.

EDIT: Actually, I think that's not a good example either, since building the relationships and going to school can actually have a large impact on the game...hmm...another example? I guess that would be trading and getting as much money as I can in games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls. I even did an entire playthrough of Fallout New Vegas where I roleplayed as a Caravan, searching for supplies and selling them while getting my bartering skills up.

 

[Roxas1359]

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

Yes, because it completes an entry for him in the Journal. For Final Mix it's different when trying to get 100%. Completing Jiminy's Journal will technically get you the secret Deep Dive ending, but for true 100% you have to also do the Gummi Ship missions as well.

snip

You think that's bad? Try No Heart for BbS Final Mix on Critical. Still can't beat him! >.<
Then again I still can't beat the Enigmatic Soldier on Proud Mode in KH2FM+ and I got that the year it came out (2007)...>.>

OT: I'm a huge grinder when it comes to JRPGs. I love to grind for levels and loot that I could use later in the game. Heck for my Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix LP and the Final Mix HD Let's Play I grinded to level 21 while still on Destiny Island!
Ironically though while I love to grind, I don't like playing MMOs for some reason.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'm intrigued by this.

Do those who enjoy doing mundane things in video games also do mundane things in real life (work, chores etc.)?

The reason I ask is because I absolutely despise doing mundane things in games (nothing against those who enjoy it though), and the main reason for this is because enough of my time is spent doing other mundane things in real life, so I just want to play games to have fun.

No. If I had half the work ethic in real life that I do in video games, I'd be a billionaire.

Of course, even "mundane tasks" in games tend to be tethered to a pretty tight reward feedback system.

And I cannot believe this thread made it over a page without someone mentioning The Sims. It's only the best selling PC franchise of all time, and it's a game in which you can happily spend time cleaning the goddam toilet. I defy anyone to find a game that celebrates the mundane more expertly than The Sims.

 

[MeisterKleister]

I spent a lot of time playing Metal Gear Solid 2 on the old Xbox at one point.
After I had collected every dog tag and completed the game on every difficulty, I spent much of my time doing this:
shooting seagulls (and then getting scolded by the Colonel and Rose);
trying to find new Codec conversations ( - even after playing through the game probably more than 20 times or so, I still managed to find new Codec conversations);
taking photographs with the in-game 'Digital Camera' of certain objects, environments and every NPC (I remember exhausting the 100 photo slots).

Now that I think about, I'm not sure whether this all really qualifies as "mundane", though I think it's close enough. It's more like creating replay value on your own by creating your own tasks.