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United States15536 Posts
The RPG is one of my favorite video game genres (right up there with MOBAs and adventures). From Final Fantasy to Persona to Pokemon, RPGs captivate me again and again with their stories, scope, settings, and systems. While the genre tends to be acclaimed for the first three, RPG gameplay is rarely considered innovative or even interesting. Most RPGs eschew gameplay depth and difficulty in favor of flavor and opt instead for straightforward (and often boring) mechanics. Such mechanics include many well-worn tropes of the genre, including turn-based battles, a job/class system, and experience-based progression. Although some games (like those in the Persona series) stray a bit from this formula, the elements that would theoretically make an RPG exciting are often relocated to sub genres, such as the fast paces of action RPGs and the demanding tactics of strategy RPGs.
One controversial staple of RPG gameplay is the grind. "Grinding" in games (but especially RPGs) refers to the practice of continually killing enemies or completing quests to level up your characters or get them better gear. Depending on the game, one can spend anywhere from hours to months grinding to gain enough strength to fight bosses, explore post-game content, or take on other players. Some games may even require you to grind, which some players resent because it can be time-consuming and boring. Despite this, the grind can also be far more than just a button-mashing monotony. To me, grinding can make a game even more fun.
Grinding is often essential for gaming completionists. A lot of RPGs contain an aspect that is not especially difficult but extremely time-consuming, such as completing the National Dex in Pokemon X/Y. There are a few challenges in catching them all (like the annoying version-specific Pokemon), but, for the most part, it’s only about time and dedication. As someone who loves collecting a whole set of anything, I love grinding to complete large game goals. I was recently asked why I wanted to play through Bravely Default even though its story and characters are so-so at best. My answer is simply that I want to unlock every job and get them all to max level if for no other reason than to see the job wheel filled out. This will take me a ton of time (and has already… I’m 20 hours into the game and only on the second chapter), but it’s rewarding to see all the amazing powers I gain by discovering and leveling all the classes. I’m more than willing to grind if it means I see a side of a game reserved for the dedicated few.
I also the grind as a means to invest in a big gaming payoff. Sometimes it can be frustrating to make very little progress in a game over a long time, but I find that the achievement feels greater for every minute you spend. It may take months of work to reach the Second Binding Coil of Bahamut in Final Fantasy XIV, but once you are capable of surviving that dungeon, it’s going to feel awesome. Even non-RPG games have hard-to-reach goals that essentially require grinding. Maybe you’re really looking forward to that one golden card in Hearthstone or your 500th ladder win in Starcraft 2. It might feel like you’re beating your head against the wall to finally grab the prize you desire, even if you do enjoy the challenge. It’s an amazing feeling to reach that goal and that's partially because of the grind it took to get there.
Yet the best part of grinding is the state of blissful mindlessness it can put you in. There are plenty of games that demand your full attention. Counter Strike, Transistor, and League of Legends, for example, all require constant attention for a rewarding experience (though for very different reasons). While that can be really fun, it can also be exhausting and make the game less relaxing than you want. Sometimes you need to sit back and play something that you don’t have to think about at all. This is where a grind is absolutely perfect. If you’re just leveling a character up for a few hours, you don’t really have to focus on it. Instead you simply walk back and forth and mindlessly press buttons while you do whatever else you want. I love being able to watch TV while breeding Pokemon, or spectate a DotA2 match while leveling up in Final Fantasy XIV, or think about my next blog post while hunting for better gear in Diablo 3. Running around and searching for mobs to hit eventually puts you in a kind of meditative state, allowing you to contemplate whatever you like while still enjoying your game. I love to zone out and think about whatever I need to while floating in a gameplay grind.
The next time you look at a boss or an achievement or an epic dungeon and think “Damn… grinding for that is going to take forever,” remember that the grind can work for you as much as you work for it. Every once in a while you’ll still run into one that’s a painful slog, but if you look at grinding differently, that’ll be rare (and exclusive to truly bad games). You might even find that you prefer the freedom and relaxation of the meditative grind.
You can read this strange perspective and a few more on the N3rd Dimension.
 
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For me grinding is very rarely something that I enjoy as for me the gameplay itself is more of a means to an end, which is mostly some action that pushes the story forward. I play all my games in such incremental steps from one story point to another, and I would like to do this as quick as possible so grinding kinda comes in the way.
One "grind" that I fairly enjoyed (and I'm using the term kinda loosely) was getting the Lion Heart, Squall's final weapon on CD1 in FF8. It was extremely enjoyable to melt bosses on CD 2 with Renzokuken + Lion Heart <3
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The point of your post is that 1. grinding is more than just a button-mashing monotony and that 2. grinding can add to the fun of a game, but the two arguments you give don't really establish that.
Your first argument claims that it is rewarding to see and get everything there is in the game, especially if those rewards are specifically there for the 'dedicated few', and that 'an amazing feeling' accompanies reaching a hard goal. However, you identify the fun (or pleasure) here as coming from exactly those things, namely reaching a hard goal and completing a game in its entirety, and not from the grind that came before that; it just doesn't follow from your argument that the grind adds to the fun of a game because what you identify as fun are the completion of a game and reaching a hard goal, and specifically, those don't require grind for their existence (they only require challenge and a vast world, neither of which necessitates grind). The only thing you can argue here is that focusing on reaching a hard goal etc might take your mind off the fact that what you are doing right now, namely grinding, is a complete waste of your time. This argument also does not relate to point 1 either.
Your second argument claims that it is fun to 'simply walk back and forth and mindlessly press buttons while you do whatever else you want.' Question aside whether that really can be fun to anyone or not, your point is that grinding allows you to relax and relaxation is fun. That's really stretching the notion of fun that we're usually associating with games, namely one that is based on excitement, but even if we grant the word 'fun' here, your argument does not establish either point 1 or 2.
In point 1 you claim that grinding is more than just button-mashing monotony, but here you claim that it is exactly this kind of mindlessness that is so valuable because it helps you relax. Be it as it may, this does not deny the monotony, but rather reinforces the fact that grind is nothing but this kind of button-mashing monotony.
In point 2 you claim that grinding can add to the fun of a game, but here you say that this kind of meditative relaxation is exactly the thing that is fun with games that require you to grind, so much so that if your goal were to relax, you wouldn't be picking up a game that was not grindy. Again, be it as it may, this does not establish that grinding -adds- to the fun, it rather -is- the only thing that can lead to fun if all you're looking for in a game is relaxation. It's not that the game is fun because it has an engaging storyline, requires finger dexterity or some hard thinking to solve puzzles -AND- is also fun because of the grind that helps you relax - the last one precludes the others, insofar as if your goal is to relax, the storyline, dexterity and hard thinking will -not- be fun (as you admit), while grinding might be (in the relaxing sense of fun), but if your goal is anything other than relaxation, the monotony of grind will -not- be fun (in the relaxing sense, since you're not out to relax), while the other aspects might be.
I like your style of writing though.
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anybody remember the pre bigbang maplestory?
that could have been in the dictionary next to the word grinding. yet it was so fun
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On June 13 2014 04:34 sabas123 wrote:
anybody remember the pre bigbang maplestory?
that could have been in the dictionary next to the word grinding. yet it was so fun
Oh dear Maplestory. I'm old school in that game. Only played the beta with my buddies during highschool. First, last, and only mmorpg I actually played (I don't really like MMORPGs but for some reason ms...). The music was awesome. The animation was great. I remember grinding near the blue (or was it green?) shrooms near Ellinia (I still remember the fucking name!?) when another player killed my monster that dropped a panlid. He couldn't pick it up because I did more damage. I walked over picked it up, F2 and walked away. The dude followed me forever, lol. Then some noob sold me a dagger scroll for 15k when they were going for like 200k back in the day. Oh man that game was gold.
Then they broke my heart when the lied about our accounts being transferred post-beta. All they gave us was a fucking doo-rag with a red leaf on top. Fuck those guys.
But damn that was a lot of fun.
Edit: I can still hum the tune to the login screen. Da da da dum dum duuuum. Da da da dum dum duuuum. Fuck me.
Edit 2: To respond to OP. I don't enjoy MMORPGs for the exact reasons you put in favor of grinding. The sense of accomplishment is an illusion since all it takes is time, so reaping any reward is empty to me. And the mindlessness of grinding must be a personal thing because for me it's just tedious. (Maplestory excepted for some odd reason. It must've been the music and animation. Everything is so fucking cute in that game. No joke. I feel like a total bitch thinking about it now. oh well.)
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EPT
