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Mundane Things are Fun - In Games

Oryx

CoquettishCat
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    There are countless games that take mundane things we would otherwise hate and make them something we adore. Take Harvest Moon, where you run a farm. Or Sim City, where you play the role of city planner. Or Diner Dash, where you play the role of busy waitress.

    What do these games do to make it more interesting and make you want to play? And more interestingly, do you think this approach could be applied to the real jobs, lessening the mundane aspects of it? Gamification is incredibly popular in our society; can it be applied to jobs that are already gamified in the industry, or are the game versions too twisted from the original job to make it work?
     
    Dustmop

    Dustmop

    [i]Fight for what makes you happy[/i]
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    Animal Crossing. Never has paying off debt been so much fun.
    I don't think it quite fits for this thread, though. I can't run onto other people's land, pick their fruit, and then sell it in another town for 3x the profit. Or go out to an island, catch rare beetles and sell them for 10k a pop irl. :P

    Personally, I think that they work out so much better because the AI is more agreeable than real people are. The characters' dialogue is almost 100% kind and sweet, or they're just a mild nuisance at most. From what I've heard, real jobs in the real world require you to be nice to people that are huge jerks. I'd assume this to be especially true for wait staff.
    (I don't really know, I work from home. /social)

    Also, it's a lot easier to move up in a game world than the real one. In New Leaf, you start the game and you're the mayor. In Sims, you play for a few hours and you're a surgeon. So on and so forth.
     
    Juno

    Juno

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    Sgt.Dustmop said:
    Also, it's a lot easier to move up in a game world than the real one. In New Leaf, you start the game and you're the mayor. In Sims, you play for a few hours and you're a surgeon. So on and so forth.
    Click to expand...

    I agree, it's definitely easier to accomplish great things in video games, do things you can't/won't do in real life.

    These games tend to heavily feature customization, which I'm a fan of, like decorating your house (or restaurant, in Diner Dash) and/or dressing and personalizing your avatar.

    But then there are some games that are so mundane, yet I have no idea why I keep playing it. Have you guys heard of Cart Life? It's all about mundane work, like running a newspaper stand to pay for rent (and it's mundane, you do every little thing, from cutting the ties on your stack of newspapers to actually counting out change for customers), but I found it so oddly addicting. Kept me entertained for hours. Papers, Please, too, the one where you run a border checkpoint at the airport.
     
    Sydian

    Sydian

    fake your death.
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    More fun in games because you're not actually having to get off your butt and do it, probably. There's an addicting quality about it that I can't quite put my finger on. I guess it helps that, like someone else said, people in games are more agreeable than in real life, the time goes by quicker in most of these games (so this excludes Animal Crossing), and the rewards are better (...I guess?).

    I personally love these kinds of games. They're relaxing and addicting.
     

    Salamence62

    you're gonna hear me rawr :3
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    Sgt.Dustmop said:
    Animal Crossing. Never has paying off debt been so much fun.
    I don't think it quite fits for this thread, though. I can't run onto other people's land, pick their fruit, and then sell it in another town for 3x the profit. Or go out to an island, catch rare beetles and sell them for 10k a pop irl. :P

    Personally, I think that they work out so much better because the AI is more agreeable than real people are. The characters' dialogue is almost 100% kind and sweet, or they're just a mild nuisance at most. From what I've heard, real jobs in the real world require you to be nice to people that are huge jerks. I'd assume this to be especially true for wait staff.
    (I don't really know, I work from home. /social)

    Also, it's a lot easier to move up in a game world than the real one. In New Leaf, you start the game and you're the mayor. In Sims, you play for a few hours and you're a surgeon. So on and so forth.
    Click to expand...

    same response ^^

    it's absurd how much time i spent on those games getting rich, insulting a ugly villager then attending their birthday party with a huge gift to say sorry. cx

    i really loved that game and for those of us who aren't social, it makes you the King of Socializing. :p

    yup, it's legit.

    Minecraft makes everything, even the most mundane things, fun.

    What else can I say?
    Click to expand...

    that too, minecraft rocks, i love lighting pig men on fire.
     
    Sonata

    Sonata

    Don't let me disappear
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    Paperboy. I mean if you think about it the whole point of the game is to just ride around tossing papers to the different houses. It's exactly the same thing in each level except for they might throw a dog in there or something. It's terrible but I just can't stop playing it.
     
    TwilightBlade

    TwilightBlade

    All dreams are but another reality.
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    It's gratifying to see your own world prosper and be nurtured. Sure, you have to spend countless weeks paying off those loans in Animal Crossing or raising perfect Chao in Sonic Adventure, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Comparable accomplishments in real life would take years and tons of uncomfortable situations, like giving presentations to managers or having kids. :p
     
    Arc

    Arc

    [img]http://i.imgur.com/kieFJln.gif[/img]
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    I like building homes. Animal Crossing and Minecraft are the two games that allow me to make this usually mundane task into something rather fun. I don't have the money or resources to build extravagant homes, but these two games give me some rather diverse and impressive ways to approach them.

    Can of any of the games I've listed above be applied to real life? Animal Crossing can kinda, since it's just a simplified version of real life on improving homes, sort of. On the case of Minecraft, nope. If only you could break trees and use them as planks of wood :(
     
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