Grind grind grind...

[-Jared-]

Every gamer knows what grinding means; hours upon hours of menial dispatching of the same groups of enemies, over and over and over, in hopes of a single level up, or a 1/256 drop, or general 100% completion.

However, the rewards can be worth it. Sometimes, your efforts are rewarded with an awesome skill or piece of equipment, or maybe access to a secret dungeon or cutscene, and other times all you get is the satisfaction that you accomplished something many others can only dream of.

So, that being said, how do you feel about grinding, of any kind, in video games? Are there certain types of grinding you like? Any interesting tales about grinding you wanna share?

Discuss grinding! ^__^

 

[Razer302]

I love grinding in MMO games. Its just loads of fun to level through grinding. A lot of people hate it so most new games don't have much of it. Grinding for me is relaxing and more MMO games need it

 

[Morkula]

It depends on whether the combat system of the game is engaging enough that I really enjoy it. If it's just simple turn-based combat, grinding is one of the dullest, most repetitive chores I can think of in a game. But if the combat system is really engaging, like in Final Fantasy XIII or Kingdom Hearts or something, I don't mind it nearly as much.

 

[Ephemeral Euphoria]

I don't mind grinding so much if it's not 90% of the gameplay when I find myself stuck on a nigh impossible boss that I have to get past and I spend 3 days straight leveling up only to get crushed like a twig under a anvil time after time again.

But besides from that scenario, it's not too much of a bother IMO and kind of enjoyable if you're in the mood to do so.

 

[thedestinedblade]

lol, rare items drops can drive you crazy. That's the only time for me where grinding is really annoying for me. You can get lucky and get the item within your first couple battles, or spend countless hours and have it never show up. Ex: Sword of Kings from Earthbound/Mother 2. :\

 

[-Jared-]

I have different feelings for different types of grinding. xD

For level grinding, that has got to be the dullest exercise in absolute boredom one can possibly imagine, short of watching paint dry. -__- You don't see much in terms of tangible rewards, it takes forever, and feels pointless. I only do that if I am actually doing it when grinding for something else. xD

Job or ability grinding, in games where you can do that, is actually fun to me, especially on my first playthrough of the game. :3 There is a more tangible reward there; take Final Fantasy V for example. It is fun finding out what new ability I am gonna get when I hit the next level, and figuring out what jobs and abilities go well together, and figuring out combos, and more. So I LOVE job grinding in that game because the job system makes it much more fun to do so. Plus, FFV makes it just SO easy. :P

Item grinding is more of a meh. If it is an item that will see a lot of use, maybe I will want it, but that's about it. I don't do a lot of waiting for random drops, after trying to get the Sword of Kings in Earthbound. >:(

 

[Cherrim]

I find some grinding to be very relaxing. If I'm just mindlessly farming items or levelling up and I like the battle system, I can do it for hours. I like to watch TV or something while I do it and I'm usually pretty happy with the end result.

I guess I usually have to really like the game, though. Like I was fine grinding to get every part of the crystarium in FF13, but I think of doing the same sort of thing in FFX and I just blanche. D: But whenever it's "necessary" (ie, i suck at the game and can't get past a certain boss/area) I'll take some time to do it. If I don't need to do it, I usually enjoy it more though. (Probably because it means I'm good at the game and find the combat system easy. @_@)

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I'm not super big on RPGs because of grinding. Some games hide it well. Some don't. And the one's that don't, I just give up on fairly quick. It's boring.

 

[Nerdy Mojo]

as evidenced in my self title on this forum i love grinding because nothing beats that moment or collection of moments where you obliterated the competition,got rare item drops,or become the envy of the online community if there is one due to those long hours of video gamer dedication.

(btw this is also evidenced by my copious playing of phantasy star zero for ds compared to animal crossing, grinding ftw)

 

[A Pixy]

Yeah. It gives me a great time to get stronger in the game and read a good book.

NO. GODAMMIT NO. KEEP ME ENGAGED WITH PROPER GAMEPLAY, DON'T PAD THE GAME OUT WITH IMPOSSIBLY STRONG ENEMIES. THAT'S JUST BAD GAME DESIGN. TRY HARDER NEXT TIME.

 

[Azumi]

Hahahahaha no.

I do agree that grinding is very very beneficial (achieve game breaker status by overleveling your mons/yourself? who doesn't want that), but in my opinion, farming items, levelling up, or any other kinds of grinding will forever be frustrating, and I will never do it unless I have to, for an impossibly strong boss.

This is especially prominent in Pokemon where I start grinding, start to get bored of it, begin multitasking and pay much less attention on my Pokemon's HP, and finally I say to myself "screw grinding, let's just go pwn the gym with luck and type advantages".

 

[Captain Fabio]

Grinding is an odd one for me; I really have to be in the right mood.

Grinding is rather fun at times; the satisfaction of getting better and better for the game is VERY satisfying for me. Pokemon is a great example with getting a bunch of them up to lv 100 and getting a decent team together.
I do like games that don't focus on the grinding aspect, like Skyrim. You can grind to hell and back but you don't have to, so I will normally spend a good amount of time grinding for the fun of it because it is fun.

A game has to get the balance VERY right so it doesn't feel like you have to spend hours of your life doing the same thing to just compete with the game.​

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[SnowpointQuincy]

Grinding as part of the game's primary content is a poor design choice. Time consuming tasks interrupt the flow of the game. You need a proper pacing from beginning to end.

However, option bosses are optional for a reason. Impossible bosses require the player to go out of his way. Grind for gear, levels, or whatever.

 

[GreenEspeon]

I hate grinding in the Pokemon games. I usually do my best to level my Pokemon up within the gym itself, on the way to the leader. If I fail the first time I just keep spamming the leader till I manage to scrape a win :p

 

[TwilightBlade]

Grinding in alright in some scenarios. For example, if I just need to level-grind some Pokemon and not need the computer (for EV training), I'm alright. I can sit back and relax on my bed or on the couch. I'm also not bothered by grinding if I can literally grind without paying attention. For example, I can just move the team leader back and forth to spawn monsters in one little spot in Final Fantasy XIII. I don't even have to select a move since my other two teammates can end the match in 6 seconds. I am not okay with the boring grinding where I must pay attention in FFXIII's earlier chapters. I'm only talking about grinding for CP, though. I don't even want to think about grinding Gil or Dark Matter and whatnot to power up the weapons for Treasure Hunter trophy. That is some serious crap.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Pokemon are the only games where I really bother grinding. That is if you don't count Smash Bros, where I constantly go on the 100-Man Brawl or 15-Minute Brawl to see if I can beat my high score of how many robots I can kill with certain characters.

Pokemon grinding I find annoying and boring, especially in the 5th Gen games where that silly new EXP system slows down the process considerably, though in Smash Bros I find it incredibly fun. There is way more skill to that game than the cynical button-mashers realise, and once you've learned all the tricks and know your way around the characters it's so much more rewarding to use your mad skillz.

 

[Iqid Loopz]

I grind for achievements on Xbox and for rare items or rewards in games. Pokemon games I just completely grind on that to the point I just give up for that one day. Did anyone else grinded on VidMasters on Halo3/ODST for Recon Armor. I did. Like a Boss! Oh yea I grind Heavily in SLASO (Solo, Legendary All Skulls On) in Halo Reach

 

[twocows]

It stinks. I should be able to play through the campaign of the game without having to grind. Strategy should be the limiting factor in RPGs, not whether I decided to wage a genocide against goblins. Skyrim was a pretty good RPG despite its flaws and you didn't need to grind in that (you could if you wanted to, but you didn't have to).

 

[Gymnotide]

I thought grinding was a stupid concept, especially in games where grinding is basically everything, like MapleStory or Aion. I used to grind quite a lot in World of Warcraft (when I played years ago) and Blizzard decided to make the game more catered to grinding: decreasing downtime, increasing burst damage output on all classes (even healers), increasing AoE, etc. It was pretty mindless and pretty boring--it passed time, but I wonder what I could have done with that time.

Like twocows mentioned, I think Skyrim has a delightful combat / level system. There is no grinding and every battle seems fresh and full of excitement (to me at least). You might need to farm a little bit if you're into Alchemy or Smithing and you want a headstart, but it's far from necessary. I love the skill-up = experience system since it rewards you for fighting enemies, but doesn't restrict you to killing a certain amount before you level up.

 

[Zet]

It stinks. I should be able to play through the campaign of the game without having to grind. Strategy should be the limiting factor in RPGs, not whether I decided to wage a genocide against goblins. Skyrim was a pretty good RPG despite its flaws and you didn't need to grind in that (you could if you wanted to, but you didn't have to).

I thought grinding was a stupid concept, especially in games where grinding is basically everything, like MapleStory or Aion. I used to grind quite a lot in World of Warcraft (when I played years ago) and Blizzard decided to make the game more catered to grinding: decreasing downtime, increasing burst damage output on all classes (even healers), increasing AoE, etc. It was pretty mindless and pretty boring--it passed time, but I wonder what I could have done with my time.

Like twocows mentioned, I think Skyrim has a delightful combat / level system. There is no grinding and every battle seems fresh and full of excitement (to me at least). You might need to farm a little bit if you're into Alchemy or Smithing and you want a headstart, but it's far from necessary. I love the skill-up = experience system since it rewards you for fighting enemies, but doesn't restrict you to killing a certain amount before you level up.

I agree with both of you on Skyrim's level up system. It is the best one in a game I've played by far, though spending a lot of wasted time smithing caused me to lose my grip on reality a bit but it was totally worth it :P
Though I do admit that I abused the sneak ability to level up quickly.

Aion's grinding really put me off of MMO's. But hopefully Guild Wars 2 won't have a grinding experience like Aion.