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Am I crazy or is "work" becoming a pillar of gaming?

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
So game developers have realized that we like to "work", right?

I spend the first 5 minutes of every single game in Fortnite "farming mats" and "looting up".

Deep Rock Galactic is literally a game where you try to mine for resources as quickly as possible before waves of bugs attack.

Valheim has players gathering resources, farming, and building structures.

League of Legends has players farming XP by killing mobs.

Animal Crossing gives players little jobs to do to earn money.

Death Stranding is literally a futuristic Fed Ex simulator.

There's got to be a million examples of modern games pushing us in this direction.

I'm not sure what it says about human beings but "work" seems to be something we innately enjoy. Anyone else find this development kinda interesting? Are there any insightful conclusions we can draw from this?
 
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Yeah I hate that shit. On OG runescape when all my friends were leveling up their characters and bragging about it all I liked to do was scam people and build up my fortune.

I remember telling one kid I knew to mine a 1000 runes. I told him I would pay him 1000 Coins. Lol anyone that played runescape back then would know how much profit I made. Lol
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
That's how they keep you on the GaaS hamster wheel. Been that was since Runescape an Ultima Online. I thought you liked those types of games.

Also Overcooked is one of the best games released this gen. 🍔

Lots of "work" in Death Stranding, Dragon Quest Builders, Stardew Valley, Dreams... probably most RPGs actually. Not sure it's really exclusive to multiplayer but it seems to be more prevalent there right now.

What's the difference between fun and work in games?!
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Lots of "work" in Death Stranding, Dragon Quest Builders, Stardew Valley, Dreams... probably most RPGs actually. Not sure it's really exclusive to multiplayer but it seems to be more prevalent there right now.

What's the difference between fun and work in games?!
Sometimes there is no difference. I think "mastery" of a work-task is fun even in a real job. Humans just love to tinker and master closed systems.
 

bender

What time is it?
Daily/Weekly/Event chores is why I retired from Rocket League. I still need to retire from Overwatch. I still login to Fortnite Daily to collect free resources/v-bucks and I haven't played the game in 2+ years. I also have a 30 minute routine in Animal Crossing every day. Lord have mercy.
 

SinDelta

Member
Its why I dropped Fate Grand Order - I liked the story, but the gatcha, constant grinding and events that the player has no say in (ie events are timed, you can't choose them anytime you want you must wait for a certain time of the year on the developers whim) killed it for me.

Likewise with Monster Hunter world.

Same with the Division 2.

Ditto Destiny 2.

I want to be able to select and play an event on my time, not wait for a time the developer wishes.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I just play games for the gameplay; if the "reward" of something is hidden behind gameplay I don't enjoy, I don't play the game.. or don't play that part of the game and play the parts I do enjoy.

I play GAAS games like regular games too.. I don't have any "end game" characters in any GAAS game, nor do I ever plan to.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
This is why I tend to avoid GAAS games.

They literally do this to keep people "engaged" on a weekly basis.

But why is work engaging? Why is it fun?

Also, there's quite a few single player games that include "work" as a core part of their gameplay loop.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It's been this way for a while, OP

hoMKii1.png
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
But why is work engaging? Why is it fun?

Also, there's quite a few single player games that include "work" as a core part of their gameplay loop.
It's the "reward" given for completing the work that people get addicted to.

The number going up on your level; the new item they give you that's rarer than the last one you earned, etc.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
It's the "reward" given for completing the work that people get addicted to.

The number going up on your level; the new item they give you that's rarer than the last one you earned, etc.

Then what is fun?

I'm a pile of goo right now. I don't understand any of this!!
 

Rikkori

Member
Always has been.

What it is is it gives people's actions meaning and purpose, even if it's all for a made up cause. Still easier than going out into the real world and trying to accomplish there (and safer too!) so people feel like they're really achieving something even when they're not. It's dopamine porn.
 

Buki1

Member
Then what is fun?

Getting the reward is fun. It's even more than that - it's addicting. Which makes it hard to leave the game.

Im grown ass man and I can admit I spend hundreds of hours in Mortal Kombat 11 while absolutely hating playing online tournaments but just had to get those timed Kombat League events skins - that I wouldn't even use. Thank god I have uninstalled that game I wasted too much life on it.
 
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Daily/Weekly/Event chores is why I retired from Rocket League. I still need to retire from Overwatch. I still login to Fortnite Daily to collect free resources/v-bucks and I haven't played the game in 2+ years. I also have a 30 minute routine in Animal Crossing every day. Lord have mercy.

Bizarre - I've played a decent amount of RL, Overwatch and Fortnite but must be immune to this shit. I never collect, login or care about any of this crap. If the game is fun I play it. Then I don't.
 
Exactly why friends and I ditched Destiny 2.

Something like Apex Legends is a far better implementation that gives you choices, loot and delay the fighting while trying to prep or just outright slay and take loot from other squads instead. All that within each game at the micro level.

At the macro level things like skins, battle passes progression etc can all be completely ignored if you wish or purchased separately etc.
 
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junguler

Banned
i don't think there is anything wrong with these autopilot podcast games, you just seem to be playing a lot of them back to back and over doing it.
 

Aion002

Member
That's easy: if you don't like it, it is work.


Not even for a second I felt that I was working playing Death Stranding.... However, everytime that I tried to return to Destiny 2, I felt that I was having a overworked day at the office.


Just play what you enjoy...
 

Ultraslick

Neo Member
Death Stranding didn't feel like work at all to me......even though you are literally a postman in the game,lol.I was too engrossed in the gameplay systems and world Kojima created to feel like the game was wasting my time.

plus, in this particular example- the “work” actually is relaxing, (most of the time).
Walking through a serene mountain valley, placing your ladder over streams, rappelling down a slope, etc.
 

Spokker

Member
I was going to complain about grinding in modern games, but then I remembered how I used to grind in Final Fantasy games back in the day just to level up and take on a boss. So I deleted what I typed haha
 
Don’t ever come close to FF XIV then, playing that game is definition of work. From never-ending fetch quests, grind, mining, cooking, trading, daily dungeons, high-end raids where you are expected to perform at certain level from others etc. They went few steps further from the “humble” beginnings and added house purchasing, fashion, marriage and probably tons of other stuff after I left the game. All that you need to substitute real life for this virtual one.

That MMOization happened throughout industry ever since first Destiny (which copied Borderlands). It’s what people want because of what some of you already said, it has to with 🧠 and dopamine etc...I’m not an expert.

Not sure why would you put Rocket League in this 🧺. Yes, there are bars that ask to be filled but core gameplay stays intact and is ultra fun with or without caring about xp, levels or fashion items. And you fill those bars by just playing the game by the way. If you don’t like core gameplay though, you should leave without hesitation, just like with any other game.
 
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This is why I gave my resignation on open world games a long time (and could not tolerate grinding games like World of Warcraft, etc. that are meant to keep you "playing").
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
As soon as something in a game feels like work, I stop playing or don't do the activity.
I don't mind slower progression if it means keeping my sanity.
 
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levyjl1988

Banned
I look at the Destiny 2 icon and I see it as work, I already associated that application icon with dissatisfaction. I know opening it up will lead to disappointment and high expectations, something Bungie is good at.
Whenever I see youtube ads that interrupt my video I immediately associate with a negative value for wasting my time with ads that are unpleasant. Thus I associate the brand with annoying.
 
But why is work engaging? Why is it fun?

Also, there's quite a few single player games that include "work" as a core part of their gameplay loop.
Because a bunch of scientists and a bunch of suits got together and spent millions to determine that humans are innately still just mammals and our fairly simple mind reacts positively to a sense of gratification no matter how small.

Games have literally been tailored to keep us in a never ending loop of play for the past 40 years.

First it was balancing game difficulty so gamers would spend more coins in arcades, now its daily challenges and rewards to keep them coming back.

It's a wonderful thing when done with nuance, it becomes predatory when it isnt.
 

bender

What time is it?
Bizarre - I've played a decent amount of RL, Overwatch and Fortnite but must be immune to this shit. I never collect, login or care about any of this crap. If the game is fun I play it. Then I don't.
I still have fun playing Overwatch but I'll probably retire once the sequel launches. Rocket League was more of a chore after 20K matches. I just decided to call it quits once the PS5 launched.

For me it was the most toxic community in the history of video games.

I play a lot of crafting/foraging/simulation type games. So no issue for me.

Turn chat off. Problem solved. I mostly played Randoms my last few years.
 
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MrJTeera

Member
Honesty is the key for me.

Death Stranding advertises itself as a game about reconnecting society through a network, so I’m okay with doing the chores, because it fits the narrative and it reflects on that message via their weird online component.

Harvest Moon is a game about farming, so you knowingly buy and play the game simulating an ideal agricultural life and you’re happy about it.

But a game that touted itself with you playing as a daring adventurer exploring dangerous lands, only to compress those experience into spreadsheets, to-do lists, and mandatory loot reward system for that small sense of pride and accomplishment? That is bullshit in my book.
 
I don't mind grinding, it's somewhat meditative and working towards a goal in small chunks is also satisfying.

What I hate is when games try to make me log in periodically. Daily rewards for logging in are bad enough, but some mobile games go as far as to reward you every 2 hours or so. Never playing shit like that ever again.
 
So game developers have realized that we like to "work", right?

I spend the first 5 minutes of every single game in Fortnite "farming mats" and "looting up".

Deep Rock Galactic is literally a game where you try to mine for resources as quickly as possible before waves of bugs attack.

Valheim has players gathering resources, farming, and building structures.

League of Legends has players farming XP by killing mobs.

Animal Crossing gives players little jobs to do to earn money.

Death Stranding is literally a futuristic Fed Ex simulator.

There's got to be a million examples of modern games pushing us in this direction.

I'm not sure what it says about human beings but "work" seems to be something we innately enjoy. Anyone else find this development kinda interesting? Are there any insightful conclusions we can draw from this?
I don’t play these games - got a friend who loves this type of shit tho
 

Durask

Member
I hate fetch quests, cooking and other stuff that looks like work.

In games I like exploring and fighting.

The other stuff I suffer through because it gets me goodies to help me with exploring and fighting, just like real life work (I don't mind what I do but it is first and foremost a way to get money for good stuff).
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Spoiler alert: most games are significantly made of chores or jobs
> Working as a Soldier
> Working for a Crime Boss
> Working as an Agent
> Save the Princess
> Look for three Sacret XXX to open the gate to “Super Powerful weapon”
> Collect all YYY to upgrade your “Weapon”
> Win this Race
> Win this Match
 
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Hudo

Member
That's how they keep you on the GaaS hamster wheel. Been that was since Runescape an Ultima Online. I thought you liked those types of games.

Also Overcooked is one of the best games released this gen. 🍔
This. "Work"-like elements in game are part of conning people into GaaS shit. And it works.
Fuck that shit.

So now if you excuse me, my amusement park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 doesn't manage itself.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
As people had said already, it's a mechanic to make you stay in the game. Addiction by repetition.

But it's not everyone's cup of tea. People who likes IDLE games liked Death Stranding. My friend who is addicted to Destiny still wouldn't last 2 hours in DS/Minecraft.
 
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