Games you love that you turn into... chores?

[DanielBrown]

LOTRO would be the one.
Played it obsessively for over three years when I was unemployed and had all the time in the world. I loved the game and as soon as I hit the level cap I started over with a new class. During these years they added a lot of expansions and quest packs. Unfortunetly the quality of the game kept getting worse with each one, but I kept playing.
Now I've had a break from the game for some time and really want to get back into it, however I often work full time now(extra worker, so only when I'm needed...) and my spare time has gotten extremely sparse. Whenever I think about all the time I need to get from level 60-100 I just can't be arsed playing anymore.

Currently feel like this about all MMOs tbh, but my days and nights with LOTRO are the ones I miss the most.

 

[Zen Bard]

In my mind I've renamed Skyrim to Not Another Fucking Draugr Crypt.

Regardless of how it was framed or what interesting back story the NPC might have given, every quest amounted to "Go Here. Kill This. Get That." And that inevitably meant wandering through another series of cut 'n' pasted Draugr corridors.

It got to a point where I'd get to a tomb/crypt/cave, give a sigh of desperation, save and exit. Then I'd have to psych myself up over the next couple of days to go back in.

In fact, I think this is symptomatic of all the Elder Scrolls games. Morrowind was bad during the Nerevarine quests. And the Oblivion towers became tedious in Oblivion, but at least you got some cool magic swag as a reward. Skyrim was just the worst.

Infact, you look up the definition of "Grind" in the Gamer Dictionary and you'll see:

 

[PlayerDos]

World Of Warcraft. I loved this game when I got into it at the mid era of BC and was pretty hardcore in Wrath. I burned out in Cata but came back casually in MOP and loved LFR, the vibe and content on Pandaria. Eventually I quit again when the final raid tier dragged out for over a year.

I came back for WOD hearing some good things about it.

And...hated it. The often frustrating leveling content (this was the expansion that made me hate playing a rogue) and the movement away from casual, accessible content back into pugging made me quit very quickly..

This was actually a glowing recommendation for me, because I stopped playing when it became casual as fuck and I had too many LFR scrubs trying to get into my hardmodes.

OT: Someone already beat me to the punch, but I'd have to say Destiny, although I never did the PvE anyway, I just did the PvP in that and used the welfare gear. I wish I didn't get bored of the game cause I had that badass handgun Thorn the Warlock helm that made sunstriker sick and the warlock chest that made void sick. I really liked my character.

But it's too much of a grind, plus we were all getting so much light and intelligence in the game that everyone had their supers activated constantly, and all of them are bullshit, especially the void ball I had, but ESPECIALLY THE HUNTERS SWORD WHEN YOU'RE ON AUSTRALIAN PING VS AMERICANS GOD FUCKING DAMN IT I HATE LIFE I'LL FUCKING KILL ALL OF YOU I'LL MUR- erm yes, but I just burnt out.

In my mind I've renamed Skyrim to Not Another Fucking Draugr Crypt.

Regardless of how it was framed or what interesting back story the NPC might have given, every quest amounted to "Go Here. Kill This. Get That." And that inevitably meant wandering through another series of cut 'n' pasted Draugr corridors.

It got to a point where I'd get to a tomb/crypt/cave, give a sigh of desperation, save and exit. Then I'd have to psych myself up over the next couple of days to go back in.

In fact, I think this is symptomatic of all the Elder Scrolls games. Morrowind was bad during the Nerevarine quests. And the Oblivion towers became tedious in Oblivion, but at least you got some cool magic swag as a reward. Skyrim was just the worst.

Infact, you look up the definition of "Grind" in the Gamer Dictionary and you'll see:

I modded the absolute shit out of that game. Great character models, everything looking amazing, new skills, new animations, new specs and playstyles (time mages, teleport wizards), great weapon packs brilliant side quests, giant civil wars, multiple companions, spawning more enemies, better lighting, new companions, poses, armor the literal whole shebang. I was at the point where I had to cycle through mods because I had close to the maximum activated.

And it still got absolutely horrifyingly boring because, the two D's.... DRAUGR AND DWEMER.

 

[DocJ]

MMO expansions. Being the completionist I am I quietly groan at the thought of a new expansion that will render my high tier, perfectly armoured and balanced character useless. Don't get me wrong, I love new expansions. But it's just so much work sometimes. Especially if you have alts.

WoW is a prime example of this. I recently got back into the game hardcore, and have been playing it daily till I manage to catch up in Draenor. Which, if you've played it, you know can take a long time.

EVE online is on my blacklist for another reason. The skills. The god damn skills. I don't want to pay for a monthly subscription just so I can mine and upgrade my skills so I can pilot and buy ships I actually WANT to use. My experience so far with EVE online is set up a training queue, go to an asteroid field, and mine all day in the background while I write a report or something.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Animal crossing-After you get past all of the new things and get your house maxed out there isn't much for you to really do other than your basic money making chores and trying to make sure your favorite residents haven't moved out in the 2 days you were gone.

 

[3asytarg3t]

All sim games start initially as interesting, at least the ones I was willing to buy since it must have sparked some interest. Then somewhere just past mastery of everything you can do in the sim it dawns on me just how incredibly stupid it is to play a game that simulates anything that is in fact a real life activity. Yes, I'm looking at you Farming Simulator 2015 and Euro Truck Simulator 2.

At which point I stop and swear off sims for awhile and return back to what I consider real games.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Minecraft doesn't run very well on my 2010 Macbook laptop, mostly relating to a slow framerate which in turn leads to a lot of deaths beyond my control. This is further complicated by my adding a mod that permits me to make mobile objects as long as they are 20,000 blocks or less. On its own, it would already be an issue but combine that with the already problematic framerate and the game can become almost unplayable at points.

I'm currently on my 5th or 6th playthrough of FarCry 3 which motivated me to get 100% in a game for the first time which I thought would be easy since the game isn't that deep. It's only a first-person version of Just Cause 2 minus all the parts that made JC2 extraordinary. Unfortunately, Ubisoft thought that they could overcome this lack of depth by spamming collectables, meaning it gets pretty fucking tedious. 120 stone idols. 120! And each one is behind a wall or hidden in a cave, so they're all chores to get. I've spent 10 hours thus far just trying to collect them all.

Far Cry 3. I played it a bit late and knew a lot of the story, so after awhile the "dynamic" environment got annoying as hell to traverse. Every 5 seconds there's a tiger or wolf or dingo, so the "oh shit" moments become "oh shit not again...".

Use a shotgun or the flamethrower. The flamethrower is almost instantaneous (though beware as you are the most flammable object in this universe) and shotguns can take down bears in 5 shots on the hardest difficulty. Also, if you get the Ripper or Shredder, you can take everything down (including bears and tigers) inside of a second.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Kind of Hearthstone? It used to be so fun until every deck in the meta right now revolves around spamming as much shit onto the board as you can as early as you can, ignoring everything your opponent throws out and just keep mindlessly left clicking their face until it explodes. How the fuck is that fun? It's not that I can't even beat them, it just becomes a fucking boring ass chore to beat cuz I have to exhaust their hand, survive until mid/lategame then dodge lethal with my remaining health. Luckily my Secret Mage deck is decent against pretty much everything aside from maybe Handlock, i've beaten Handlock probably under 10 times in my time with the game and I have the golden Mage and the golden Priest. Still more fun than aggro.

I mean MechMage is a guaranteed win if they luck out and start with the perfect hand, not even an exaggeration.

I have to believe that all people who main Hunter don't do it for the usual fun reasons, they do it because they enjoy drinking the tears of people who crafted well balanced decks that have early, mid and late game scaling. That or they don't get the idea of board control. The amount of dumpy retards who try to hit face when I have taunt down, I fucking swear. They hover their cursor on me clicking away and i'm imagining the mental breakdown said dumpy retard is having right there as they try to wrap their primitive brains around the idea of not hitting face for one turn.

I despise all Hunter players alright? Fuck all of them.

 

[FPLOON]

The Warriors series, in particular... Warriors Orochi. Warriors Orochi 3 has 175 playable characters, let me repeat that. Warriors Orochi 3 has 175 playable characters. Each character has their own level and throughout the first four chapters, you're constantly unlocking new characters... now the issue arrives. This is a game, like every other video game, starts of easy and gets harder as you play. They'll up the AI a big, make 'em attack and block more... which isn't an issue. That's all skill-based and can be beat no matter the level. The other thing is, they up the attack and health of every enemy. Officers and normal grunts included. Every new character you unlock, starts at level one. Around act three the game reaches near peak difficulty. If you try and take one of your level one guys into that battle... they will be destroyed. The game does very little to fix this.

They were nice to include the option to spend the EXP points you earn and put them into new characters, but the higher they get, the more points it'll cost. So you can sink all of your EXP into one character just to, you know, progress the fucking game and try them out. Otherwise, you have to go play one of the early levels, which by then you should be sick and tired of playing. It got to the point where I just shouted "fuck it" and played as the same three people every time. And the game even recommends a certain team for every mission, because that mission is about them. But due to the fact that grinding takes for fucking ever, it's better to just stick with three characters.

So the issue, it's a total chore to actually play the fucking game it was meant to be played!!!!!

It's been a while since I've played Warriors Orochi 3, specifically, but I do remember stopping once that revelation seeped into my mind[footnote]Even though I could have beaten the game right then and there, thus not getting the best ending overall...[/footnote]... and it only got worse when it came to the missions that could only be played if certain characters got more "buddy-buddy" with each other, which you either choose to have then fight alongside one another for "free" EXP or have them have tea, I think, with one another at the cost of the money you would normally used to buy new, sometimes better weapons for your team... And to think I mainly bought it just to mainly do co-op like in the first Warriors Orochi game...

OT: Besides Warriors Orochi 3, I remember than happening to me in the first Hyperdimension Neptunia game for the PS3 when I became too impatient to wait for the next region to become available to cross, thus spending a good chunk of the time replaying the same dungeons in order to speed up the in-game time clock... Why do I now feel like I was missing something while doing all that?

Anyway, other than that, any game that I play where I end up caring about collecting any and/or all of the trochievements in general... I never thought I could hate Kingdom Hearts: RE:Chain of Memories, Jak 2, and Lollipop Chainsaw on an even more trivial level than I already did beforehand... despite really liking them in their own right...

 

[Sandjube]

Monster hunter, I guess. It gets annoying if you need to upgrade your weapon, and the part you need only has say, a 3% drop chance. It's even worse if it's a monster you hate fighting.

 

[G00N3R7883]

MechWarrior Online.

I'm a fan of the franchise, having played MW3, MW4, MechCommander 1 & MC2. I enjoy mech combat and I also enjoy customising my mechs weapon loadouts, taking them into battle, and then tweaking the loadout until it feels right for my playing style.

But MWO has often felt like a chore because of its F2P grinding systems. I can't afford to buy that mech ... better grind for CBills. My shiny brand new mech is weak ... better grind for XP. I like this mech and I want to max out its XP ... better buy and grind 2 other variants that I don't care about and have no desire to play, because the higher tiers are locked until you've levelled up 3 variants of the same mech.

 

[Dalisclock]

Most RPGs turn into this if they overstay their welcome. If I've poured 50 hours into a game then I absolutely feel like I must finish it. There's no time for pausing or faffing about. Except RPGs can be so grindy that your gaming session becomes just one big grindfest, even if I want to get it on with the story. And after I've inched my way through the next few cutscenes and plot developments, the grinding begins anew.

This is pretty much why I've never played an RPG for longer then 50 hours and usually finish with something like 40ish hours on the clock. Around the 30 hour mark I'm usually getting close to story completion or at least I'm to the point that I can more or less go everywhere with a decent expectation of surviving. Around the 40 hour mark I'm pretty much to the point where I've done all the things I want to do, found all the things I want to find and I start wrapping up and making plans to assault the final boss/dungeon.

I've never been able to stomach 100% completion just because I felt like I'm done with a game long before I get to the point and going for 100% feels like pointless grinding....so I can impress random people on steam that I don't know and don't care about?

 

[Dalisclock]

All sim games start initially as interesting, at least the ones I was willing to buy since it must have sparked some interest. Then somewhere just past mastery of everything you can do in the sim it dawns on me just how incredibly stupid it is to play a game that simulates anything that is in fact a real life activity. Yes, I'm looking at you Farming Simulator 2015 and Euro Truck Simulator 2.

At which point I stop and swear off sims for awhile and return back to what I consider real games.

Not to hijack but I'm still kind of confused by the existence of Bus Simulators. Most people ride the bus because it's cheap or because driving/parking a car in a normal city can be a massive pain. I don't imagine a lot of people coming from from a long day at the office, after being on a bus with annoying/smelly people and thinking "I'm gonna spend my evening playing a game about driving a city bus around and doing all the things a city bus driver does". So all of the annoyance and none of the pay.

I kind of get the sightseeing bit but google maps gives you the same experience without having to shell out $15 for it.

Not to mention, I can boot up any number of GTA like games, Hijack a bus and drive it around like a sociopathic maniac for catharsis if I want to role-play "Bus driver who got sick of dealing with the annoying passengers and decided to start running over bus stops in revenge".

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Mount and Blade: Warband after you take your first city as a new king. Even with Werecheg, easily the most defensible position in the game, it's hours of trying to get away long enough to get troops but while staying close enough to defend your villages so you don't have to worry about how the army will be paid. Once you get a couple of lords with buffer castles for enemies to attack instead of your villages it's pretty easy again though.

 

[Timeless Lavender]

I really love the Sims series but when I wanted them to be successful in their family and career, then it start becoming a little tedious. Also, MySims also have the same problem like Animal Crossing in that it is not about 'fun' but doing chores since your main objective is to do things that is not fun at all (like fishing). Finally, Pokémon games in general tend to be tedious when you want to level all your Pokémons to 100 (A dream that I wanted to complete).

 

[Dalisclock]

Practically all the AC games after Brotherhood for me became a massive chore halfway through, even Black Flag which I really love. I start every game with high motivation to finish it as close to 100% as possible but I always end up getting so burnt out from the (personally crappy) collectibles and filler side content to the point I never finish the main game even.


Maybe its just franchise fatigue xD

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with the AC series for this reason.

I felt AC2 was brilliant. A long, winding, epic tale of revenge, one stab at a time while getting to tour some of Italy's most beautiful cities, having a cool little home base to come back to and improve as well as the interesting mini-games that shed more light on the whole "Templars rewriting the history books since the beginning" aspect. I also really enjoyed the "Prince of Persia" levels where you were in some kind of obstacle course chasing a dude in order to get a piece of Altairs Armor and at the end you get to

Spoiler

Fistfight the Pope in the Vatican.

Then in Brotherhood they expanded from that but it felt they recycled a lot from 2. The towers were ok because they were new but now I had to buy shops all over Rome in order to buy from them, and then I could buy monuments for reasons. I started to feel more like a real estate developer then an assassin. The DaVinci missions were fun and it was cool to see Rome(which is a beautiful city). Being able to recruit other assassins and call upon them was cool but I would have liked something better then the assignment map, which felt very grindy.

Revelations was pretty much Brotherhood but in Turkey and little else. Oh, now there was a tower defense mini-game I tried to never have to play. Also by this point the towers are getting really, really old because I'd already played FC3 by this point. And pretty much everything else is once again much the same. Real estate, assassin map, pointless collectibles, seen it already. I only played it to see what happened to Altair using the memory discs and see the end of Ezio's story. Also the "Prince of Persia" levels to get the discs were pretty much the highlight for me outside of the flashbacks.

I have not played 3, but I do plan to playing it in the next month or so, after I play through 2,B and R.

But I did love 4, because it felt like a modern version of Pirates! and everything the remake from the early 2000's should have been. It felt like it had pretty much everything I wanted to do as a Pirate. Raid forts, check. Plunder ships, check. Explore exotic locales, check. Search for Treasure, check. Dive shipwrecks, check. Explore abandoned ruins, check. Hang with blackbeard, check. Also because Edward was an interesting asshole of a character who is notably flawed and yet somehow still likable.

 

[J Tyran]

EVE can do from time to time, less so in some respects but a while back it really could. Having to fuel corporation owned Starbases, managing ammunition and equipment manufacturing and things like that. At times you literally had to manage a small business and industrial Empire, not talking about the people that do it because they like that gameplay either.

Even living as a small group out in "deep space" meant everyone had to work together to make sure there were enough ships and enough ammunition to be able to survive and fight, even outright piracy and thievery isn't reliable and you still have to manage everything you loot and steal because having a bank full of cash will do you no good if all you have is a single cruiser left and you're 25 jumps from the nearest "store" or if your loot is for another type of ship or weaponry.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Minecraft, a thousand times. I used to moderate on a server- I loved that place, but I just got tired with Minecraft. I played it way too much, in the end it stopped being fun doing random shit for an excuse to hang around on the server but I stuck around for ages anyway.

OT: Trying to find a freaken shiny pokemon in Omega Ruby

Sure, I managed. Sure, I was able to come across my Shiny Ralts and catch her- and now she's an amazing Shiny Gardevoir.

BUT it took me 5 hours straight to come across one, and this was by doing the Dexnav strategy with massive amounts of repels with me. I don't even mean an hour of trying, break, and so on. I'm talking about doing over 300 Ralts encounters in multiple chain attempts. I'd get around 60 in a row, but the level 22 would teleport and break my chain.

Luckily I caught a level 15 Ralts with the rare ability of Mean Look. When I FINALLY came across this beauty, I was very fortunate to get the first move and use it... because after this Shiny tried teleporting. Imagine if I would of lost 5 hours of my day if the Shiny had gotten away. Felt like a chore that consumed my sanity man...

I feel your pain. Some of my friends are always breeding shinies and have dozens, but I went for one shiny Eevee and never again. Sure I've got an Umbreon that looks like it's straight out of Tron now, but it's just not worth the effort (and now endless boxes of fucking Eevees).

 

[ngl42398]

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. It's reached the point where all I have left is The Lost unlocks, so it's devolved to "hold R until you start next to a Cursed Room with 9 Lives in it". It's painful, and I really want to play. But, without that item, it's nigh-impossible to win with The Lost.