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

aozgolo

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This concept may be a bit hard to explain but bear with me. Have you ever had a game you really enjoyed but have a hard time getting into because you've set yourself up a specific task to do either in the game or with the game in general (like modding) that you end up dreading the work it will take to get to the point you wish to enjoy it again?

I've done it many times.


I love Skyrim but I've modded it so heavily that I now have so many tiny little issues cropping up from random crashes, horrible FPS in some places, and graphic anomalies that I need to wipe it and start fresh and hopefully mod it "properly"... the task ahead of me in "fixing" the game has kept me from playing it at all for months.

As much as I enjoy The Sims or SimCity, I tend to over-plan my games and before even getting to the "play" part I want to build satellite cities, terraform locations, create a huge number of families, create and finish all my downtown/vacation/old town areas... and it just gets to the point where I never get around to actually PLAYING the game.

Terraria I skipped over doing much construction and just had a basic base and barrelled through acquiring massive amounts of materials, upgrading my equipment, exploring, etc. Now finally I want to build my ultimate base at the end-game and the sheer size and complexity of is so daunting I never get anywhere with it.

What games do you enjoy that you've turned into cumbersome chores that make it hard to just get in and enjoy the way you "used to"?
 

tippy2k2

Beloved Tyrant
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Madden 15

I play in a "fantasy" Madden league with two buddies. The problem that happens every freaking year (why it still surprises me I don't know) but eventually, the games against the computer (which is at least 13 per "year") just become going through the motions. The game just isn't smart enough to handle human opponents who get to use the awful trading system to absolutely gouge the computer every year.

I have seven first round draft picks this year. Seven!!! You know how many I had last year? NINE! Nine freaking draft picks because the games AI is perfectly fine with trading their first rounders for a bunch of garbage late picks. So the three humans have power house teams that absolutely curb stomp the computer but I can't NOT have a power house team because the other two humans will keep powering up so that we can beat each other.

Now the only time the computer even has a chance is when it either cheats (which on the All-Madden difficulty it loves to do) or when I'm paying so little attention that by the time I realize I should be trying, it's too late. Playing the humans is still fun but those games against the computer just kind of suck for all the wrong reasons...
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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Skyrim for me. In fact, every Bethesda RPG.

At first I'm all excited to explore this giant wide-open world and build a character. But slowly the repetition just sinks in. Clearing dungeons just becomes a task ("Oh look, Tomb-o-Draugr #15, and right next door we have Bandit Den #12, what fun!") and there's no narrative elements worth shit to keep me engaged. I slowly putter out and eventually just stop, left with only the sensation of a boring trudge and that vague unease of a game unfinished.

Another would be Mount and Blade.

Despite the lack of polish, I love its approach to open world, where everything is unscripted and organic and as you gain power you can actually influence the events going on. It's an actual sandbox rather than just a very large map to walk around in. Sadly, it always devolves into a complete grind. You grind through villages for recruits, you grind battles to level them up, then you grind sieges to capture territory. All while defending your borders, which quickly becomes a grind in itself. Alternatively you can appoint a Marshal and then wander around doing nothing at all while the AI grinds for you.
 

Extra-Ordinary

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Mar 17, 2010
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Kind of a weird way to answer the question, but I feel that way for series I get into, in hindsight
Here's the thing, when a release comes out that looks interesting to me but it's part of a series, I always have to go through the old ones if at all possible, I just do, I feel like I'll miss out if I don't. I've done it with Resistance, Devil May Cry, and Resident Evil to some extent. And while I did enjoy those games while I was playing them, in hindsight, I realized I only did it because I was making myself.
I wanted to get to the latest entry, and every game between myself and that felt like a checkbox. I definitely enjoyed them, just not as much as if I was in it from the start.
 

SoreWristed

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Dec 26, 2014
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Destiny.

I've absolutely loved this game up until a certain point. This point is basically the same for every player and it consists of having three characters at level 31 (32 being the cap) and having nothing else to do besides run through the raid over and over again to finally get the single piece of armor that will allow you to reach the next level. It doesn't help that you can only run the raid once a week.

For those who don't know how this system works, armor contains a 'Light' value, and only if you are decked out with a full suit of armor with a max value of 36 are you able to reach the levelcap. You get this armor at a value of 30, and you need shards to upgrade it. You need about 21 shards to be able to max out your armor and these shards come from the same place you got the armor.

This means you have a lot of people who log on just to run the single raid that gives you either armor or shards.
This is mostly a problem with a lack of content, but it get's people burnt out really fast.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
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Dec 6, 2010
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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!!!!!

Notable mentions: Mount and Blade(there is a reason I cheat every fucking game)
Every Lego game ever
 

Starbird

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Sep 30, 2012
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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..
 

TheArcaneThinker

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Jul 19, 2014
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Has anyone here played the Fallout New Vegas : Dead Money DLC ? That's true mental torture... Every single second of that DLC is pure torture...
Anyone who has played it , knows what I mean...
The whole DLC is based on the idea die-reload-retry.
At the base level you have an explosive collar that will explode you head if you take the wrong path and starts a count down to explode if you are near electronic devices making you constantly die and keep quick loading till you find where that hidden radio is...
Added to that, there are the enemies, that deal serious amount of damage, but even worse they can't die.
Yes, because if you don't destroy, at least one, of their limb, they'll just go knok-out for a while. The holographic enemies are frustrating too requiring you to stealth pass them... This would be okay if the levels weren't long , frustrating and boring.

Even if at the end you find 300'000k of caps, all the pain in it make them worthless.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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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.
 

shintakie10

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Sep 3, 2008
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I get this way with a lot of games that have pointless collectibles. I loved Assassins Creed 2, but have never finished it because I get myself totally wrapped up in doing all the pointless side garbage. There's not even a point most of the time. On my save I have I actually own everything I can possibly own right now because I spend way too much time pickpocketing and yet I still keep doing the dumb catch people side quests to the point I started hating it.
 

Super Cyborg

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JRPGs in general become a chore at certain points due to grinding. The good ones minimize it, but it will come eventually. Love the SMT games, but during certain times you need to spend a good bit of time grinding to have a chance of winning, or need to battle constantly to get demons/skills/whatever you want. I never got a handle on the demon talk system, which there would be times I needed to attempt over and over to get a demon to join me, but everything is so randomized it would take 20 minutes to an hour trying to get the thing, and that's assuming you are high level enough to get them. In Persona 3 limits the amount you can fight each night, which makes it even more tedious, and Persona 4, you are hard pressed to continue on more than 1 or 2 floors at a time before either using all your money to heal, or stop for the day and come back again. To an extent, the tedium is alleviated a little by being able to make new demons, which having the right ones can make you not need to level up 5 more levels.

I'm only a little bit into Bravely Default, but leaving the encounter rate on the highest setting the whole time allows me to encounter enemies fast and level up faster, that by the time I get to the end the bosses aren't a problem.

Endgame extra stuff for all of them becomes a chore, which I usually never go through. Having to spend hours to level up, get that .01% drop X number of times for an uber weapon, finding all the items to summon the uber boss. It becomes very painful at times. One of the few exceptions is getting the Gold Chocobo in FF7, because the racing is engaging, and if you know what you are doing, it's not terribly long to get the job done.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Aug 28, 2014
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CoD multiplayer. Used to be able to play it for hours, now I barely tolerate a match.

Most RPGs that don't have a large selection of armor or weapons immediately. I get bored of my appearance easily and will grind and grind to find new ones.

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...".
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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Star Trek Online, everything outside of the story missions becomes boring and repetitive. I couldn't even finish the latest story expansion because I didn't meet the min level to do the next mission so I had to fly around doing boring repetitive missions to level up. Fuck that.
 

Blitsie

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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
 

Danny Dowling

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May 9, 2014
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Destiny.

Destiny became a chore. I'm only writing this extra bit so I don't get flagged for spam. Destiny was fun and it became a chore.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Pokemon Red - Heartgold before they made Exp Share an key items and allowing all of your party team level up and aswell not dividing the experience earned.

Before that, I alwyas keep my party at the same level meaing when one of them reach a level, I switch it out for the next lower level team member. Combine that with the Gym Leader Pokemons. There has been many time that I played the game ONLY leveling up in my played session. Yeah it got very boring!

Other than that, there's Borderlands 2 The Pre Sequel. I pretty much do all the sidequests before continuing the main quests HOWEVER I liked to do them within the same map area. I have complete the game enough to know the quest branch out as in where it will take me so it kind become going to point A to point B in a map.

Basically doing this and combining with the extra time killing the mobs means my play session on the game can be quite long (over 2 hours) which these days I don't have alot of time to spend on a game.
 

Danny Dowling

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Scarim Coral said:
Pokemon Red - Heartgold before they made Exp Share an key items and allowing all of your party team level up and aswell not dividing the experience earned.

Before that, I alwyas keep my party at the same level meaing when one of them reach a level, I switch it out for the next lower level team member. Combine that with the Gym Leader Pokemons. There has been many time that I played the game ONLY leveling up in my played session. Yeah it got very boring!

Other than that, there's Borderlands 2 The Pre Sequel. I pretty much do all the sidequests before continuing the main quests HOWEVER I liked to do them within the same map area. I have complete the game enough to know the quest branch out as in where it will take me so it kind become going to point A to point B in a map.

Basically doing this and combining with the extra time killing the mobs means my play session on the game can be quite long (over 2 hours) which these days I don't have alot of time to spend on a game.
if you put exp share in the box it doesn't work on the older games. thats what i did
 

kris40k

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Feb 12, 2015
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Being an Industrialist in Eve Online. First you start off building your empire, then eventually you either dread logging in or you end up delegating.

That game really is based around social/corporate play.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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Any Bioware RPG after the first play-through. Once you realize how much bullshit mindless chores there are in KOTOR, Mass Effect 1-3, all the Dragon Age games...man...replaying them just to choose a few different options or a new romance. Better off just watching the scenes on YouTube.
The first time through, they're great. Truly truly, great. I am a rabid Mass Effect fan. I consider it the best game trilogy ever. But the planet scanning mechanic in Mass Effect 2?! Holy fuck! There must be 50+ star systems and only like 20 planets to ever do anything on! God, I'm currently replaying 2 because I've never romanced Liara all the way through the trilogy, and its a real grind! I guess I forget how boring the game can be because the cutscenes and characters are so memorable.
And I'm sure I'll completely forget again in 6 months when I want a Jack romance play-through.