When play feels like work.

[Iwata]

Most games have this, but some more than others. What were the occasions in gaming when you thought to yourself "hey, what I'm doing ammounts to a second job, and I'm not even getting payed for it!"

I gotta say mine happened early on when trying out EVE Online.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Mining in EVE Online is a pretty damn good example, there's no question about that. I think mining in actual life is more exciting.

 

[Zhukov]

Mount & Blade inevitably starts to feel like that after a while.

Grinding XP to level up troops for garrisons, then constantly running from one end of my little kingdom to the other fending off an endless succession of raids and incursions.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

Project Reality, Battlefield 2 Mod. It's an amazing overhaul and I love it but sometimes I feel like I'm actually in the fucking army when I spend half the match defending an empty road and digging foxholes. These matches can take up to like 4 hours each btw.

 

[Jazoni89]

Harvest Moon falls in to this quite a bit.

Still, there is a overwhelming sense of achievement when you do get your crops, and animals sorted out.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

I'am going to mention one of the worst gaming experiences I had in recent years: The ressource-gathering "minigame" in ME2.....Oh my fucking god. It was so utterly boring and repetitive, it made me really angry - especially since even the MAKO in ME1, i.e. driving around on a planets surface till you see a ressource sign pop up on your radar, was much, much better in that regard....

 

[wintercoat]

Having to grind out several levels to get passed a boss 10 levels higher than the trash.

"Challenges" that exist solely to make you hate yourself by being ridiculously hard while being completely mandatory. Forcing players to knock down a wall with their face is not good design.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Animal Crossing.

I was checking the tree for fruit, sneaking up on bugs with a net, checking the shore for any items that wash up on shore and digging the ground for fossils.

I did this everyday for two hours all to pay back some racoon. Yup it sound like work to me well paying your debt.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

It got a bit that way for me with COD. In the end I was only playing it because my friends wanted me to.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Harvest Moon falls in to this quite a bit.

Still, there is a overwhelming sense of achievement when you do get your crops, and animals sorted out.

Very true. I am still trying to quit Harvest Moon but...shit, it does get pretty satisfying when things go well. Buying my first chicken was a big achievement and I nearly had a squirt when I got my first Cow.

Final Fantasy XIII...when you don't skip the cutscenes.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Try having played World of Warcraft for almost six years, only recently leaving it for good, and looking back on how you used to spend your time with shame. That game is the definition of a game that feels like a job that you pay for.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I'am going to mention one of the worst gaming experiences I had in recent years: The ressource-gathering "minigame" in ME2.....Oh my fucking god. It was so utterly boring and repetitive, it made me really angry - especially since even the MAKO in ME1, i.e. driving around on a planets surface till you see a ressource sign pop up on your radar, was much, much better in that regard....

Yeah, it blows my mind that anyone thought that would be a good idea. I mean, these people get paid money to design games, and have access to playtesters. It's literally the equivalent of the the game designer saying "okay, now click 50 times with 5 seconds between each click. Then you get the upgrade.

OT: multiplayer shooters where you unlock crap. Just give me the guns so I can have fun with them kthx.

 

[Muspelheim]

It was that creeping realization that made me stop raiding back in Burning Crusade. I do still sporadically play World'o'Warcraft, but I only do things I -actually- want to do. It's quite refreshing, it's like being retired or something.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Ehm... recently? Probably the bloody renovations in AC cities... s'like I'm a bloody landlord.

OK, that's getting old now, but it still holds, especially when you have to go around killing jackasses so that the bailiffs don't come a knockin'.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I can't think of any, actually. At least, not like what's described.

Every time I realize that a game feels like a job, it's accompanied by the realization that it's a job I enjoy doing, that I work by commission, and that my compensation is whatever the result of my actions are.

 

[Dirty Apple]

That would be the one and only MMO I've ever subbed to, SW:Galaxies.

I had a moment of clarity when I woke up early one morning to check my factories and answer an angry IM from a customer. I made a good chunk of my creds doing custom orders, and this guy was displeased with how long it was taking. Round about the second apology on my part, I took a step back and saw how far down the rabbit hole I'd actually fallen.

I returned the guys credits and quit the game a week later. I already had a job where customers routinely dumped on me. Why would I want, and/or need, another?

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Animal Crossing.

I was checking the tree for fruit, sneaking up on bugs with a net, checking the shore for any items that wash up on shore and digging the ground for fossils.

I did this everyday for two hours all to pay back some racoon. Yup it sound like work to me well paying your debt.

That game is evil. The guys behind it are sorcerers, they've managed to make paying of a debt fun, and I have no idea why or how.

I'd have to go with this too, and some of the parts in mount and blade. Though M&B is still amazing.

 

[Hap2]

Every single game that has multitudes of fetch quests and "go kill this guy over here" sidequests with minimal effect on the story or the experience, aside from maybe obtaining some in-game cash or items.

It's gotten to the point I simply will end up stabbing people in Kingdoms of Amalur that ask, rather than be subjected to another round of 'collect-something-I-am-too-lazy-or-incompetent-to-get-for-myself' again.

 

[daveman247]

Yeah, it blows my mind that anyone thought that would be a good idea. I mean, these people get paid money to design games, and have access to playtesters. It's literally the equivalent of the the game designer saying "okay, now click 50 times with 5 seconds between each click. Then you get the upgrade.

OT: multiplayer shooters where you unlock crap. Just give me the guns so I can have fun with them kthx.

You want everything to be unlocked at the start? Come on man, you have to earn your shit.

It could have been handled better in ME2 though.

 

[LetalisK]

Mount & Blade inevitably starts to feel like that after a while.

Grinding XP to level up troops for garrisons, then constantly running from one end of my little kingdom to the other fending off an endless succession of raids and incursions.

...because the lords you put in charge are too fucking stupid to defend their own shit even though you gave them some top-notch soldiers to help them defend with....