why grind?

[The Rockerfly]

Only 200 hours in Disgaea? That's nothing, I spent over 700 hours on it and got to a level which broke the counter and did over 9 billion damage for a regular attack

I did it because it was fun and it had some rare features that made it limitless along with it's limitless gameplay it was fun as hell and I kept going until I got bored

I thing other's maybe different though

 

[Iron Lightning]

I try not to grind. RPGs get much more boring when enemies stop being a challenge and start being a nuisance.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

I freaking love grinding, but that is probably just me.
Knowing that with every rat I kill, I get a little bit stronger is a pretty cool thought to me.

 

[rsvp42]

There's only one game I grind in, and it's Pokemon. And it's so that I can be the very best, like no one ever was. Without grinding, I'd never catch them, and therefore never train them (as is my cause). I spend hours grinding across the land, searching far and wide for more Pokemon to grind. I need to grind with them, so I can understand them, and the power that's inside.

EXCELLENT.

As for me, grinding is a nice straightforward way of ensuring a new dungeon or boss fight won't be a bleedin' pain in the ass. I don't enjoy being on the verge of death after every battle or so, using up all my healing items and wasting all my mana, MP, AP, or whatever. I grind as far as necessary to ensure that I can get through a dungeon with minimal loss of HP/MP, making the inevitable boss fight that much easier. I'd rather spend a little time grinding, then going into a dungeon, getting my ass kicked, then having to grind anyway. I could probably stand to grind less than I do, but another benefit of grinding is that it rarely takes much energy or focus. I love it when it's on a handheld because then I can still pay attention to other things like TV or friends.

Should the designers of these games eliminate grind? I'm not sure. I know it's not "fun" in the normal sense, but I can't help feeling it adds to the overall experience of an RPG. Grinding is like training for a big fight. Maybe it feels more believable when you have to work for a victory instead of being conveniently well-leveled for every part of the game?

 

[masher]

X3 Your avatar is Tsuruya and you just went "nyoro~!". You, sir, win, in my book.

OT: A way to pass time? That or some type of OCD.

 

[wolfkts]

Grinding is only fun for me if there is a rare reward. The chance of picking up a rare item is enough for me to keep killing the same enemies.

I tend to grind games with RPG elements to make it a little easier down the line.

 

[insectoid]

I think it's less that the player enjoys the grinding itself, but rather considers the effort worth the reward garnered by said grinding.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

People grind to make the game easier or they lack the necessary strategy to beat bosses. Comment number 15 is a good example of this as he didn't know really know the bosses weaknesses. If you know the game and strategy you can exploit things without being game breaking. In FFX I won all my fights with Aeons because I made Yuna into a tank type character like Auron. In FFVIII I won nearly all my boss fights with Meltdown-Aura-Renzokuken-Pulse Ammo. With FFVII Ultima/Demi/Comet + Quadra Magic. Although some people like me use it for insurance against the games normal bosses and to try and fight the secret bosses.

 

[Veleste]

Repetetively doing the same mindless task is soothing for the brain. It why I grind, my brain can go on haitus and rest or mull over other things.

 

[blankedboy]

Grinding can be good if it gets played around with. I tend to stick to the MMORPG that doesn't have any grinding

I have to ask... seriously, and no disrespect intended. Is there such thing as an MMORPG that isn't at least 98% grind? Every one I've ever seen looks like a total grind sandwich. Every one of my friends who play MMORPG's seriously love grind and play for that specific reason. I dislike grind, and any kind of RPG usually contains too much grind. I love RPG's that make an attempt to reduce grind. FF VIII with it's level appropriate enemies allows you just to blast through the story, and I loved it. Western RPG's like KOTOR limit grind, and those are awesome. But even "limiting" grind in an RPG only takes it down to 35% or so. Hell, I thought Borderlands (an FPS for goodness sakes) had too much grind.

So just askin', what MMORPG limits grind? I might be able to like one for once. Up until now, I couldn't stand even a single hour of Everquest or WoW.

I love it when I post that, and someone quotes it. I got about 7 quotes last time
Win [http://drift.ijji.com]

 

[Flour]

From what you said,your bud ground for EXP in order to make the game laughably easy,and arguably,far less fun.

Except that the whole point of most Nippon Ichi [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NipponIchi] games is to get to those absurd power levels. Hell, in Disgaea 3 even a level 9999 character with maxed out items still isn't strong enough to survive some enemies' attacks.(those enemies have tens of millions in their stats) The only way to survive is to grind items and get higher stats than the enemies so you can kill them before they kill you.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

It?s probably the prospect of reward; you do a mindless task for however long and get some sort of reward from it.
I?ve played a couple of FTP MMO?s grinded for a while quite happily but then I get bored and when you get bored of such a game it really means the end for it and a lot of things like it for a while. Another was Dark Cloud, I didn?t go for all the level weapons, I didn?t even level anyone?s but the main characters sword past what I needed to progress. Then I got to the end the main character didn?t have a fully levelled sword but it was in its last form. I couldn?t beat the boss. Another character I needed didn?t do enough damage and he had a stupid attack that can only be avoided by having stamina drinks which I didn?t have enough money for because I spent it all on levelling the damn sword. I put the game down and watch the ending on YouTube quite happily. There was no way in hell I was going back into those dungeons to collect money and level up other characters weapons. Torchlight finally, the entire game is a repetitive grind fest, I got almost to the end of the story after doing a fair bit but got bored again and I may or may not pick it up again when I can be bothered with it.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

I guess it's just extremely satisfying when you level up, and people crave that satisfaction.

Plus, it gives you a goal to achieve.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I despise it. I barely tolerate even basic levelling in games, unless it doesn't infringe too much like fallout 3. I played through Mario and luigi: partners in time without grinding at all. I didn't even clear most rooms of enemies, because I just wanted to press forward and see what happened.
The last boss took over an hour...
At least you could technically beat the game without levelling at all, which is pretty cool.

Edit: I should clarify that I hate levelling because it gives you an artificial sense of badassery, whereas to me the best games won't increase your power at all and just demand more of you to beat harder enemies. You can then go back to the earlier levels and see how ridiculously easy it is, all by your own skill. Now that is what I love.

 

[Angerwing]

can someone please explain the appeal in grinding? I have a friend who logged over 200 hours in Disgea three and can one-shot every opponent in the game with every character... I enjoy Disgea as much as the next JRPG fan... for the story, why anyone would go on without exposition or backstory motivation is beyond me... help me out Escapist nyoro~!

We here frown on gimmicks and signature related things. We only allow it when it's actually constructive to the conversation (see: Jack and Calumon). We get pissed off when it's just a useless gimmick that pointlessly seeks to differentiate people from the herd, without actually differentiating people from the herd (see: Bass kid, your nyoro~ stuff).

Seriously, cut that shit out.

OT: I've clocked up more than two months play time in WoW. I know my way around a good grind.

 

[Demongeneral109]

X3 Your avatar is Tsuruya and you just went "nyoro~!". You, sir, win, in my book.

OT: A way to pass time? That or some type of OCD.

I love you fovever for being the only person that realized that! THANK YOU!!!...nyoro~

 

[Demongeneral109]

People grind to make the game easier or they lack the necessary strategy to beat bosses. Comment number 15 is a good example of this as he didn't know really know the bosses weaknesses. If you know the game and strategy you can exploit things without being game breaking. In FFX I won all my fights with Aeons because I made Yuna into a tank type character like Auron. In FFVIII I won nearly all my boss fights with Meltdown-Aura-Renzokuken-Pulse Ammo. With FFVII Ultima/Demi/Comet + Quadra Magic. Although some people like me use it for insurance against the games normal bosses and to try and fight the secret bosses.

how did you do that???

 

[Treeinthewoods]

I love a good grinding game, the OCD that makes me kind of a pain in the ass in reality makes me a super beast in most RPG's. Level uppening is the best!

 

[similar.squirrel]

Perhaps they hate their lives and don't wish to leave the house. That seems like the most plausible theory.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

can someone please explain the appeal in grinding? I have a friend who logged over 200 hours in Disgea three and can one-shot every opponent in the game with every character... I enjoy Disgea as much as the next JRPG fan... for the story, why anyone would go on without exposition or backstory motivation is beyond me... help me out Escapist nyoro~!

We here frown on gimmicks and signature related things. We only allow it when it's actually constructive to the conversation (see: Jack and Calumon). We get pissed off when it's just a useless gimmick that pointlessly seeks to differentiate people from the herd, without actually differentiating people from the herd (see: Bass kid, your nyoro~ stuff).

Seriously, cut that shit out.

OT: I've clocked up more than two months play time in WoW. I know my way around a good grind.

I'm kind of new here but how does writing the word Nyoro at the end of a sentence harm the discussion in the forum? I can understand hating the giant picture signatures I've seen elsewhere but come on, it's a word at the end of a sentence. Being dickish about a word is really, really just not necessary.