I've Hit Rock Bottom! Somebody Save Me!
I've Hit Rock Bottom! Somebody Save Me!
This is a late night rant, so it might be incoherent. Apologies in advance...
I started writing a blog in defense of mundanity of gameplay mechanics in games, and not in a satirical way either. If you've been following my blogs, you'll know that I was considering giving up gaming for a while. Part of the reason is the number of releases that I can't seem to keep up with, but there also doesn't seem to be a lot of originality in new games with the exception of a few and maybe a handful of indie games, although I do feel like indie games are getting too comfortable with 2D plaltformers/puzzle genre and really need to move on from this. Aside from the few new game releases that I played this year, I kept falling back to the same repetative quest grinding of free-to-play MMOs and the gem/loot collecting of self-playing, no-thinking-required mobile games. As much as I like to consider myself open minded and wanting new ideas from games, I fall back into comfortable habits because I already know I'm going to enjoy the experience. The redundancy in gameplay has really just become filler, a way to keep you into something that is actually quite empty-- and I keep falling for it? I wonder if this addictive design of reduncy and instant reward-for-doing-nothing system is seriously harming my judgement when it comes to new game experiences that are well...different or is it a negative side effect of binge gaming.
Does anyone else feel this way? Are you okay with redundancy? I know that this type of argument has been made against MMOs, but also includes franchises, like GTA, Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, Mario and Pokemon games.
Update: I should have been more specific.By 'redundancy' I mean there is no point to gameplay aside from keeping you playing without 'meaningful rewards'. You aren't necessarily becoming stronger or learning strategies like in a MOBA or a hard raid in an MMO or a fighting game. It's just there to keep you from finishing something for as long as possible--unnessary basically. Grinding in certain types of games like a Final Fantasy game does make you stronger if you are having trouble beating a boss for example so it can be a resourceful tool, but some mobile games give you a time out unless you wait an hour or buy 'gems' or whatever bullshit currency to keep playing like old arcade or pinball machines. Even with the arcade/pinball analogy, you can make a quarter go on forever if you become skilled at a game so even arcades/pinball do it better.
-asrealasitgets
(Divinity Original Sin is quite hard to get into at first, possibly due to the streamlining and consolisation of other popular RPGs? )
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