VGCulture - Rant on "Grind" and/in "RPGs"

Reference: Gamasutra - Grinding can be fun! by Simon Ludgate

Today, I'll be discussing on the topic of the word "grind" in videogames and touch upon the points in "Role-Playing Games (RPGs)" that led to the notorious word associated with modern day Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs).  This post is a response to Simon Ludgate's post on Gamasutra titled "Grinding can be fun!" which started as a reply on Brice Morrison's blog entry A Necessary Evil: Grinding in Games which is also on Gamasutra.  There is just too much to say after I read the article, and so here it is.

Source: http://trickster.ntreev.net/Download/WallPaper/2

I've played over 50+ MMOs and still play some of them now.  I love my MMORPGs, but I can't deny the fact that grinding has become a main part of a game's core mechanic in a lot of MMORPGs (specifically free ones) and has dumbed down a lot of games because of it.  "Grinding" is a term "usually" used to describe the act of performing a repetitive task to progress to the next part of the game which consists of killing large amounts of enemies one at a time in one specific area to level up, gain currency to buy a necessary item, or to fulfill a quest.  Players stop playing MMORPGs with "the grind" being the most common issue in every game.  I admit that I hate it too (for very good reasons, 50+ games remember?).  This has become apparent in a lot of RPGs and can be reflected onto even past RPGs.  So when Simon Ludgate starts off the argument that "Grinding can be fun" by using "Tetris", of all games to choose from, as an example that gamers "grind" all the time, I was incredibly befuddled.

"Yes, I'm going to talk about the grind in Tetris. Tetris is, by this definition, purely a grind. You do the same thing over and over again (move a block to the bottom of the map to delete "lines") in order to progress (to get more score). You grind to get a score and, once the game is over, that's it! You have your score! Care to do it all over again from the start? There's some parallel here to be made about Tetris "grinding" and WoW "grinding", I'm sure." - Simon Ludgate

Reading that one paragraph threw me off on a loop and made me question whether his definition of grind is the same one MMORPG players use:

 "Grinding is a term used in video gaming to describe the process of engaging in repetitive and/or non-entertaining gameplay in order to gain access to other features within the game, or to allow the player to "grind" better/faster." - Wikipedia: Grinding (video gaming) 

Source: http://maple-story.me/page/2

Simon is right about Tetris that all the player ever does is drop blocks down to form a line; however, he fails to mention the dynamics in gameplay and core concepts within Tetris as opposed to the monotonous task of "watching" the player's character killing the same spawn of enemies in a single area within World of Warcraft (WoW) which doesn't even apply any longer since they changed their game design.  Tetris has one specific goal of "getting the highest score possible within the limits of the player's ability before they lose."  Between the time the player starts the game and gets the "Game Over" screen, the player has to think fast and strategically on where to move, what piece fits best in each situation learned from past experience (assuming the player has played more than once), prepare for what comes next and foreseeing what the placements will look like and how it would be best solved.  There's actually a lot going on inside of our mind when playing Tetris and requires a lot of cognitive work.  It allows the player to think, react, and use skill to progress through the game.  When the player "loses" or get the "Game Over" screen, they get the satisfaction or is "rewarded" with a "High Score".  I am not going to use World of Warcraft as an example since I've heard that the grind is unnoticeable anymore after years of updates and expansions.  I will instead use my own experience in MMORPGs as an example.  This might not apply to the two games I'm about to mention anymore either since they both also have gone through a lot of improvements and updates.  My experience with Maple Story was the epitome of what grinding was all about.  I started playing the game when it first came to North America in 2005, and during that time there were barely any quests that changed the pace of the game or progressed the game any faster with experience points (and if they did it was to kill 500 of the same enemy type).  The first 10-20 levels were bearable and pretty easy to level up to, but the game became quite difficult to progress after a while.  I found myself sitting on a ledge where the enemy couldn't touch me while holding down the attack button until my character leveled up and was able to go to a higher level area.  This was only done so that I was able to move onto the next area to progress through the game.  The problem is that I end up doing the same thing routine when I get to the new areas.  The game became predictable and the player loses sight of what to look forward to since nothing really changes or becomes exciting.  I had the same problem with Trickster Online (pictured above in the beginning of the post) when I played and began to receive quests that had me kill 30, 50, 100 enemies of one area only to have me do it over again (and again, certain quests repeated 3 times from the same NPC).  It wouldn't have been so bad if the combat was intuitive or interesting requiring skill or thinking.  Unfortunately, the combat was clicking the enemy once and waiting for the enemy's life bar to drop down to zero with the occasion of the player using a potion or skill to speed up the process.  Unlike Tetris, as Simon didn't point out, an MMORPG doesn't have a specific goal in mind for the player such as getting the highest score possible and is rather based on the experience the player has when playing the game.  The game doesn't end and tell the player they have the highest score, only to keep doing what you did before and hopefully something good comes about.

"The problem is when games try to do too many things. WoW tries to be both a progression game and a PVP game and a Raiding game. So for people who want to play PvP and Raiding, the whole progression aspect is an unnecessary uphill climb preventing them from getting to where they want to be." - Simon Ludgate 

Source: http://www.downandb.com/

There's a saying that goes "It's not the destination, but the journey that matters."  This applies to videogames as well.  If one wanted to know the ending of a game, just go watch it on Youtube.  Is PvP what the player wants?  Find a PvP intensive game instead.  Simon touches upon this aspect in his article, but not enough on the game mechanics with a lot of MMORPGs.  If the destination is that important, make the trip there worthwhile.  If the game (with the developer in mind) puts the player through an arduous task, the player should be rewarded for it.  With most MMORPGs, the result of fulfilling a ridiculous quest of killing 500 enemies is directions of where to get the next quest that requires 1000 killed enemies.  That journey no longer has any real progression and instead brings the player back to where they started each time they are asked to do it again.  There are certain games that are designed so that the real game starts when the player gets into Player versus player matches, and the ones that people complain about the grind usually requires the player to get to level 60, 80, or 120 before they're able to do so (effectively at least).  As a game designer (and gamer) myself, I find it appalling that anyone should find it acceptable for anyone to play for several hundred hours before getting to enjoy the actual part of the game.  Sure, the time taken to get to end game content prepares the player on how to play the game, gathering the right equipment, and understanding the game mechanics; however, it doesn't take someone 3-5 hours to learn how to kill a new enemy the player's never seen before.  The gameplay between where the player wants to get to and where they stand should be as fun as the part of the game the player arrives at.  When I first played Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2 on Gamecube and got to my first boss, I couldn't beat it.  I had my character go through the same first level 1-2 more times before I was strong enough to take down the dragon.  In-between that time, I had a better understanding of the game, I gained a few levels, and I discovered a few new items I was able to use that helped me in the battle against the boss.  The shocking part of the game for me was when I found out that one episode only had 4 distinct areas.  After beating episode 1, I wasn't sure if I wanted to play the game anymore since I had gotten through it once already.  I tried out hard mode right afterwards and had a different experience from before.  Enemies were harder, strategies had to be changed, and I started finding rare items.  The game eventually spanned over 1000 hours of gameplay for me and I still play it up till now.  I was rewarded time and time again for the efforts of getting from one point to another.  There were times where I wasn't strong enough to get through an area and had to train or "grind" first.  The grinding in Phantasy Star Online was different from typical point-n-click MMORPGs since it played in real time with the player utilizing different weapons, skills, and strategies through a progressive level rather than staying in a single spawn point to click on the enemy.  There are so many MMORPGs that have the player sitting there clicking enemies with predetermined results based on statistics.  Not all MMORPGs are like this, and here are some of the changes that made WoW less of a grind (as far as I know).  Players can group up to do instances which are like private levels the player has to get through to fight a boss at the end.  For Phantasy Star Online, that's already the main core concept of the game which eliminates the need to stay in one area.  Back to WoW: PvP is available to players of lower levels and is restricted to their level group so that level 80's won't be one-shotting level 20's.  Simon might be right about some players wanting only the end game content of PvP and Raids for MMORPGs like WoW; however, that shouldn't mean the rest of the game has to be so boring.  In a MMORPG, the destination shouldn't be as important as the rest of the game.  The journey should be the fun part.  Phantasy Star Online Ep.1 & 2 (for me), like Tetris, had that dynamic in gameplay where the future was unexpected, the gameplay required thinking and it challenged the player.  From the article, it seems as through Simon might have confused the word "grind" to "repetition", which is also another problem players have with games.  Repetitive gameplay does have a bit to do with "grinding" but it's not the definitive definition for it.

"The problem with grind isn't a problem with the game design, it's a problem with the player's expectations. If a player expects to play the "end game" of a game and doesn't particularly enjoy the voyage there, then that voyage is a 'grind.'" - Simon Ludgate

Source: http://www.demons-souls.com/home.html

It's true that all player's have a different expectation of what they want out of a game and how they want to play, but that doesn't mean the rest of the game has to suck (going a bit casual there, but it sounds appropriate here).  When I first heard about Demon's Souls and how ridiculously difficult it was, I was interested.  When I heard that it was a unique multiplayer experience where the player can invade other players' games and PvP or team up to work together, I was convinced to get the game.  I did get it much later since I was still in college and away from my Playstation 3 (Got it summer of 2010).  I was "expecting" to team up with friends to play together, and perhaps participate in some PvP action.  I was disappointed at so many levels when I first played.  Multiplayer was done at random and set up by chance, the levels never change with the same enemies in the same exact areas every time, and there wasn't background music playing which astonished me.  Being the stubborn man I am, I continued to play the game to see if I could at least start to play multiplayer.  After working my way up to beating the first boss, all the levels were suddenly open for me to go to.  I explored, discovered some new enemies and items, and died a lot, but eventually got around to beating the second boss and realizing that everything I was expecting out of the game didn't matter anymore because I found the way the game was designed to be purposeful and entertaining in a way I didn't "expect."  I was always able to see the other players, but not interact with them.  This gave me a sense of belonging in something much larger than my own game I was playing in.  The levels and enemies may stay the same, but the way I played and the way the battles fought out changed each time.  And the absence of background music finally made sense when I started to encounter enemies that I may not have seen but could hear.  It allowed me to be more alert and keep an ear out for cues.  Discovering new strategies against new enemies and finding stronger items all became part of the rewarding system if the player was brave enough to push forward.  Though, character level have some effect towards battle, it doesn't impede on the player's ability to progress through the game and was largely determined by the player's own ability and knowledge.  And finally, I experienced my first invasion and was about to engage in a player versus player bout.  This literally happened last night after I beat the third boss and went to grab some extra souls (kind of currency used in the game) from an enemy and go back to the main base (the Nexus) to upgrade my "Soul Level".  I went to "Shrine of Storms" (just to be specific for those who have played the game) and killed off one Skeleton which was more than enough and ran back to the teleport that brought me back to the Nexus.  When I tried to go back, the game gave me a message that said: "You can't return during Multiplayer."  I thought to myself 'I don't remember setting up to multiplayer' and turned around to see a blue text on the floor.  Someone was requesting to come into the game and team up with me.  It was the first time I've seen it before, but I didn't plan on staying in the level so I didn't accept.  All of a sudden, in a ball of flame a player appeared and the screen displayed in large bold letters "YOU'RE BEING INVADED!"  It was a surreal experience and I got hit by the player's magic right away.  I started strafing left and right to avoid all magic fire and the player switched to his weapons to initiate an attack.  I did my best to roll in and stab them but was taken down after two hits and thus I died and lost my physical body form that I had just gained from beating the third boss.  I was "expecting" to participate in PvP eventually, but the invasion took me by surprise and I was engaged in it right then and there.  So in rebuttal to Simon's argument that "The problem with grind isn't a problem with the game design, it's a problem with the player's expectations" I don't believe that a player should be the one to blame whether the game is fun or not.  It was those elements of "surprise" and discoveries I DIDN'T "expect" from the game that made it all the more involving and interesting.  The way Simon words it, it sounds like a game designer saying "It's not a glitch, it's part of the game design."  (Something similar was said by one of the directors or producers of "Epic Mickey" and player's complaint about the camera orientation).

Simon really brought about a topic worth discussing, but approached it with a seemingly misconceived idea of what player's dread about "grind".  His article leans more toward the concept of repetitive gameplay rather than a repetitive action.  My arguments, in the end, are only my opinions and may not hold a strong claim (so it's okay to point things out like I have in Simon's article like he did with Brice Morrison's article).  "Grinding can be fun!" and believe it can be for certain games, but I think Simon could have approached it better had he addressed the actual problem rather than the idea around it.


And about repetitive gameplay, I think I might talk about that tomorrow.  It sounds like an interesting topic to touch upon.