Grinding
The repeating of simple actions many times to collect resources or complete goals.
Games often only let players choose what to do from a small set of possible actions. Even so, the choice of which action to perform can make the gameplay interesting or can the challenge of succeeding in performing the action. However, some games require players to, at least some of the time, repeatedly perform actions that are trivial to do so many times that the primary challenge becomes to endure. This type of gameplay is called Grinding.
Contents
Examples
Games that require players to collect resources for later use, e.g. Minecraft, World of Warcraft, and Eve Online, often exhibit Grinding since the actual looking for the resources and collecting of them is rather easy to do but is something that needs to be done a lot. The satirical game Progress Quest critiques these kinds of design by being a game where the computer does the Grinding for the players, leaving only the minimal character creation in the beginning of the game in the hands of the player.
Games with a high level of granularity in the variables and elements in the game world, e.g. the Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis series, can easily force players into Grinding just to set all parameters correctly or move all their units.
Some games keep count of simple actions performed by players and reward them with achievements when certain levels have been reached, e.g. Pharm-Assist for giving a total of 10 pain pills to other players in the first installment of the Left 4 Dead series and Master Smasher for breaking 1500 containers in Torchlight. Although these would have been repetitious if they had to be done consecutively, they are typically spread out over the gameplay and only become Grinding when players focus their gameplay on getting the achievements.
Using the pattern
Grinding may not a pattern that players necessarily wish to have in a game, but it can be needed to provide actions to do in Unwinnable Games. The main challenge with designing Grinding is providing Rewards that do not advance players position in the game globally, which typically leads to the Rewards being either Illusionary Rewards or Social Rewards.
A concrete way of creating Grinding in a game is to require the Collecting of Resources. To avoid them having too much impact on the game progression, these resources can either be worthless or have Diminishing Returns when changed into something else through Converters or Crafting.
One a higher level of abstraction, Red Queen Dilemma can provide Grinding by mitigating players' progress by matching it with Ever Increasing Difficulty.
Achievements Exaggerated Perception of Influence Mules AI Players Quick Travel Persistent Game Worlds Non-Player Help Encouraged Return Visits
Consequences
Give that Grinding typically is experienced as a form of labor, it adds Excise to a game. Even if Grinding is not perceived as enjoyable by players, having completed a goal based on it (e.g. Grind Achievements) does provide a basis for a sort of Game-Induced Player Social Status.
Given the nature of the Grinding activity, it can support Casual Gameplay but works less well with Challenging Gameplay.
Relations
Can Instantiate
Casual Gameplay, Excise, Game-Induced Player Social Status, Unwinnable Games
Can Modulate
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Can Be Instantiated By
Collecting, Illusionary Rewards, Red Queen Dilemma, Social Rewards
Can Be Modulated By
Converters, Crafting, Diminishing Returns, Rewards
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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