What makes grinding relaxing rather than tedious?

[StaceyPowers]

Grinding in games tends to be described as either extremely monotonous or relaxing, depending on the person and the game. For you to enjoy grinding in a game and find it more relaxing than tedious, what needs to happen?

[Patrik]

Grinding in online games is a whole level of pleasure, especially if you are setting goals for stats, i tried doing that recently again and it was so cool

[Withywarlock]

Speed.

The reason why I loved doing Insane in the Membrane for World of Warcraft is because I was quickly killing quickly respawning enemies. It took me ~21 days from about 6AM to 9PM to do because the requirements were so great and I was courteous enough to leave some mobs for anyone questing, but I enjoyed it because it wasn't difficult. Meanwhile I can get more reputation for a faction in Revendreth per kill, but the kills take longer because it's newer, higher level content. I do not enjoy the rep grind in Revendreth as much.

That, and being autistic and having ADHD helps thanks to hyperfocus. And being unemployed allowed me to spend as long as I could during that time.

[Empire]

To me, grinding can only be fun if the gameplay itself is rewarding. Take dark souls for example, farming souls and titanite chunks from those giants in Anor Londo presents an interesting challenge each time you do it, which keeps it interesting. Mindlessly clicking things over and over with 0 risk of dying is the absolute worst thing a game can do.

[Shagger]

For me, all it really takes is for the game to be fun to play. If you enjuy the combat and exploring the areas you're moving around in within the game grinding is something I can easily tolerate, or even enjoy.

5 minutes ago, Empire said:

To me, grinding can only be fun if the gameplay itself is rewarding. Take dark souls for example, farming souls and titanite chunks from those giants in Anor Londo presents an interesting challenge each time you do it, which keeps it interesting. Mindlessly clicking things over and over with 0 risk of dying is the absolute worst thing a game can do.

 

I'd say that's, at most, the second worst. 

The worst and the point, at least for me, when grind really becomes a problem, and an all to common one nowadays, is when games are deliberately designed to tedious, slow and annoying to aid the goal in selling microtransactions. Basically making a game's grind so unappealing that you will want to pay money to not play it. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but that is the truth behind these types of microtransactions. 

[The Blackangel]

A bit of fairness. For example in RDR2, you need to collect a lot of different hides for the ultimate satchel. They all have to be perfect. One of those is a squirrel. One of the best places i the game to get a squirrel to spawn is near a wooden bridge. But you're not able to shoot past the bridge. Your bullet only hits invisible wood, no matter how good of a shot you have. You will not hit anything on the other side of the bridge, and you have to be across the bridge to get the squirrels to spawn. But no matter where you in relation to the bridge, your bullet will always hit wood and nothing else if you aim in the direction of the bridge. It pisses me off because the squirrels are thick there, but they won't come up on the same side of the bridge as you. Herbivore bait doesn't help, and scent cover lotion doesn't help.

[m76]

10 hours ago, Empire said:

To me, grinding can only be fun if the gameplay itself is rewarding. Take dark souls for example, farming souls and titanite chunks from those giants in Anor Londo presents an interesting challenge each time you do it, which keeps it interesting. Mindlessly clicking things over and over with 0 risk of dying is the absolute worst thing a game can do.

Exactly, grinding can only be fun if the task you do is fun in of itself. For example clearing forts in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is described as a grind by most, yet I loved doing it, because there is ample risk and reward each time. It always starts with sneaking around, taking out enemies, until all hell breaks loose and it turns into an all out battle.  And the reward is not only the XP, you gain but the loot you collect if you succeed. As each fort has one or a few high ranking enemies who will drop epic or legendary loot. On top of the loot hidden in the fort itself. 

[killamch89]

Decent rewards for the grinding - that's all it boils down to. Imagine grinding for a rare item that has drop rate 0.000089%? It's not worth it in that scenario and I wouldn't recommend anyone to do it either.

[lludawg]

Personally I am a huge fan of good music! I used to grind levels in Maplestory and the music was just so good that I could relax and grind for hours. Good visuals also play a huge part for me too. 

[DarthVanity]

On 4/27/2021 at 12:19 PM, StaceyPowers said:

Grinding in games tends to be described as either extremely monotonous or relaxing, depending on the person and the game. For you to enjoy grinding in a game and find it more relaxing than tedious, what needs to happen?

Like others have mentioned it all really depends on things and it's mainly personal preference. If I I having fun and have some good music it helps. Even being in a call with my brothers or cousins mame it enjoyable then I'm all for it!

[skyfire]

New maps. New character tangent stories. And also the reward to make the level feel less headache. That sort of the approach can make it easier for you to relax. But it depends on the player a lot. 

[Heatman]

I always look up to something with any game that I decided to play and once I'm getting that while playing the game, I'm definitely relaxed and fully enjoying the game.