OS Neutral Repetiveness In Gaming- How Long Can You Stay With It? :)

[Huntn]

It's interesting how repetitive all games are and I can still play them. What keeps me going? Honestly I'm not sure.

Some or all of the following characteristics depending on the game, in no particular order:
1.Immersive/realistic environment
2.Lore/story that the player participates in, influences the outcome.
3.Variety of activities
4.Variety of roles.
5.If Multiplayer- group dynamics
6.Strategy
7.Game progression
8.Upgrades in abilities.
9.Grind (negative)
10.Reflexes (such as twitchy FPS)
11.Technical skills, mastery of knowledge (such as flying, mastery of abilities)
12.Sexual Appeal
13.Territorial acquisition
14.Open World
15.Sandbox
16.Repetitive (negative)
17.Rely on combat/killing
18.No violence
19.Situational Management
20.Static
21.Dynamic

Number one, I have to say an immersive environment is a must, followed by variation of activities, group dynamics, the feeling that you are sharing this experience with other players even if you are functionally solo when in a multiplayer or MMO. When I examine the games I've played the longest, usually a year, but less than two years, they would be:

*Marathon (FPS, PVE, PVP, MP-1,2,5,6,10,17, MP21)- played multiplayer feature greater than 5 years.
*Unreal, Unreal Tournament (FPS, PVE, PVP, MP 1,2,5,6,10,17), MP21)-- UT is just a shooter, no story, but has PVE arena progress. Played longer than 5 years.
*SimCity (PVE 1,7,14,15,18,19,21)
*Civilization (PVE, PVP, MP, 1,5,6,78,13,14,17,19,21)
*Planetside (PVP, MP- 1,4,5,6,8,11,13,14,17,21)- Group combat, control islands.
*World of Warcraft (PVE, PVP, MP- 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,14,16,17,20)-Best open world MMORPG. Have played off an on since inception, this latest interaction will be short lived as I am truly burned out with it.
*Elder Scrolls-Oblivion, Skyrim (PVE Solo- 1,2,3,4,7,8,14,16,17,21)- Best open world RPGs.
*World of Tanks (PVP MP- 1,4,5,6,7,8,11,17,20)- Group combat. Two years plus and still going strong, due to group dynamics and tank progression.
*Elite Dangerous (PVE, PVP, MP- 1,3,4,5(maybe),7,8,9,11,14,15,16,17, 21)- Game has potential, having a galaxy to explore is great, but a couple months in and struggling with staying engaged. Trading is boring, dog fighting is fun, but against AI is getting repetitive. Currently not party friendly, no territorial acquisition, like Eve Online.

I note that almost all of the games that attract me rely on violence. Currently I'm playing 3 of the above games WoW, WoT, ED, and although Elite Damgerous has a bunch of numbers associated with it, as far as keeping me engaged, it's struggling.

2/25/15 Updated post to include "static" vs "dynamic" labels.

 

[fuchsdh]

I can stick with a game for a very, very long time. These days, especially with Games for Gold on my Xbox, I'm not actually buying many games.

Especially on my Mac, I stick with the same games. Minecraft and RCT3 are some of my favorites. To me open-ended gameplay is king—if I want to build a recreation of Bioshock's Rapture in Minecraft... I can.

 

[soulsyphon]

aspects i am attracted to are...

territorial conquest*
sandbox
world pvp and battlegrounds
multiplayer is a must
strategy

that's about it.

also open world means non instanced, so wow isn't an open world game, skyrim is however...

territorial conquest is only seen in eve and browser games... games like civ and endless space have it but i consider those single players, i know they have multiplayer option but finding someone to play with is a hassle... its also not fun and takes forever.

strategy is seen in eve, a new mmo called crowfall and starcraft

world pvp ... again eve, crowfall
battlegrounds... heroes of the storm and wow, although wow is filled with bots, i dunno if hearthstone counts but i'll mention it

uhm... i'm not too enthusiastic about new generation of gaming, or maybe its age... i'm playing less games than i used to... if its not blizzard, i'm probably not interested... its not that i'm a fanboy or anything, its just that blizzard games are way more polished than any other company... when you go from blizz to something else its like going from first world country to third world country. ;\

anyways there you go.

 

[antonis]

It's unavoidable for games that are based on repetitiveness to suffer in gameplay, and that's more true for online ones. I'd pick a single player game that is not repeatable at all, but has a good story to tell, and has it masterfully unfolded to the player, any day. Like a masterpiece of an RPG I finished recently, Dragon Age Inquisition (which actually played 2 times as it can be a totally different experience if you choose a different skill tree and/or take some different in-game decisions).

Most of the times, games that become repetitive, try to counter this with the online features (like co-operative play / grouping). WoW is a great example of this, making players do the exact same things for years and years, but it has a live world full of players that takes away some of the repetitiveness and makes you come back. They invested to grouping features right from the beginning, and that's what made WoW great. Because when the game became repetitive, players created their own things to do (like gathering all the players of a server and make an unofficial raid to the opposite faction's cities, guilds that create custom events for their members etc).

A great example of this, is the legendary battle during WoW's vanilla days, where alliance and horde gathered their paladins and shamans respectively (these classes where exclusive to each faction back then), and met at the barrens for a massive PvP (and to solve their rival about which class of the two was the best ). Server finally crashed, not being able to support this (well, it was 10 years ago, so technology didn't help that much), but you get the point. It was the definition of fun.

Elite Dangerous, on the other hand, is repetitive but has no actual grouping features (nor a really live world). It also has no real great story to tell nor it offers the ability for players to create their own stories/situations. They really need to do something about it really fast, cause I'm already having trouble staying loyal to it.

So, for me it is like this:

Single player good RPG > Online with open live world and grouping features > Everything else.

 

[roadbloc]

As long as I find the plot compelling, I usually push through repetitive parts just fine. I'm more of a singleplayer sort of guy.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

*SimCity (PVE 1,7,14,15,18,19)

I note that almost all of the games that attract me rely on violence.

I assume you don't build any police stations then?

 

[Janichsan]

12.Sexual Appeal

Wut?

 

[garnerx]

I would definitely add 'grind' to the World of Tanks attributes. It's such an arduous grind, most matches have a handful of bots who just drive around on preset paths, shooting into the ground, and presumably picking up some xp for their owners at the end of the game.

You see people with the highest level tanks and a 10% win record, which they got through leaving the PC on all day and auto-grinding. It's one of the reasons I gave up on it.

I don't think any game has ever kept me properly interested for a whole year. I still load up things like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 from time to time but I wouldn't consider myself a player of those. I like story-based games, which generally aren't worth replaying.

 

[Huntn]

Wut?

Check out Leisure Suit Larry series.

I would definitely add 'grind' to the World of Tanks attributes. It's such an arduous grind, most matches have a handful of bots who just drive around on preset paths, shooting into the ground, and presumably picking up some xp for their owners at the end of the game.

You see people with the highest level tanks and a 10% win record, which they got through leaving the PC on all day and auto-grinding. It's one of the reasons I gave up on it.

I don't think any game has ever kept me properly interested for a whole year. I still load up things like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 from time to time but I wouldn't consider myself a player of those. I like story-based games, which generally aren't worth replaying.

This is a case were I'd argue differently. The battle is the game, you can participate equally at all levels, and many players swear the most fun to be had is at levels 4-7. There is no such thing imo as an end game. What you see at Level 1 is just as valid as at level 10.

 

[Huntn]

aspects i am attracted to are...

territorial conquest*
sandbox
world pvp and battlegrounds
multiplayer is a must
strategy

that's about it.

also open world means non instanced, so wow isn't an open world game, skyrim is however...

territorial conquest is only seen in eve and browser games... games like civ and endless space have it but i consider those single players, i know they have multiplayer option but finding someone to play with is a hassle... its also not fun and takes forever.

strategy is seen in eve, a new mmo called crowfall and starcraft

world pvp ... again eve, crowfall
battlegrounds... heroes of the storm and wow, although wow is filled with bots, i dunno if hearthstone counts but i'll mention it

uhm... i'm not too enthusiastic about new generation of gaming, or maybe its age... i'm playing less games than i used to... if its not blizzard, i'm probably not interested... its not that i'm a fanboy or anything, its just that blizzard games are way more polished than any other company... when you go from blizz to something else its like going from first world country to third world country. ;\

anyways there you go.

You can run from one end of Kalimdor to the other without a single screen load. There are no invisible fences and you can fall to your death. Although the game features instances, it's as open world as you'll ever see. WoW is extremely repetitive, quest are interchangeable, it's the environment and characters that keeps me going along with the ocassional 5 player party instance. I agree that WoW is at the apex of polish in a MMORPG.

It's unavoidable for games that are based on repetitiveness to suffer in gameplay, and that's more true for online ones. I'd pick a single player game that is not repeatable at all, but has a good story to tell, and has it masterfully unfolded to the player, any day. Like a masterpiece of an RPG I finished recently, Dragon Age Inquisition (which actually played 2 times as it can be a totally different experience if you choose a different skill tree and/or take some different in-game decisions).

Most of the times, games that become repetitive, try to counter this with the online features (like co-operative play / grouping). WoW is a great example of this, making players do the exact same things for years and years, but it has a live world full of players that takes away some of the repetitiveness and makes you come back. They invested to grouping features right from the beginning, and that's what made WoW great. Because when the game became repetitive, players created their own things to do (like gathering all the players of a server and make an unofficial raid to the opposite faction's cities, guilds that create custom events for their members etc).

A great example of this, is the legendary battle during WoW's vanilla days, where alliance and horde gathered their paladins and shamans respectively (these classes where exclusive to each faction back then), and met at the barrens for a massive PvP (and to solve their rival about which class of the two was the best ). Server finally crashed, not being able to support this (well, it was 10 years ago, so technology didn't help that much), but you get the point. It was the definition of fun.

Elite Dangerous, on the other hand, is repetitive but has no actual grouping features (nor a really live world). It also has no real great story to tell nor it offers the ability for players to create their own stories/situations. They really need to do something about it really fast, cause I'm already having trouble staying loyal to it.

So, for me it is like this:

Single player good RPG > Online with open live world and grouping features > Everything else.

I agree that its MMO nature, makes WoW seem alive. Regarding ED, I've even considered Eve, but I feel like I'm just too far behind the power curve with that game, and as someone mentioned, I really don't want a lifestyle, just a casual game. In Eve my impression is that the PVP threat and loss of ships is a real factor, unless I want to play it safe. But who am I kidding, I spend most of my ED time playing in a Private Group with no real threat from being ganked by other players. However I'm very concerned about grind and if the game turns on me, the replacement costs of big ships.

 

[rampancy]

Any good game is more than just the sum of its parts. Compare Marathon Infinity to Daikatana, for instance. Both games are at their core, the same, encompassing the same repetitive game mechanic. You could even say that Daikatana is the "better" game for having superior graphics, superior engine technology, and higher production values. Yet, Marathon Infinity is arguably the better game because of how the writing, gameplay, and narrative structure all combine to create an experience elevated far above being just another sci-fi FPS.

 

[malman89]

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I stuck with Anarchy Online (for the most part) for a solid 11 years. Definitely took a couple of breaks in there, but it always brought me back for more.

I've officially given up on it, though. The population had been in a pretty consistent dwindle since WoW hit it big, with a few temporary spikes. It's pretty dead now, especially in US prime time zones. The 'new engine' that's already half a decade old and not released won't do anything to save a game with old school mechanics and UI. The old engine is broken with Intel 5xxx drivers in Windows 8, so besides hopping on to see if anyone is online, I wouldn't even play it if I wanted to. AO is definitely my favorite MMO/game of all time possibly.

The only other game I can think of that kept my attention for a long time was Diablo II. Sure did spend hours and hours over the years playing D2/D2:LOD as well.

 

[cluthz]

I'm also at that point that I get bored with games way too easily these days.
FPS games has for me for the last 5-6 years been boring, I got thru Borderlands 1 because it was a new take on the genre, and Deus EX:HR, mostly because I loved the first game.
Except that I got thru Metro:LL which was ok.

I need a good story to get thru a game now, or some very immersive environment with lots to do.

Luckily there have been episodic games lately, and they usually offers good story telling, and each episode is so short that I don't grow tired of them.

Also co-op games offers quite a bit for me, not drop in online co-op, but games with co-op campaigns that I can play with friends.
Unfortunately there are too few of those around. Last year I played LOTR:War in the north with two friends, the game wasn't the best, but it was good, and the co-op experience was great.
I have also been playing Dead Space 3 and games like Terraria with friends from time to time.

I wish for more games that are made for 2-3 player co-op that is not a "tacked on feature", and is not too long. Like Divinity:OS, which was a great game, but I had to play it alone, because it's hard to get someone else to commit 80hrs + for co-op play.

 

[Huntn]

Updated OP to include "static" vs "dynamic" labels.

I'm also at that point that I get bored with games way too easily these days.
FPS games has for me for the last 5-6 years been boring, I got thru Borderlands 1 because it was a new take on the genre, and Deus EX:HR, mostly because I loved the first game.
Except that I got thru Metro:LL which was ok.

I need a good story to get thru a game now, or some very immersive environment with lots to do.

Luckily there have been episodic games lately, and they usually offers good story telling, and each episode is so short that I don't grow tired of them.

Also co-op games offers quite a bit for me, not drop in online co-op, but games with co-op campaigns that I can play with friends.
Unfortunately there are too few of those around. Last year I played LOTR:War in the north with two friends, the game wasn't the best, but it was good, and the co-op experience was great.
I have also been playing Dead Space 3 and games like Terraria with friends from time to time.

I wish for more games that are made for 2-3 player co-op that is not a "tacked on feature", and is not too long. Like Divinity:OS, which was a great game, but I had to play it alone, because it's hard to get someone else to commit 80hrs + for co-op play.

Coop raises all games up a notch. I play a couple of games coop on occasion and it makes mediocre games tolerable, and good games, great experiences. What's interesting is that in some games that are MMOs mostly I play solo and infrequently, I party up, although the exception, I do so (party up) quite often for World of Tanks.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

Spock, what is that thing?
It appears to be a rather large wall of text captain.
Scanning...
TL - DR version - "repetitive is fine if the activity itself is actually fun"
Thank you Mr. Spock.

The only games I find truly repetitive are MMOs, those games that are so repetitive the word grind became a well known way to describe their core gameplay. Grinding in an MMO for me in the past was something I found to be a relaxing and mindless pastime, sort of like playing one hand after another of solitaire. Over the years though, I have found myself losing interest over shorter and shorter periods of time, most recently in World of Warcraft. I hit level 100 and hadn't finished Nagrand and while doing so supposedly rewards one with a cool story cinematic and some weapon I didn't need (i had a better one), I just couldn't bring myself to bother. My garrison was max, my guild resources were max, my followers were max geared, my character was very close to max geared until more raid content would be released and all I was doing was logging in to gather free ores, herbs, send followers out, etc. and then logging back out because I just didn't feel like doing it all again with an alt for now even though I have three of them parked in garrisons who have accumulated max guild resources doing zero. Oh, and of course there was the apexis daily which for me personally sucked unless it was in Shatt. I hated the others, not worth the trouble.

It took me a little over two months of casual play (in MMO terms anyway) to reach the above state of affairs and cost me $50. for the expansion and $45. in subscription time. Over that same period of time and for that same amount of money I could have played two or three AAA games that would have been more engaging with a decent story or more interesting gameplay or both.

I've recently been thinking to myself (not that I haven't before) that nothing is ever going to recreate the magic that playing EverQuest in the world of Norrath was. I am really not viewing it with rose-tinted glasses either. I remember what was wrong with the game and how changes over a long period of time eventually soured it for me (battery powered armor was the last straw) but in its glory days it offered an experience nothing else has ever matched with a strong social aspect that is all but absent in games like WoW which has a very different community that is far less friendly as a whole, way too much focus on itemization, unnecessarily complex "rotations" of button mashing to maximize damage or healing output, healers that are one trick ponies who can cast hots but no decent direct heals or they can cast great direct heals but suck otherwise or they can cast group heals but are weak otherwise, etc. Frankly, it took considerably more skill to play a cleric in EverQuest than it does to play a healing class in WoW. I have done both. WoW gives the illusion of requiring skill but in reality, there is really only one way to play and you basically do so in a rather automated, optimal way. The idea behind this was to make healing more interesting but it isn't. It is busy but it is boring. It can be stressful but for all the wrong reasons. I have come to the conclusion that gameplay at a fundamental level in WoW is broken. All classes play pretty similarly and in every case there is basically one optimal way to press the buttons, the mighty rotation. It's a little grind unto itself every time you play.

It is interesting that EverQuest had twice as many classes as WoW and yet each of them played an important role in a group or raid. My cleric in EverQuest was fun and interesting to play because I could cast any and all types of heals in a variety of strengths and speeds and mana management played some role versus screwing around with various cooldowns and timers like with WoW.

All that said, as repetitive as the grinding gameplay of EQ was which focused on character development by accrual of experience points more than gear, it was the social aspect that made the game great along with its world and lore. You needed each other by design and if playing with others wasn't for you, you could either play a necro I guess or more likely you probably should be playing something other than EverQuest.

EverQuest was all about US and what WE could have fun doing together. Modern MMOs are all about ME and what gear and toys I can get. They are about ME being better than others with my shiny rare mount, etc. They are about the endless acquisition of useless virtual stuff rather than something of real value, friends. They are about MY agenda rather than OUR agenda. No wonder I am burned out. To me, the MMO experiences of Asheron's Call, EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot do not exist anymore. MMOs have become little more than elaborate treadmills with carrots just out of reach that people run on, mostly by themselves or in a gym full of other people they could care less about come the end of the day once they get what they wanted out of the raid. When we raided, the exciting thing was overcoming the content together, not what shiny we got that night. Itemization was such that you could raid for weeks and not get any shiny and we were fine with it.

Sorry, I just wandered away from the topic at hand. I guess what I just said is still somewhat in keeping with it. It explains why today I find repetitive MMO games to be something I am rapidly losing interest in playing anymore because they've stripped away what was good about them, kept the grind that makes them boring in the absence of anything else being compelling and replaced the best parts of being in a virtual world with the endless focus on ME which explains the community drawn to a game like World of Warcraft and proves once again that bigger is not always better.

Glad I got that out of my system, thanks for reading if you got this far. I owe you one.

Currently, I am playing the excellent port (thanks Aspyr) of KOTOR and enjoying it very much. I do wish it supported widescreen resolution but once into the game I become absorbed in the story, places, music, characters and gameplay and forget all about that.

Looking over my backlog on Steam and the App Store of Mac games plus some Windows games I already own that i still want to play before removing it from my system permanently, there is so much variety. Are the basic mechanics of playing various genres relatively similar? Well, yeah they are so you could call that repetitive i guess but that isn't always a bad thing in itself. My favorite genre if I was to pick one would easily be RPG games and while they all share similar traits, they all vary in story, worlds, characters, music, to some degree gameplay in terms of combat, etc. and probably other ways I am just not thinking of at the moment so I don't find them to be repetitive in any way that puts me off. I like how they play.

Shooters I used to absolutely love but over time I became bored for the lack of depth in so many of them. I still find them fun sometimes but how people can play stuff like CoD multiplayer for so many hours on end mystifies me. After a while I'd be bored out of my skull.

Racing games I enjoy very much but in small doses. Those are certainly repetitive but they are fun.

Strategy I've spent little time with compared to other types of games but I have picked up a bunch of these kind of games on various sales and look forward to them. The last one I played was the first two installments of Warhammer 40k Dawn of War II on Windows and I had a blast with them. I understand they are something of a hybrid of action roleplaying and strategy but they are great fun. I wish all three of them would come to Mac.

Anyway, given the variety of games to play I don't see the repetitive nature of them to be much of an issue. It just depends on what you have fun with. Consider that traditional games predating modern technology that people still play such as card games or board games are extremely repetitive but people enjoy them. Look at something like the Borderlands series. At some point you are just doing the same stuff over and over but that stuff is fun to do and people will spend hundreds of hours on those games because of that.

In summary, repetitive is fine if the activity itself is actually fun.

 

[Huntn]

Spock, what is that thing?
It appears to be a rather large wall of text captain.
Scanning...
TL - DR version - "repetitive is fine if the activity itself is actually fun"
Thank you Mr. Spock....
In summary, repetitive is fine if the activity itself is actually fun.

Thanks for sharing your soul. I think as we age, the "been there, done that" factor can be oppressive. And although I spend a vast amount of time gaming, several hours a night, sometimes 4 hrs per day on weekends (to me that's vast), I find that I don't want commitment. I want to play when I want, and I find that I'm becoming more picky in what satisfies me.

Last night I was enjoying Pandaria, but realize all of the quests are for all intents and purposes THE SAME, but I can still enjoy the sights, the environment. From an environmental standard, Pandora takes me back to the wonder of vanilla WoW. Ironically I got back into WoW for the WoD expansion, but I'll be done WoW when Pandaria is complete and my toon is all ready at 90. I'll probably wait for the next expansion and then do the current one, lol.

Elite Dangerous? Last night I looked at it and thought about doing some trade runs and said "naw". Instead I bought Homeworld Remastered (Steam, plan on starting that this evening) and fought a couple of tank battles. No, I'm not done with ED.

I also have Midevil Engineers (in early release) which was cheap and have messed with that a bit, but it still needs some finishing work. For Space Engineers, I'm kind of hoping they will get around to allowing curved surfaces on the outside of ships. Blockyness has gotten me down, but I can see where the voxel world is headed and that's towards curves! Check out Everquest Next Landmark. The big question about a building game is do you mind your creation only existing on an online server, or do you prefer having it sit on your computer, all yours!

 

[Washac]

Been playing games since day dot, considering there are only maybe a couple of handfuls of game genres then all games are repetitive.

An adventure is an adventure does not matter what twist you put on it.
A platformer is a platformer no matter what twist you put on it.
An RPG is and RPG no matter what twist you put on it.

And so on, and so forth...................

 

[soulsyphon]

some people fail to notice that all there is to do in RPGs is to farm gear, and once you've accumulated this gear... you're done with the game.

i find that incredibly boring... the gear doesn't do anything... i mean once you get your +5 sword, the mobs have +5 more health points...

in wow... regardless whether you started in vanilla or pandaria... you're still doing the same amount of percentage damage with your spells on any current content boss. i'm not sure why people find this appealing... i mean battlegrounds are a neat idea, its just that its filled with bots so it makes it not fun.

it would be a nice idea if blizzard released the battleground aspect of wow as a stand alone game without a fee... then i'd be playing it, if also you could kick bots permanently by reporting them and blizz verifying.

the only thing that did change in wow is the scenery.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

This sums up World of Warcraft pretty well for me. Here's an honest game trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCj-8tTA2U

 

[Huntn]

some people fail to notice that all there is to do in RPGs is to farm gear, and once you've accumulated this gear... you're done with the game.

i find that incredibly boring... the gear doesn't do anything... i mean once you get your +5 sword, the mobs have +5 more health points...

in wow... regardless whether you started in vanilla or pandaria... you're still doing the same amount of percentage damage with your spells on any current content boss. i'm not sure why people find this appealing... i mean battlegrounds are a neat idea, its just that its filled with bots so it makes it not fun.

it would be a nice idea if blizzard released the battleground aspect of wow as a stand alone game without a fee... then i'd be playing it, if also you could kick bots permanently by reporting them and blizz verifying.

the only thing that did change in wow is the scenery.

You forgot to mention that some players devote their lives to raiding, how 25 players learn to tactically coordinated attacks and heals to beat the big bosses!! I don't do that.

This sums up World of Warcraft pretty well for me. Here's an honest game trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCj-8tTA2U

Love that trailer!

 

[SpiderDude]

Extremely immersive

Hi,

Have you tried Dead Space?
1 and 2, mostly. 3 kind of gets raped by EA

Man, that game, played in a dark room with headphones, is an incredible experience.

I even kicked my cat out of a scare once.

 

[Huntn]

Hi,

Have you tried Dead Space?
1 and 2, mostly. 3 kind of gets raped by EA

Man, that game, played in a dark room with headphones, is an incredible experience.

I even kicked my cat out of a scare once.

I played both DS1&2. Scary...