Don't hate the game, hate the grind

I love Vs. Mode, a discussion between MTV News’ Stephen Totilo Vs. Level Up’s N’Gai Croal. The latest one is on Patapon and the final round just went up. In the spirit of Vs. Mode, I thought it was important to point out that Totilo’s defense of grinding confuses the inherent repetition of gameplay with a very specific and detestable phenomenon. I posted my retort in an ongoing comment thread there but figured I may as well put it up on my blog. (I really should have posted my comments on Totilo’s version of the entry, but I didn’t think of that at the time.)

Here’s where he goes on the attack against Croal’s complaints:

Except: it’s all subjective, isn’t it? Where is that line between fun repetition and grinding? Why don’t God of War games get accused of forcing a grind? Because they don’t? Oh, surely, they do. They require collecting orbs to get powers, some of which you need to advance. Does God of War get off because they just don’t do it forcefully enough that it’s bothersome?

The difference is straightforward. Pure grinding is requiring repetitive game play without offering new content. This might mean repeating the same missions to get more resources or having to backtrack through unchanged maps.

Totilo, cool guy that he is, actually replied to that comment.

Based on your definitions, is "Tetris" a grind? And if it is, is the grinding in it a problem? Why or why not?

That’s an insightful retort. The answer is that yup, beating Tetris requires lots of repetitive play without adding much in the way of new content. The difficulty differences involve speed and tougher starting positions but don’t substantially change the gameplay.

However, while I’m not a Tetris junky, it would certainly be foolish to deny that Tetris is a good game or to say that it needs new content. Grinding is really a problem in games that are advancement based. In those cases, grinding means that you are denied access to cool new abilities, stages, and/or plot unless you engage in a lot of highly repetitive battles.

In a game like Tetris, you aren’t playing for abilities, stages, or plot; you’re playing because you enjoy the core mechanic and to build your skill. That’s what replay value is. Sometimes if you play well enough you can unlock new content, but I don’t think that’s grinding either. If you were a skilled enough of a player, you could have unlocked that content on the first time through.

Totilo does offer two good suggests at decreasing the pain of repetition and thus increasing replay value.

1) encouraging short sessions, so that what would be maddening if played
eight hours straight is pleasant when spread across 365 days and

2) convincing the player, like a good exercise coach, that high-volume
repetition is healthy. The grind will make you a better person. Imagine!

In most cases, I think skill oriented gaming is the best way to go about point 2. Particularly if that skill as everyday life benefits.