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When does a game start to bore you?
Amathe
Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
Most of us have been there. You're playing a game, having some fun, and then the fun gets sucked right out of it. Now you're bored.
What causes this?
For me, it's when I feel like instead of having an adventure, I'm just completing the next pre-assigned tasks that I am "supposed" to do at that level. They could be easy ones or hard ones, but it doesn't matter. I don't enjoy just completing the developer's "honey do" list for level 38, or whatever it may be.
Instead, I want to run about where I am not wanted. Go places I am not meant to go. Face real danger. Overcome tremendous adversity. Get my butt kicked and keep going. I want to experience the suspense, mystery and excitement like the fantasy literature which inspired these games.
My favorite memories are when games surprised me and scared me silly. Those "oh hell what was I thinking when I came in here" moments. I don't get many of those anymore because I am wrapped in the warm woolen blanket of "level appropriate" tasks to do.
Anyway, that's what bores me, but when does a game start to bore you?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Comments
For me.. it starts when you repeat the same things over and over for a week straight because there is no change in the game.. Which always happens in themepark games.. However devs do not want to spend the time to keep a game fresh and changing, because it's cheaper and more profitable to go into "milk the cow" mode instead..
I agree with this. What happens to me is the above posted. When all you do is repetition. Now, games need repetition inorder for people to quest, but there also is a need for diversity. Sure, games can be boring if all we di is quest after quest etc... But, thats not all a game has to offer. I want to look at my character stats, look at the "Cool" items in my inventory, craft for a while, explore the map, write a good biography, plan my next raid, research the gear I am shooting for at my level, PvP for a but etc.... What I'm trying to say is that there must be options avaiable. These options have to be well developed as well. If they aren't i will get bored and I won't play the game. There also has to be people playing the game. I can handle low population games. But if there is a low population then don't have 100 servers. Merge them into, say, 2 servers. If you play an MMO you want some style of socialization. Without it there is no point to play them. Again, just my dumb opinion.
Last mmorpg I played was lotro, reasons I got bored were traits (grinding) and daily missions. Daily missions are ok up until about the 6-7th time you do them, then they become booooooorrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnn' (hehe)
When I run out of things to do, or when the only content left are raids and/or forced grouping content.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
A game becomes boring for me once I start realizing that I am not having fun doing what I am doing NOW, but am only doing it to reach some eventual goal. When I start telling myself that I just have to tough it out and that eventually it will be fun, the game has reached the boring point for me...
It is usually always the result of repeating the same exact action over and over agan for extremely long periods of time. Often that is grinding monsters, but it can be other things as well.
/ agree /
was thinking about this a while agoo, and for me its definetly a lack of adventure that is the main reason i get bored. but yes i do agree with the lack of options being one factor aswell, i want to explore, i want to try out new harder or higher level monsters/foes and get a reward for killing/completing it. i want to do it together with some friends and not be penalized for it.
As soon as I realize that I've done everything already, I get bored. There are times that I'll log on, try to decide between five repetitive tasks that I've already done a dozen times before and say the hell with it and log off again. I want a variety of things to do all the time where I never feel like I'm doing the same old thing over and over and over ad nauseum.
Too bad no games out there are like that right now.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Call me weird but I like grinding, a lot. The only thing that makes the game boring is... to play it alone. If the community fails and there are no people to talk to and do stuff, the game gets boring.
As soon as I start to feel lonely.
I play for community. So when I start playing a game, it doesn't matter how fun or interesting the game is in it's mechanics or graphics, if the community is lacking and I feel lonely playing, that is when I leave.
For me its the end game.
I love doing a raid dungeon/boss once, maybe twice. But when you have the same dungeon/boss as pretty much the only end game till the next dungeon comes out, it gets boring really fast.
Also when the end game content becomes surgical. 'We are doing this boss every Tuesday from 8pm to 10pm. Wed will be this boss at 9pm...'
Just give me something to do at end game that doesnt require running the same dungeons over and over. Alternate advancement, epic quests, something... PvP can be fun, but in very small doses.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Boring = no consequences for careless gameplay (i.e., dying has no real "sting" to it, mobs are not challenging, etc...), or awards and levels are too easily obtained (i.e., welfare epics).
Frustrating = being forced in an artificial manner down some linear path, or being a captive audience watching two boss NPC's (good guy and bad guy) have a showdown, or realizing that I am in a single-player RPG "story" instead of a "world"
Games become boring when...
nothing epic or eventful happens in between tasks or traveling.
having to grind a lot for materials to create something with little gain in experience of your profession.
quest grinding becomes progressively overwhelming.
there is no ability to freely roam to achieve exploration experiences and rewards.
there is no ability to progressively enhance the look of my character using an extensive amount of controls and fashion options.
the world is static and does not evolve over time based on story and actual player events.
there are very few race and class choices available.
the story/lore do not immerse you enough and rather you have to force yourself to read all the details or sit through non-interactive boring cutscenes.
the bland and outdated graphics engine out-paces the interest of the gameplay.
[ADDED] there is no clear direction to questing and rather quests are spread all over the place not knowing where to go next.
[ADDED] having to research on the web for almost every little thing about a game because the game is completely uninformative and has no form of usability whatsoever.
Of course, this is my own personal perspective. Point being is that there needs to be a lot of variety of choices available to keep my attention ever wandering. Seriously, short attention spanned people should be testing these games. *raises hand*
When any sense of danger or adventure is lost and everything becomes routine.
I get bored when i'm lonely...
I also don't mind the grind if it has a goal in it.
Too much wrongly understood freedom also bores me. I noticed it in Ryzom (sandbox game) when i go to know that i can do ANYTHING and have ALL the skills in the game on one character... That turned me off the game on the spot. I love to be a part of a well working machine... Have my niche i can master. Too much freedom (everyone can do everything) bores me.
I've been uplinked and downloaded, I've been inputted and outsourced. I know the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of upgrading.
I'm a high-tech low-life. A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, bi-coastal multi-tasker, and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.
I'm new-wave, but I'm old-school; and my inner child is outward-bound.
I'm a hot-wired, heat-seeking, warm-hearted cool customer; voice-activated and bio-degradable.
RIP George Carlin.
This is another good point. Even though I tend be a solo'er type person, there are times when needing to group or just stand around and chat really helps with the experience. A helpful and lively community is immportant.
G R I N D
Causes of boredom!
-Grind becomes the norm
-Realize the community is absolutely retarted
-Gear based PvP
-100's of instance runs required.
This is why you can never beat a great single player rpg. No matter how we try to avoid it,single rpg especially great ones are the best.
Furious Fighters
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/13trindx.htm
when i no longer have a goal, whatever goals they may be
When it starts feeling more as a job than a game. In some games it started to get really joblike for me. Grind, grind, gather, craft, grind. At some point I just stop and ask myself if I'm enjoying it. It's a game afterall and sudenly I've become a slave.
End Game.
The time you spend vs. the rewards you gain skews drastically in order to give developers more time to add content.
- You need to grind, grind, grind to farm materials for gear or consumables.
- Spend tons of time just trying to get a group around and ready.
- Dungeons become tougher and require multiple mindless runs to get everyone suited up.
It's tedious. Developers just need to forget end-game and implement perma-death. I would much rather level up a new character 50 levels in all new zones with fresh content, than keep zombifying my way toward some dangling carrot that moves ever farther away.
That's when it becomes a job.
^ That right there, the point where drudgery eclipses excitement, that's where games lose me.
Unfortunately, they are just too short and there aren't enough of them. I was just cleaning my HD of them earlier today, all of the ones I've beaten in the last couple of months that I still had sitting around. I took off the whole Halo series, the whole Half-Life series, Bioshock and Mass Effect. That's a small percentage of all of the games I've played, but every single really good single-player game I could find took less than 6 months to complete.
So now what? MMOs aren't great, but at least it takes a long, long time to get through their content.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
I'd have to agree with that also.