I admit, I'm addicted to the thrill of the hunt. I have a love/hate relationship with grinding though and it's 100% dependent on the investment versus the reward. It seems every game these days has something to grind for a reward. Now these rewards are almost completely meaningless, but there's something about the chime of the trophy // achievement I really enjoy. It could be the sense of accomplishment, it could be the 'permanence' of it, it could be that if necessary I could always brag about it or use it as flame bait in a conversation amongst friends. Mostly though, for me, it's simply my collecting tendency coming out in a virtual way.
I finally sat down with Viva Pinata, a game I'd been wanting to really play for years. Now as someone who has collecting tendencies, this game is as addicting as 'Heisenburg's blue meth' from Breaking Bad. I started playing it with the intent to get every pinata possible to 'reside' in my garden. This is no easy task however, and soon it was an all out grindfest. This is the love part of the relatiohship. A game that is enjoyable to grind in is something that no amount of reasoning can explain and no amount of money (when applicable) can satisfy. If you are having fun grinding, good luck to anyone trying to intervene. I ended up the other day looking up the last 3 achievements and putting that sucker to rest with 1000/1000. The right//wrong of looking up 'secret' things is a topic of another discussion. Rest assured though, I don't feel guilty about doing it on a game, ever.
Batman Arkham Asylum is another prime example of a game I recently finished and went back to grind a bit. I spent a good part of a day finishing the Riddler's challenges after finishing the story. Another example of an addicting use of grindage to satisfy the collector in me. A good game with a well executed system of adding to the playtime without much if any content addition.
It's a hard thing to do, and most developers don't get it right.
There is a definite point in any reward hunt where a person must draw the line though. The point of no return. Once you cross over and are closer to the end than the beginning it's very hard (for me) to step away. The game could feel very much like a chore and I'll still sit there thumbs bleeding to get some silly reward rather than just set it down and move on.
The perfect example of this is the Perfect Bladestone Weapon in Demon's Souls. For those that aren't aware of the pure luck aspect of that, here's a hint. The necessary ingredient (pure bladestone) can only be acquired from 2 monsters in the game. These aren't exactly hard to get to monsters, but they are tricky to defeat and your odds of getting the drop is exactly 0.5%. So you have a 1:200 chance of getting the required item for this particular bronze trophy in Demon's Souls. I personally spent about 32 hours loading the level, sprinting to the closest monster that drops it, killing it, suiciding out, and rinse repeating the above. I don't know how many kills exactly that is, but I never got the required drop. I was lucky enough to have a friend who got it and gave me the required weapon long enough to pop the trophy.
This is the hate part of the relationship, but as a collector it was just something I had to do. I would probably still be grinding that sucker if not for the help, and that's very sad.
I scrambled to the top of the precipice where Nick was waiting. "That was fun," I said. "You bet it was," said Nick. "Let's climb higher." "No," I said. "I think we should be heading back now." "We have time," Nick insisted. I said we didn't, and Nick said we did. We argued back and forth like that for about 20 minutes, then finally decided to head back. I didn't say it was an interesting story.” - Jack Handy-CadDad
