Dailies and weeklies have really put me off from playing tons of games. You know, I was really into the mobile game UmaMusume when it was new, even if it was stupid hardcore title. I dropped it mostly because I missed a day there, a day here, unable to finish the Log In bonuses and such. I tried getting into Street Fighter 6 recently, using it as a medicine to my block of playing competitive versus games online, but the same thing happened here. I’m looking at other somewhat recent games I’ve played, and all the ones I dropped mid-way through were mostly because of the whole daily grind.
Video and computer game publishers and developers have done a lot to keep players engaged with their games longer than just the base game. An endless content game is a dream, where players would never leave the game and would end up paying more through additional characters, all sorts of items, maps and whatnot. Games as platforms is a term some have used, like Capcom of Street Fighter V. We no longer have editions, expansions or any sort of separate releases. This of course means the original versions of the games are lost and rendered unplayable; you can’t go back playing the first iteration of SFV.
Lootboxes of course are another thing that adds to a game’s grind, which has been under fire due to the whole gambling element behind it. UmaMusume did get some pennies from me, but ultimately it was largely worthless. I don’t own anything about the game, and once it dies, I will never be able access the game again. It would be great if it’d get a raising simulator on the consoles without the gatcha bullshit, but that’s not how these games make their money. Without companies nickelling and diming the players, they wouldn’t see the same amount of revenues. Yet Baldur’s Gate 3 showcased how a complete game without any of the anti-consumers practices can yield both customer love and high sales. After all, nickelling and diming mostly works for a select group called Whales, who put everything they have into these games, mobile or not.
I’d rather see companies making positive emotional connections with the players with single-purchase titles, like the aforementioned Baldur’s Gate 3. On the long term, it’ll yield more fruitful profits than putting off sections of your potential market. Then again, publishers and developers haven’t exactly made themselves friendly to the market with the whole translation bullshit with advisory companies as of late.
Gaming shouldn’t feel like a goddamn chore. You shouldn’t be forced to play a game for any reason. Gaming is different from sports, despite both are at core part of the same overall game culture. The main difference is that games, be it card, tabletop RPGs or whatever form of mechanic or electronic gaming, is for entertainment and fun. Human is a being that requires play, as do most other animals. Play is a universal language between the more intellectual species what play is. An ant probably can’t figure out why you’re rolling a ball at it, but a puppy or a monkey sure can. Species across can discern different kinds of play. Playing is an absolutely important part of life as a tool of teaching and relaxation. Gaming can’t magically become “something greater” or some other grandiose bullshit, because it already is equally as important as storytelling among others as well as part of it.
When I was a wee lad, I kept hearing that playing is for kids. Adults, or teens, don’t play games anymore, they’re serious about things. Of course, this is yet another form of bullcrap people tell say. Later in life these same people build doll houses or with miniature train tracks, the same people spend hours on hours dotting down words into a word puzzle. It’s all a form of play. Only the method is different. Hobbies in general are an action of play. Some hobbies are just more acceptable than others against the tapestry of culture. You won’t find many people who’d see similarities between a Street Fighter player and someone who play hockey. Both are an act of playing, requiring physical and mental training as well as strategizing on different levels. Neither is an act required to live, they’re both about playing a game.
Trophies fall into the same chore-inducing category with dailies and weeklies. Sure, they often pose you a challenge to beat and some find them satisfactory new ways to play games. My old age does come through, but people did do challenge runs and find new ways to play games themselves without devs coming them up. Weeklies and dailies are the same thing, putting up challenges and other chores that ultimately hamper the player’s own way and wishes to play the game. These force a change the way we play games, if we give them any weight. Of course, the game gives these things weight by dishing rewards for a well-done job, turning playing games into a whole new kind of Skinner’s Box. All just to keep players engaged longer and making that lizard brain kick a bit more when shiny thing drops on the screen.
There’s a danger in video and computer games nowadays with all this additional gamification on top of the game itself. Some already find the act of playing boring and not satisfactory enough. Now you have to have a little Ding! going in the corner telling you how you’ve just rescued 50 players in coop mode or how you’ve just parried 40 attacks from your opponents.
I sincerely question the current state of playing games. Rather than expand and explore the market, we’ve seen companies trying to appeal to smaller demographics and going to the source to change how games are made. Instead of expanding the market, they’re doing their best to make as bland and washed out games they can to ultimately appeal to nobody. Games are increasingly less about playing the game and more about the framing devices the developers can built. Players are guided through everything and nothing is left for them to explore through the games’ mechanics themselves. It’s handholding at its finest, as if the devs and publishers are scared to let people use their own head. That said, most will just use an online guide if they get stuck, so there’s that.
The reward for being good at a game has always been the permission to pass further in the game. Now that gaming media wants all games to be beatable without effort, maybe the constant key jangling has its place. If your game can’t be engaging and rewarding on its own rights, you might as well resort for the worse option.
Aaltomies 