Game that feel like work...

Maybe its because I bore easily, maybe its because I have attention problems, but a lot of times whole games or specific aspects of games will feel like work to me and take all the fun out of it. I don't want a game to feel like work, I get that at work. I do want games to be challenging, but I don't want them to feel like work.

Examples

Shenmue: I don't know why, but for some reason I never did feel this way about this game. Others do and I can see where they are coming from.

RPGs where you have to level up to continue: I definitely agree on this front. This is the major reason why I don't play RPGs very much, and hardly ever to completion.

Grand Theft Auto III: Some tasks are fun, others feel like work and aren't fun at all. I understand why they are in the game, but I just wish I could skip them and have more fun.

Games that are real time dependant: Like Animal Crossing or Seaman. I personally loved Seaman and am really looking foreward to Animal Crossing, but I can see where people are coming from here too.

Thoughts? What games/genres feel like work to you?

Am I being a tool?

*gets braced for endless "yes you are a tool" responses*

GTA III- too many pointless tasks in a row ruin it at times.
Shenmue- I have to be in JUST the right mood to enjoy the fucking forklift shit.
Any Rare 3D platformer- Fucking treasure hunts are not fun.

Morrowind.

Nothing else needs to be said.

Dragon Warrior pops to mind instantly. I kind of agree about shenmue, although Shenmue II is brilliant, and has helped see what they were trying for in the first game. Super Mario Sunshine is a chore for me as well.

Work:

-waiting in Shenmue(good thing part 2 eliminated this)
-configuring crap in Vagrant Story
-Drawing spells in FF8
-unlocking everything in CvS
-random battles in Skies
-sitting through disc 2 in Xenogears
-Turbo Tunnels in Battletoads
-the pointless tasks in Grandia
-the control scheme in RE and Dino Crisis

The truth is, these are the games I enjoy the most. Shenmue, Morrowind, PSO, GTA3, etc. are not exactly "exciting", but they are just so dang addictive.

Shenmue was more like an interactive book, where you felt Ryo's life, his pain, happiness, etc., even if it was through a cheesy storyline.

Morrowind is just so... free, allowing you to be a saint, corrupt, orgainized, or whatever you want to be. The leveling up is actually worthwhile, as you can use your power against anyone, and there are no random battles. The battle system doesn't require 20 pages of a manual to explain.

There is not much to do in PSO, but playing the game was such a soothing experience--you could play at three in the morning, half awake, and not screw anything up. You didn't even have to play; you could just communicate hours on end with other players.

I don't know what's up with GTA3, but I have played it so much it's not even funny. Today I spent about 30 minutes just abiding traffic laws, and then went on a rampage after a cop rear ended my Sentinal.

I don't like traditional RPG's. They bore me to death, and I hate having to fight random enemies to battle a boss I don't even care to fight.

I'm really looking forward to Shenmue II later this year, and I will hopefully be able to have an XBOX in my hands by the time it comes out. Project Ego is also looking great, if it is still coming out.

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Originally posted by Frogacuda
Dragon Warrior pops to mind instantly. I kind of agree about shenmue, although Shenmue II is brilliant, and has helped see what they were trying for in the first game. Super Mario Sunshine is a chore for me as well.

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Amen to that. After a hundred+ hours, I packed it in.

Gran Turismo.

Final Fantasy IX should have come with a timecard.

I'll cast the second vote for Sunshine. Every shine after about 60 was gotten just to say I got it. The fun was gone. :(

certain Parts of Shenmue felt like work... mainly just having to run from place to place all of the time... but most other parts were heaven

... and Shenmue II perfected it... fantastic game

Hey:

I agree on the post-60 Shines on SMS. I gave up at 68...getting Yoshi to jump on three different boats to get to a tiny island and then having him puke on the top of the pipe to get inside was too much of an annoyance for me. Then to top that off, screwing up on the level in said pipe and getting spit back out was the final straw.

I actually loved the forklift job in Shenmue.

Yes, unlocking everything on the original CvS was a colossal pain in the ass if you didn't have the NGPC w/Match of the Millenium and a NGPC-DC link. I had everything but the link cable. D'oh!

One game that makes work fun: Harvest Moon. My fiancee is playing Back to Nature and it seems like watering the plants every morning is one of her favorite activities.

-Technosphile

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I'll cast the second vote for Sunshine. Every shine after about 60 was gotten just to say I got it. The fun was gone.

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Damn straight. I've only got 50 shines, but I'm gonna stop playing for a while. That game has become a chore. I don't think Miyamoto intended on people replaying this game, so he made it tough as a bitch. Get off the drugs, Miyamoto.

I'll add Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 to the list. Going through career mode over and over again with very few changes felt a lot like work to me. Having said that, it's still one of my favorite games and the rewards for beating career mode make it somewhat easier to swallow. I just hope they make some changes to career mode in THPS4 because after playing the 3 THPS games to death I am ready for a change.

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I actually loved the forklift job in Shenmue.

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Because it rocked.

Work:

Sonic Adventure 2's Knuckles stages. The levels seem to be much larger than they were in Sonic Adventure, and the detector much less helpful. And the rap.

Most any RPG because of random battles. How this genre ever became so popular, and stayed that way, is a mystery. Oh wait, no it isn't.

Final Fantasy VIII for me. I've been trying to finish it... but it's just <i> such </i> a pain. Frankly I just want to finish it to say I finished it. I'm just past the "Eyes on Me" English version and things are really dire for me. The sap level is high, my enjoyment of the characters is low, the plot is absurd and the workload is tremendous. I'm man enough to admit that I enjoyed the game for a while. The first disc and most of disc two I was into it. I played Triple Triad non-stop for a while. It’s a shame Square decided to abandon it in favor of some incomprehensible garbage card game in FFIX. Anyway, yeah, I really was enjoying it for a while. The teen angst, plot going nuts and general battle boredom are really getting to me now.

Hrm, what else... Devil May Cry is getting to be a pain. Every time I finish off one insanely hard boss another pops up around the corner.

FFV...

Yeah.. most of the games I have yet to finish from ages ago are the offenders here. Perhaps if I didn't stop for a year or so on most of them I wouldn't have this problem.

Star Ocean...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

RARE's Scavenger hunts....

Some stuff in shenmue. And a few in GTA3 but i just love that game too much.

Nintendo's scavenger hunt (Mario Sunshine)

GTA3, Jet Set Future.

The last two chapters in MSR, I deserve a special license after going through those... *-neo

Pikmin

Pikmin is like some bizarre, psychedelic Easter egg hunt. Rare doesn't hold a candle to Nintendo's treasure hunt fetish.

Strategy games, sports games, and turn based rpgs... I don't consider stat building a chore unless there's turn based battles.

The Gran Turismo series. Trying to get all the cars and such is more trouble than its worth

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Originally posted by Yoshi
I'll cast the second vote for Sunshine. Every shine after about 60 was gotten just to say I got it. The fun was gone. :(

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That would be a valid complaint if you hadn't already beaten the game by that point.

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Originally posted by Mfkzt
Pikmin

Pikmin is like some bizarre, psychedelic Easter egg hunt. Rare doesn\'t hold a candle to Nintendo\'s treasure hunt fetish.

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Preach it, brother!

Any RPG with an assload of random battles and fighting that drags on forever. Which is a lot of them.

Evil Zone. how many times do I need ot beat that to see the special ending? maybe if everyone was Tokusatsu hero like Danzaiver it'd be worth it.

PGR felt like too much. as was GTA3. I gave up long before getting all the cars. :(

Xenogears/FFX got old and became boring and a chore.

Sometimes PSO, with the insane amount of killing per level above 100 to hit a new one was brutal :(

and shenmue, I finshed that just to do it, hoping it would get better than poo-poo. Alas, it did not. :(

What's with all the Pikmin hate? Once you learn all the little nuances of Pikmin it becomes an addiction, I beat it like 6 times just for the fun of seeing how many game days I could beat it in. I think it's the most original console game since Blast Corps

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Originally posted by burgundy
That would be a valid complaint if you hadn't already beaten the game by that point.

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I dunno, wait, if Mario Sunshine's given him an ending, then he can't complain about the monotony of the other tasks the game offers?

Just seems odd to me, like, suggesting that as long as they make the game's tasks elective, then it doesn't matter whether they're monotonous or not.

(I love how much platforming there seems to be in Mario Sunshine. Too much collecting, but those platforming stages are great.)

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Originally posted by mattvanstone
as was GTA3. I gave up long before getting all the cars.

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Do you mean GT3? I thought you loved GTA 3.

Usually getting the final stuff in any game is a chore because they always make them impossibly difficult to do. My current pain is Aggressive Inline's final challenges, some of which I completed but the game refused to count them for some reason. Grrr.

Aggressive Inline asks you to do some mind warping stunts. That game never lets up.

Shenmue - you literally work, and also you have a goddamned bed time (or curfew actually). If the game was FREE then I could have found a way to hijack a ship to china and been done with the tedious game whose only saving grace was having Space Harrier in it.

Gran Turismo - It takes dedication that I don't have to racing games I'm afraid.

Enclave became a chore at the end, largely because I forgot why I was even doing alot of the things I was doning :/ It was a good game, but to loosely bound.

Morrowind: It's like work sometimes, but unlike any other game - it's like work I can see the benefit of doing and I don't HAVE to do it to keep playing. A lot of times, that game is like work only when I choose it to be like that. Such as when I go around looking for a new house in the game. I have to hunt around an choose the right place in the world for me and then move my LARGE amount of stuff there. I probably spent 10 hours doing this. 10 fucking hours and I could have beaten MGS2 but I spent that time looking for a nice house and moving into it in Morrowind. That's work gentlemen. But it was not required of me to do it - it was all my idea.

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Another vote for any non-Sonic/Shadow portion of SA2.

I can't consider Morrowind work since if some task feels like work, you actually have the option of not doing it. Some guy gives you a mission that's lame? Just kill the bastard and take all his stuff. :p

Some quests are required to do others sure, but there are so damn many quests in the game its not hard to find some to your liking. Maybe walking all over the damn place is work, but you have to do so little of that once you get the fast travel methods all figured out. Heck, I consider Morrowind the very opposite of a 'work game' that is a game that makes you endure boring bits so you can get to the fun bits and doesn't give you the option of skipping over those boring bits *cough*DTR*cough*.

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Originally posted by Zenigata

Hrm, what else... Devil May Cry is getting to be a pain. Every time I finish off one insanely hard boss another pops up around the corner.

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Well, Its not Chore. Its called Challenge. The game set up that way, to constantly challenge you, do do your best and get through the tough Boss battles. If it was other way, people would be whining about lack of challenge, and its not being fun. I guess you can never be good to everyone.

My nominies are:

Shenmue - Tried it, got bored and never touched again :)

Monkey Ball - Collecting points just to open mini games, by going through same levels over and over again, is not my cup of tea.

Rare platformers - As many people here said, after a while, all their scavenger hunts get repetetive and boring.

How could I forget Dead To Rights? It's not a horrible game, but most of it, especially the prison level, makes me feel like I did something wrong and am being punished.

Phantasy Star Online, after beating the game 50+ times to get the same lame ending just so I could level up my character and look for rare items... after awhile it just wasn't fun anymore and the PK'ng Online wasn't helping things.

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Originally posted by Despair
Monkey Ball - Collecting points just to open mini games, by going through same levels over and over again, is not my cup of tea.

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Totally opposite of how I feel.

I thought that the mini games/points were a nice additional bonus that I got while trying to beat the main portion of the game.

Well, If mini games were open from the start, and didnt require to to go through levels over and over, beign more of a chore to get to something good, I would have liked it more :p

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Originally posted by Saint of Killers

Do you mean GT3? I thought you loved GTA 3.

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lmao.

yeah. me was tired.

I've on my 8th time through GTA3, I do mean GT3, or any GT for that matter.

Fuggin GTA on the brain. :)

The puzzle mode in King of Figthers 2K kills me...

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Originally posted by Freeter
Work:
-unlocking everything in CvS

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Without the NGPC... the horror...

Ugh.

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Originally posted by Hot Like Wasabi
The Gran Turismo series. Trying to get all the cars and such is more trouble than its worth

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And then there's the racing on the same track over and over again until you make enough money to upgrade your car and compete in the next circuit. Boring.

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Originally posted by Despair

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I knew you'd chime in when I mentioned DMC ;)

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Well, Its not Chore. Its called Challenge. The game set up that way, to constantly challenge you, do do your best and get through the tough Boss battles. If it was other way, people would be whining about lack of challenge, and its not being fun. I guess you can never be good to everyone.

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Describing something as a chore is relative. Some interpret it as a challenge, others a chore. For me it's becoming annoying. That's just me though. I still think it's a good game. It was especially awesome early on. There was a bit too much backtracking and insane boss battles for me though. That stuff just isn't my bag, so the awesome gameplay was hampered a bit for me. DMC2 should be great. From what I've read many things I didn't like about the first will be modified. Well, as you said (sorta), you can't please 'em all.

Hahah, yeah D2R definitly deserves that. That was funny AFX :lol:

SA2 non-Sonic/Shadow levels were painfull as well, though I did not mind Tails/Robotnic as much as Knuckles/Rouge levels. I feel bad for Knuckles now.. him and Luigi get my sympathy for being neglected sometimes and maligned the rest of the time. I routinely burn Rouge in effigy though, I could do with out that horrendous character design.

No action, turn-based console RPG's are a chore too.

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