When battlefield 6 came out, the hour or two I could afford went a long way: we were in the trenches together figuring it out and having fun.

Now some players are level 2000+, rarely team work and I‘m dying when I spawn. Now it takes more than it gives.

On the plus side, that was the last game stopping me migrating to bazzite

I fell for stuff like this for a while and now I consequently delete every game that tries to pull this shit with me. And I lost the joy in multiplayer games to be honest. I will never match the dedication of some people. And if this means I have no chance to actually enjoy it, I don't want to bother.

I've got no time for grinding at my age. Single player game, some cheat engine, and skip grinding when it gets boring.

Depending on the game, this is why I install balance breaking mods or just use cheats. I play games to get away from grindy bullshit, I don't need that in my games.

I don't enjoy games anymore because I have so little time and almost all the games I enjoy (apart from Space Cadet ofc) take up so much time that I just don't bother. Don't want to start another game of Medieval Total War 2 or Civ 4 if I have time to only play a few turns. And I know I'll be craving to play more the whole day

This is why, with rare exception, I've stopped playing open world games.

I either quit before I finish or I stick it out and end up being sick of it by the time I'm done.

Me playing Pokemon: All of my Pokemon have to be kept at the same level.

Me 3 weeks later: I never want to look at this game again

What having an incurable competitionist mentality does to a MF. I can't stop myself from needing to 100% any game I play, and so many have at least a few things that are just too grindy or boring to complete so it ends like this instead.

Me with Stardew Valley

I always procrastinate on playing and when I do, I wonder why this is so much fun.

It looks so strange when I see people playing a lot of one game and what they do seems to be mastering mechanics. Everything is a stat to them, you can optimize builds etc.

It just seems like a job

They log off from their real job where they optimize something or other and hop onto a game where they optimize something else and coordinate a team etc.

It's so weird to me.

I've had to specifically put a hard stop on my usual thought process while playing games, in an effort to get back to how I played as a kid. If I catch myself strategizing too much to the point where I'm not even playing anymore, and am just going through the motions I already planned out, I purposefully make myself do something completely against the plan just to put myself in the kinds of situations I'd be in as a dumb kid who did the wrong thing, since that was the last time I had real fun playing games. It doesn't always work, but I do have more fun than I did earlier in my adult life.

This is how I am with pretty much any mmo games.

I'll get through the normal level up/equipment upgrades and then to get any of the better items you have to grind for specific items that have like a fuckin 1 in 10,000 drop rate from a boss that takes a full raid party to beat and takes over an hour to finish. Oh and you need like 50 of said item and you can only run the dungeon on the 3rd Sunday of the month or some shit like that.

And this is pretty much the standard for mmo games

Its almost like a game that requires or significantly involves regular monotonous grinding is ... like, definitionally, a poorly designed game.

You can have a regular, repeated activity or loop.

But if that loop itself is boring, rote... the game has failed at actually being engaging, thus rewarding.

The loop itself should be what offers the potential for reward, and that reward should be experiential, not... systemitized sequential progression.

Some of the most fun is discovering the new setting and art models and special effects for the first time.

Seeing the majestic six-legged Porco-Taur charging at you through the sun-drenched savannah of King Arthur's Burg in the Realm of WizardTopia is fun the first time it happens. And then you figure out the monster's pattern of attack, get to know the burrow by the lake where it spawns, and can knock one of these creatures down with a few button clicks. So it's not fun anymore.

Pick up a new game with a new style of monster and a new attack pattern that employes different abilities, and now it's fresh and exciting again.

What's the point of a game? Having fun. If it isn't fun anymore, don't play it. There are probably still other games to play.

Every MMO ever honestly. It's one of the cheapest ways to create content - a mindless time sink.

Single-player games doing this are much more rare, but I bet there are some examples...

Ugh this was death stranding for me. I’m 40, and it felt more like work than a game. Beautiful game, but unfortunately couldn’t finish it

Oh RuneScape. I’ll still come back and start the cycle over and over

I'll just do all the sidequest and collectables I'm in act 2 of red dead 2 and it's been three years

I sunk 3 years and over 1000 hours into Warframe, then I took a vacation to Africa where I couldn't play for two weeks. When I got back I was like "why am I even playing this game? Wonder if anybody wants to play something else" then proceeded to have a few years of great multiplayer games with my dudes.