The other day I was thinking about games that have been played for generations. I decided to put some thought into what I think makes some of the most popular games (both computer and board) fun, for a wide variety of people to play, over and over, for up to ~80 years in some cases.
I wanted to identify whether it's necessary or beneficial for a game to incorporate a "grind" in order to be enjoyable long term. In order to do that, I broke down a few of the most popular, long lasting, games into early, middle, and late stages with what I consider to be the main characteristics of each stage. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of popular games, and its not meant to disparage any specific mods, developers, or players. Also, like nearly anything posted by anyone on a forum, these are simply my opinions as an analyst who is always searching for the next fun thing I can do.
Call Of Duty (multiplayer)
Early Game: Fast level ups, players start with reasonable weapons
Mid Game: Slower level up, more weapons unlocked
Late Game: Slow level ups (more grind), enhance/strengthen weapons, few weapon unlocks
Why it's fun: Fast paced, competitive at any level, get to use cool weapons
Downside: People exploiting powerful combos
Age of Empires
Early Game: Limited resource gatherers, plentiful resources to be gathered, Level up quickly
Mid game: Build society, more resources could lead to more villagers, which lead to more resource gathering or stronger military.
Late Game: Progresses slower, resources become scarce, battles become intense
Why it's fun: It tests your allocation of early resources, you get to build cool units
Downside: The AI doesn't alter it's strategy
Grand Theft Auto (Single Player)
Early Game: All vehicles and abilities available, vehicles just need to be "collected"
Mid Game: New missions become available based on what has been completed
Late Game: Players have more cars, missions more complex and involved
Why its fun: Variety of missions and cars available.
Downside: Storylines to follow, repetitive actions
Scrabble
Early Game: Lots of tiles (resources) to pick from randomly, small space to build
Mid Game: Resources still plentiful, moderate amount of space to build off of
Late Game: Most challenging part of game due to scarce resources and limited space
Why it's fun: Tests your intelligence, get to show off your vast vocabulary
Downside: Requires other players, Gets boring after a few rounds
Monopoly
Early Game: Lots of properties, scarce cash, partial luck of the roll
Mid Game: Less cash, fewer available properties, more luck needed
Late Game: Either flush with cash or broke, Few to no properties available
Why it's fun: The player with the best strategy wins, unless there is a big streak of bad luck.
Downside: Requires other players, games can be long, inconvenient to play daily
Risk
Early Game: Start with a few resources (armies), early planning is key
Mid Game: Slowly build resources and expand control
Late Game: Control of continents to get new resources crucial
Why it's fun: Unpredictable outcome of close battles, strategy, resource allocation
Downside: Requires other players, long games, inconvenient to play daily
Vanilla Minecraft
Early Game: No resources, no tools to start with, survival can be a struggle
Mid Game: Adequate resources, survival easy
Late Game: Plentiful Resources, survival trivial, ability to build anything imagined
Why its fun: Minimal structure, infinite world, can build anything
Downside: Limited type of blocks and resource gathering capabilities
With popular games that stand the test of time, its not a long grind to play them and get to a point where you can be competitive. If there is a grind, it's late in the game. Consider Call of Duty, for example. Among the games in my list, I consider COD to be the most like Minecraft because there is no game ending event. You can play perpetually just like you can in MC.
COD's grind does occur throughout the game play, but it intensifies at the higher levels. Additionally, it's selective. If someone wants to grind further they have the option to "prestige" where they can begin the entire grind all over again. The main component of that is that it's optional according to the players wants. It's not required for them to achieve a high Kill Death Ratio or have fun time playing. The additional grinding doesn't give the player anything functional that the rest of the players dont have, it simply gives them a new icon by their name for recognition by the other players.
But COD gets stale. What about a game that is still fresh and popular after 80 years in nearly current form--Monopoly? I really dont think there is much of a grind in Monopoly. It's more of a race to me. You have to race to get the properties with the best return, as well as race to get the first monopoly, houses, hotels. Then you just have to hope that the other players land on your spots more than you land on theirs. The race is the closest to a grind that there is, but it doesn't feel like a repetitive, tedious grind the way COD can. The "race/grind" can last for as little as 10 minutes or a couple hours, but it's engaging, not repetitive, and fun.
What does this mean to mod makers? Should mods be grind-intensive early, with big payoffs later in the game? Or should they make everything so easy to get that there is no challenge at any point? In my opinion, neither of those is balanced enough result in a mod (or game) that is fun to play over and over and over for years. If mod developers want to create a stand alone mod that will be widely popular for a long time, they should consider other games and try to incorporate their own take on the same fun elements in their mod.
The importance of a balanced grind can't be overstated. Other games show us that their grinds start out minor and get more difficult as the player becomes more capable. In Modded Minecraft terms "more capable" means they can gather large amounts of resources, generate a lot of power, or cover a large distance easily. To burden a player in a fresh world with the requirement of many hours of mining/farming/hunting for (or any other type of grinding), in order to build the first few items they need in order to simplify the resource gathering process isn't the same formula for success that widely popular games employ.
What would be consistent with the "popularity formula"? I'm glad you asked. Fun at all stages of the process. No tedium. More hunting for hard to find items late in the game than early in the game. Measured progression that is fast and easy at first and slows at higher levels. The chance to improve the capability of existing machines and tools late in the game. These are all things that can be done to make the experience fun for more people. Many mods already offer some of these features, but I've yet to play one that does it evenly across all of the early, middle, and late stages. Again, it should be fun to play no matter what level of the game you're in. The goal should be fewer and smaller points where you're just have to grit your teeth to get through in order to get to "the fun stuff".
Like so many of you, I love and appreciate the work that so many of the mod developers do voluntarily in their spare time. I believe that incorporating the most fun traits of some of the greatest games will only improve and strengthen our community and the game we all love.
I wanted to identify whether it's necessary or beneficial for a game to incorporate a "grind" in order to be enjoyable long term. In order to do that, I broke down a few of the most popular, long lasting, games into early, middle, and late stages with what I consider to be the main characteristics of each stage. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of popular games, and its not meant to disparage any specific mods, developers, or players. Also, like nearly anything posted by anyone on a forum, these are simply my opinions as an analyst who is always searching for the next fun thing I can do.
Call Of Duty (multiplayer)
Early Game: Fast level ups, players start with reasonable weapons
Mid Game: Slower level up, more weapons unlocked
Late Game: Slow level ups (more grind), enhance/strengthen weapons, few weapon unlocks
Why it's fun: Fast paced, competitive at any level, get to use cool weapons
Downside: People exploiting powerful combos
Age of Empires
Early Game: Limited resource gatherers, plentiful resources to be gathered, Level up quickly
Mid game: Build society, more resources could lead to more villagers, which lead to more resource gathering or stronger military.
Late Game: Progresses slower, resources become scarce, battles become intense
Why it's fun: It tests your allocation of early resources, you get to build cool units
Downside: The AI doesn't alter it's strategy
Grand Theft Auto (Single Player)
Early Game: All vehicles and abilities available, vehicles just need to be "collected"
Mid Game: New missions become available based on what has been completed
Late Game: Players have more cars, missions more complex and involved
Why its fun: Variety of missions and cars available.
Downside: Storylines to follow, repetitive actions
Scrabble
Early Game: Lots of tiles (resources) to pick from randomly, small space to build
Mid Game: Resources still plentiful, moderate amount of space to build off of
Late Game: Most challenging part of game due to scarce resources and limited space
Why it's fun: Tests your intelligence, get to show off your vast vocabulary
Downside: Requires other players, Gets boring after a few rounds
Monopoly
Early Game: Lots of properties, scarce cash, partial luck of the roll
Mid Game: Less cash, fewer available properties, more luck needed
Late Game: Either flush with cash or broke, Few to no properties available
Why it's fun: The player with the best strategy wins, unless there is a big streak of bad luck.
Downside: Requires other players, games can be long, inconvenient to play daily
Risk
Early Game: Start with a few resources (armies), early planning is key
Mid Game: Slowly build resources and expand control
Late Game: Control of continents to get new resources crucial
Why it's fun: Unpredictable outcome of close battles, strategy, resource allocation
Downside: Requires other players, long games, inconvenient to play daily
Vanilla Minecraft
Early Game: No resources, no tools to start with, survival can be a struggle
Mid Game: Adequate resources, survival easy
Late Game: Plentiful Resources, survival trivial, ability to build anything imagined
Why its fun: Minimal structure, infinite world, can build anything
Downside: Limited type of blocks and resource gathering capabilities
With popular games that stand the test of time, its not a long grind to play them and get to a point where you can be competitive. If there is a grind, it's late in the game. Consider Call of Duty, for example. Among the games in my list, I consider COD to be the most like Minecraft because there is no game ending event. You can play perpetually just like you can in MC.
COD's grind does occur throughout the game play, but it intensifies at the higher levels. Additionally, it's selective. If someone wants to grind further they have the option to "prestige" where they can begin the entire grind all over again. The main component of that is that it's optional according to the players wants. It's not required for them to achieve a high Kill Death Ratio or have fun time playing. The additional grinding doesn't give the player anything functional that the rest of the players dont have, it simply gives them a new icon by their name for recognition by the other players.
But COD gets stale. What about a game that is still fresh and popular after 80 years in nearly current form--Monopoly? I really dont think there is much of a grind in Monopoly. It's more of a race to me. You have to race to get the properties with the best return, as well as race to get the first monopoly, houses, hotels. Then you just have to hope that the other players land on your spots more than you land on theirs. The race is the closest to a grind that there is, but it doesn't feel like a repetitive, tedious grind the way COD can. The "race/grind" can last for as little as 10 minutes or a couple hours, but it's engaging, not repetitive, and fun.
What does this mean to mod makers? Should mods be grind-intensive early, with big payoffs later in the game? Or should they make everything so easy to get that there is no challenge at any point? In my opinion, neither of those is balanced enough result in a mod (or game) that is fun to play over and over and over for years. If mod developers want to create a stand alone mod that will be widely popular for a long time, they should consider other games and try to incorporate their own take on the same fun elements in their mod.
The importance of a balanced grind can't be overstated. Other games show us that their grinds start out minor and get more difficult as the player becomes more capable. In Modded Minecraft terms "more capable" means they can gather large amounts of resources, generate a lot of power, or cover a large distance easily. To burden a player in a fresh world with the requirement of many hours of mining/farming/hunting for (or any other type of grinding), in order to build the first few items they need in order to simplify the resource gathering process isn't the same formula for success that widely popular games employ.
What would be consistent with the "popularity formula"? I'm glad you asked. Fun at all stages of the process. No tedium. More hunting for hard to find items late in the game than early in the game. Measured progression that is fast and easy at first and slows at higher levels. The chance to improve the capability of existing machines and tools late in the game. These are all things that can be done to make the experience fun for more people. Many mods already offer some of these features, but I've yet to play one that does it evenly across all of the early, middle, and late stages. Again, it should be fun to play no matter what level of the game you're in. The goal should be fewer and smaller points where you're just have to grit your teeth to get through in order to get to "the fun stuff".
Like so many of you, I love and appreciate the work that so many of the mod developers do voluntarily in their spare time. I believe that incorporating the most fun traits of some of the greatest games will only improve and strengthen our community and the game we all love.
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