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Grinding is a pejorative term used in computer gaming to describe the process of engaging in repetitive and/or non-entertaining gameplay in order to gain access to other features within the game.^[1] The most common usage is in the context of MMORPGs and JRPGs, most often Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, in which it is often necessary for a character to repeatedly kill AI-controlled monsters, using basically the same strategy over and over again, in order to advance their character level to be able to access newer content. Grinding can also appear in other games in which features can be unlocked. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... ... An image from World of Warcraft, one of the largest commercial MMORPGs as of 2004, based on active subscriptions. ... JRPG may refer to: Japanese Role Playing Game, otherwise known as console role-playing game JRPG (game), a kana/kanji educational game Category: ... This article is about the Final Fantasy franchise. ... Dragon Quest logo Dragon Quest ), published as Dragon Warrior in North America until the 2005 release of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, is a series of role-playing games produced by Enix (now Square Enix). ... Game AI refers to techniques used in computer and video games to produce the illusion of intelligence in the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Overview

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Synonyms for grinding include the figurative terms farming (relating the repetition to tending a farm field), treadmilling (a comparison with exercise treadmills), and pushing the bar (a reference to Skinner boxes in which animals, having learned that pushing a bar will sometimes produce a treat, will devote time to pushing the bar over and over again). Related terms include poopsocking and catassing, which refer to extended or obsessive play sessions. Used as a noun, a grind (or treadmill) is a designed in-game aspect which requires the player to engage in grinding. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Agriculture (from Agri Latin for ager (a field), and culture, from the Latin cultura cultivation in the strict sense of tillage of the soil. A literal reading of the English word yields tillage of the soil of a field.) is the production of food, feed, fiber and other goods by... A woman on a treadmill. ... An operant conditioning chamber (usually Skinner box) is a laboratory apparatus used in experimental psychology to study animal cognition. ... Catassing is the process of sequestering oneself at a computer and avoiding other day-to-day activity in favor of advancing ones character in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) whose game design makes heavy use of level treadmills or their logical equivalents. ...

The most common form of level treadmill is the practice of killing monsters for experience points. The player constantly chases after the next level in order to be able to defeat the next slightly stronger monster. The outcome of MMORPG combat tends to depend more on the character's numerical statistics than the player's skill. Thus there is usually little for a player to do beyond clicking an attack button until he or she wins, or is forced to flee when nearing death. So whether fighting small rats or large demons, the player is performing essentially the same actions, the only difference being the larger numbers in his or her character and the monster's attributes. In the eyes of critics, the player is essentially running forward while going nowhere, as on an exercise treadmill. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A woman on a treadmill. ...

Why players grind

Several answers have been suggested for the question of why players grind. A major motivating factor is the player's desire to attain what appears to be the game's ultimate goal regardless of wasting their life on doing so, which for many games is to reach the maximum level.^[1] There's usually little or no incentive for the player to continually seek new challenges. Once they have found a means to reach their goal they will be averse to tackling new risks and instead repeatedly play through familiar content.^[1] Sometimes nerdy players that lack of realtime strategy might actually enjoy mindless repetitive tasks as a way of relaxing, especially if performing the task has a persistent, positive result.^[2] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Risk aversion is a concept in economics and finance theory explaining the behaviour of consumers and investors under uncertainty. ... It has been suggested that Orthogonal persistence be merged into this article or section. ...

One reason that is less influenced by player choice is a lack of game content. If the player experiences all interesting content at the current level before reaching their next objective, the only alternative might be for the player to grind to the next level.^[1] "Interesting content" is a key here since the player might have been given "new content" that is too similar to previous content to be considered interesting by the player. (Game designer Raph Koster gives an example of "Fireball VI" being uninteresting.)^[3] Raphael Raph Koster (b. ...

Controversy

The idea of having a designed in-game aspect which requires a player to not be entertained for a period of time seems contradictory to good sense, but has been justified in several different ways. The first is that it helps ensure a level playing field.^[3] According to the Pareto principle, players with better aim, faster reactions or more extensive tactical knowledge will quickly dominate the entire game, frustrating the now-powerless vast majority. Thus, by creating a direct correlation between in-game power and time spent grinding, every player will at least have the potential to reach the top 20% (although the Pareto principle will still apply to the amount of time spent grinding). This was explored further in Raph Koster's 2003 presentation Small Worlds.^[4] However, to many critics, this attempt to guarantee an enjoyable experience to all players is exactly what is wrong with the concept of grinding: it is designed to diminish the effects of talent and skill. A level playing field is a concept about fairness, not that each player has an equal chance to succeed, but that they all play by the same set of rules. ... The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. ... Small Worlds was the title of a presentation given by Raph Koster at the Game Developers Conference in 2003, which was instrumental in defining and justifying many of the conventions used in MMORPG games. ...

Another alternative to grinds would be to remove designer-defined objectives, leaving the player free to do whatever they want. The problem with this is that many players might be confused about what they are supposed to do, or they might lack the motivation to do much of anything in the virtual world.^[3] To reflect these different playing objectives (or lack thereof), an open-ended game of this style, such as The Sims, is sometimes called a "software toy." This article is about a computer game that was released in year 2000. ... A software toy is a computer game that does not have a well-defined way to win, often used of simulations and other programs where the experience is the value of the game. ...

Players of subscription-based online games often criticize grinds as a heavy-handed attempt to gain profit. The most interesting and challenging gameplay is often only available to characters at the highest levels, who are the only ones strong enough to participate in raids or player versus player combat. The reason to add grinding is simply to increase the amount of time it takes to reach these levels, forcing the player to pay more subscription fees along the way, this kind of MMORPG including Runescape, which requires players to abandon their real life events into gaining countless exp that would take forever to achieve highest level, but made the skills unstable as they should be and largely luck-based, eg. a level 99 miner getting out-mined by a noob that having an embarrasing 45 level of mining skill. A high level player with tremendous amount of defence level get owned by a noob that had a merely unranked attack accuracy level. Thus these caused alot of frustration among many players that worked so hard on gaining the levels and lead to quitting from the stupid game like this. In contrasts, enthusiasts of the genre have objected to the term grind as an oversimplification of MMO gameplay. They argue that, like traditional role-playing games, there is no goal in MMORPGs other than to enjoy the experience. However, some would argue that in traditional RPGs, players play to act out their character as well; in fact, some players deliberately create weak characters because they find them interesting to play. Gameplay includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. ... This article is about multiplayer computer role-playing games. ... RuneScape is a Java-based MMORPG operated by Jagex Ltd. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ...

Another criticism of the entire leveling concept is that it often allows the player to avoid difficult challenges (such as strategic or reflexive challenges that one might encounter when fighting a powerful opponent) by simply spending a large amount of time battling weak characters in order to ascend enough levels so as to have little difficulty vanquishing the main enemy. This has been compared to having a cheating mechanism built into the game and critics have said that this mechanic leads to RPG players being more likely to avoid challenges in life itself.^{[citation needed]}

It has also been observed that intense grinding can actively damage the role-playing aspect of a game by making a nonsense of the simulated world. A classic example of this occurred in Star Wars Galaxies, where skills were improved by using them. It was therefore possible to see groups of three people, in which: For other uses, see Star Wars Galaxy. ...

• One person was repeatedly deliberately falling over, taking a small amount of damage each time.
• A second person was healing the first, increasing their healing skill, and taking "stress" damage themselves.
• A third person was dancing for the second, relieving their "stress" damage and increasing their dancing skill.

The IGDA Online Games Special Interest Group has noted that level treadmills are part of the addictive quality of MMORPGs that caters to those who play more than 25 hours a week (hardcore gamers).^[5] The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a non-profit organization designed to promote, and strengthen the video game industry, and have computer games recognised as an art form. ... This article is about gamers - people who play games. ...

References

Founded in 1997, Gamasutra is a web site for those interested in video games including video game developers. ... Raphael Raph Koster (b. ... Raphael Raph Koster (b. ... Elonka Dunin (born December, 1958) is an American game developer, writer, and amateur cryptographer who maintains a website dedicated to the Kryptos sculpture/cipher located at the CIAs headquarters. ...

See also

• Experience point
• Level (computer and video games)
• Progress Quest