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Repetitiveness in games. Your guilty pleasure?

eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
A lot of games have a pretty repetitive gameplay loop. I'm playing MGS5 and although the Side Ops are repetitive and samey I can play them hundred of times.

XCOM missions can also be quite repetitive, but I can to that infinity times too. So what's the game where you find yourself doing the same shit but also quite like it?
 

Catacombs

Arcane
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Dwarf Fortress, Nethack, Battle Brothers, CK2. A lot of the games I play have repetitive tasks, but it's the variety of ways HOW you solve an issue is what keeps me coming back.
 

Swigen

Arbiter
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Dec 15, 2018
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I go through phases where I just wanna play grindy shit like The Divisions, Diablo clones and blobbers but after a while that stuff just makes me wanna vomit. Like this weekend I was not in the mood to play anything repetitive and I opened Rise of the Tomb Raider and before it was even done booting up I exited out ‘cause I remembered all the collect-a-thon bullshit.
 

PulsatingBrain

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Mount and blade Warband can have long periods of repetition and I don't ever really get bored of it. Also in RPGs with a lot of decision making, I always replay with a plan to do all the opposite stuff, to see how it turns out, but just end up doing it all the same again, because those were the choices that felt right to me
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, gameplay loops are the backbone of games. I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure, it's just a thing that people do. Repetitive tasks are a part of life and that's why we use computers.
 

Catacombs

Arcane
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I go through phases where I just wanna play grindy shit like The Divisions, Diablo clones and blobbers but after a while that stuff just makes me wanna vomit. Like this weekend I was not in the mood to play anything repetitive and I opened Rise of the Tomb Raider and before it was even done booting up I exited out ‘cause I remembered all the collect-a-thon bullshit.

I've been like that for every Assassin's Creed since the third one. I can't play it anymore because of the collecting bullshit.
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
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Apr 14, 2009
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14,023
AoD

install -> make char -> see first in-game screen -> quit -> uninstall

rinse and repeat ... several months apart
 

Cerulean

Cipher
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
784
I'm playing lots of Grim Dawn lately, and like all action RPGs, it has a pleasant rhythm to it: Enter an area, avoid standing in bad places, kill the monsters, repeat. I find it quite relaxing, actually.
 

Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
The Sid Meier's Pirates remake had very overt repetitiveness to its gameplay that quickly wore out, but before then it was a wonderful ride. I can't recall how many times I'd install that game and play it for a little bit, get sick of it and drop it only to want to scratch that itch again even a few weeks later.
 
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Daemongar

Arcane
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Nov 21, 2010
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Wisconsin
Codex Year of the Donut
There is a certain Zen pleasure from escaping into repetitive action
* Playing the Bard's Tale games. Fight after fight after fight. Yes, a lot of folks hate the game, but I also feel the same way about fights in Wizardry VII. Are you playing to relax or do you need romance and to turn in a quest ever 13 minutes?
* Same thing as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and driving fast. I just need to vegetate and relax. I want 4 or 5 stars and to drive at 200 mph on a motorcycle.
* Creating characters for NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer. The fact that I actually created a char and finished is shocking to me, but I also acknowledge I didn't create the "perfect build", a thought that keeps me up at night
 
Joined
May 5, 2019
Messages
26
Been playing Days Gone, and before a certain story mission that blocks you from part of the map, I've been doing tasks and collecting stuff in that part of the map. Yeah, it's repetitive but overall fun, although I worry that by the time I do advance with the story I'm gonna be burned out with the gameplay loop, which is what all this collecting and shit usually does. I'm playing on hard and this "exploration" does improve my character and makes me stronger for future battles, though, so that's why I'm doing it as well.

Enviado do meu SM-N960F através do Tapatalk
 

DalekFlay

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I like good FPS combat enough that I can enjoy that on its own for a long time, not needing a story or RPG mechanics to push me to play. I'm pretty much doing this exact thing right now with Rage 2, a game getting spotty reviews and word of mouth quite rightly for having an empty world and shit story, but the combat is so good I'm still having a lot of fun just shooting bandits for a couple hours a day. I honestly don't think very many FPS games ever had something that kept me playing other than the combat loop.

For RPGs, I've never hidden that I'm an explorefag. So games with good exploration or cool worlds to walk-sim around always get more playtime from me than they probably deserve, just because I like the gameplay loop of going to new areas and seeing what is there.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

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Oct 3, 2012
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Guilty of playing deathmatch games in strategy games against AI again and again: different faction, different teams, different position, different tactics... so many options, even on the same map. It's repetitive but also some new experience every time. The big advantage is, that these sessions are only 2-4 hours long.

The same urge exists for party based RPGs, trying out new character builds and party combinations. However the big disadvantage is, that these games are too long to make it enjoyable. Too much repetition for too many hours of gameplay.
I remember very well how many times I tried different parties in Wizardry 8, and I only did so by crawling around in the Lower/Upper Monastery (until Level 8-10). But then the thought of continuing through the whole game often overwhelmed and stopped me. Crawling around repetitively in the first two levels with different parties for 2-4 hours is much more enjoyable than making a full playthrough.

It's like after 2-4 hours the novelty wears out and you begin to think of all the "dozens of hours work" required to complete the game. It probably wouldn't be so bad, if the game was shorter, like 8-12 hours long. That length would probably motivate to do full playthroughs every time.
 

Norfleet

Moderator
Joined
Jun 3, 2005
Messages
12,250
As a psychopath, I am incapable of guilt, and I personally don't care for pleasure, but my shitty repetitive game is an MMO.
 

Falksi

Arcane
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Feb 14, 2017
Messages
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Nottingham
Assasins Creed: Origins.

Same shit for a lot of missions, but the forts & world are so well designed & the combat so much fun, that I've still yet to tire of it after around 60 hours.
 

PulsatingBrain

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Assasins Creed: Origins.

Same shit for a lot of missions, but the forts & world are so well designed & the combat so much fun, that I've still yet to tire of it after around 60 hours.

Yea, I grinded through a lot of repitition in Black Flag because I was enjoying the setting and ship combat so much. I think I'll probably grab Odysey next month in the sale if it's a decent discount too
 

hellbent

Augur
Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Messages
322
For a long time, I'd replay NWN 1 with different character builds and modules. It's relaxing for some reason. It has a good UI and runs on pretty much anything.

Lately I replay Battle Bros, Grim Dawn, and Shadow of War when I need a twitchy game fix.
 

Voltigeur

Novice
Joined
May 3, 2019
Messages
33
Mount & Blade Warband is built on the grind, but it just hits all the right spots with me, I could play that game forever. The bazillion mods help a lot as well.
 

Squid

Arbiter
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
536
Where does the loop ends and the repetitiveness starts? How often should a moment-to-moment gameplay has to be to still be called a 'loop' before it gets 'too repetitive'?
Either way it's still repetition but when people say "too repetitive" they really mean, the game's boring as shit to them. Games use their loops but when those loops are full of dull moments that's when it feels repetitive. Also, a lot of good games step up every so often so that you have to do the same exact thing but learn something small now. You do the small thing enough and it becomes part of the loop and then you learn something else small. New resistances for enemies, new strategies they use, new weapon types you haven't seen already, it can be simple shit. But following some dude through a city every time you go to a new city is boring and it's why I stopped playing Assassin's Creed 1 when a coworker lent it to me. It's when the loop isn't either interesting enough to begin with or that when a not so interesting loop doesn't show you anything new after repeating it 50 times.
 

pakoito

Arcane
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Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
Been playing KoF98's arcade mode on and off for 20 years, SFIV for 9, and 3rd strike for 7. There's no sign I'll be stopping any time soon.

EDIT: I need to rebuild the OSX version of FBA from source so I can add multi-key bindings. I cannot play Capcom's Jojos without it.
 
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