undrssthemachine

@Doshin

note to self, proofread.

second note to self, you almost typed "not to self" and hit submit.

Alright, So, I dusted off my Joystiq account to post here.

Much like you, I've always had a very strict definition of grinding, and i think it comes from the same place you got yours, but is slightly different.

I used to play MUD's, a lot, there isn't a lot of questing in MUD's and this carried over to games like everquest and other graphical MUD's

Grinding was always going through and killing things to gain XP, so when I go to an area where there are mobs, and i kill 150 of them to level, that's grinding out a level. Grind wasn't really a negative back then, it just was, there wasn't a lot of other ways to do things, so you camped the same invisible square and waiting until the text showed up that said the mob entered and you killed it again.

Even when i started playing WoW, which is more quest based than grind based, I used to grind out a few bars when i didn't feel like doing any questing.

That having been said, Grinding always felt like work, IT was doing something over and over again with an inevitable end goal, and you could use the term for other things, If i say "I'm grinding makecontainer so i can level engineering" then someone would no what you mean, you're applying that attitude and action to something else

Language however, does change, and eventually we have to wonder what the difference is between killing 150 rats because they're the only thing i can kill, or killing 10 rats, 15 times, because someone in the game told me to, when you can't really decide between the two, the game feels a bit "Grind-y" and is probably Aion.

I disagree, I think we're seeing the end of games like Front Mission 3, a game who's story was muddled by endless menus and stat micro management.

I think we're seeing games that can tell stories and put you in the role of a character, without heavy stats.

I argued against this for a long time, I loved my stats, but then i play games like Mass Effect 2, who give me that role playing feel and story without me needing to worry too much about the details. Was the game a little heavy on the action? yeah, but it didn't have to be, it wasn't a perfect game by any means, but the issues with it weren't related to a lack of stats.

FFXIII is just a long hallway, but a long hallway with stats, I can easily say that ME2 feels like more of an RPG than FFXIII because I'm playing a role, and not just watching a vaguely interactive movie.

The big issue here, is that gamers need to let go of some of their preconceptions on what makes a game an RPG, because It shouldn't be micro managing and attributes.

I bought an SE stick and put import Sanwa parts in it, and i like it a lot more than the TE stick that my roommate got.

I'm not sure if it was the placement or size that did it, or if it had to do with the parts themselves.

anyone else have this experience?

I'm 25 and still have LAn parties.

Well at least i have a solid answer on that, I appreciate it, KOF XI was a bit rough to beat *coughisuckedcough*

Even the gameplay isn't that awesome, the counter system is pretty much just easy mode, and no matter how much i play it, i can't get the feel for the timing, actions that i pull off consistently in other games i can get maybe a 50-60% success rate on in KOF, the whole thing feels sluggish, like i have it on "slow and not responsive" mode somewhere in the setup.

Even the character roster didn't bother me, what bothered me was that i dropped 60$ on half a game. I got Time trial mode and a broken online, thats it, and Iori who has no fire, and no story or reasons why.

But seriously, i felt like i had just downloaded a game off XBL and would have been upset to drop 20$ on it let alone 60$

I hear they've confirmed patcher as an unlockable analyst.

yes! they have it here at Gameworks in AZ, but there was no us console version.