I didn’t play The Ivalice Chronicles, but recently-ish I did play the OG game for PS in emulator. And I feel like it addresses grinding slightly better than most games do, but still poorly - the rubber-banding kind of sucks.
I wish I saw more games where, instead of fighting against the grinding, the designers made it more enjoyable. People who grind, like the author and me, do it because it’s in the human nature to look for
safety - your chars are less likely to get hurt and die
hoarding/power - numbers go brrr, you’re accumulating stats
less cognitive load - if you can OHKO enemies you don’t need to think on how to kill them
But instead of acknowledging those desires they tell the player to stop having fun the “wrong” way.
On one hand I get trying to promote players to play the fun game you designed the way you intended it to be; on another Death of the Author (Dev?) is a thing and sometimes grinding is relaxing. Press sequence of known easy correct inputs and see number go up! Candy for an overwhelmed brain.
The analogy with Barther’s The Death of the Author is spot on: there are multiple ways to appreciate a literary work (or a game), regardless of what the author (or game designer) initially intended. Some might see it as “derailing” it, but if the reader (or player) gets something out of it, who cares?
I didn’t play The Ivalice Chronicles, but recently-ish I did play the OG game for PS in emulator. And I feel like it addresses grinding slightly better than most games do, but still poorly - the rubber-banding kind of sucks.
I wish I saw more games where, instead of fighting against the grinding, the designers made it more enjoyable. People who grind, like the author and me, do it because it’s in the human nature to look for
But instead of acknowledging those desires they tell the player to stop having fun the “wrong” way.
On one hand I get trying to promote players to play the fun game you designed the way you intended it to be; on another Death of the Author (Dev?) is a thing and sometimes grinding is relaxing. Press sequence of known easy correct inputs and see number go up! Candy for an overwhelmed brain.
The analogy with Barther’s The Death of the Author is spot on: there are multiple ways to appreciate a literary work (or a game), regardless of what the author (or game designer) initially intended. Some might see it as “derailing” it, but if the reader (or player) gets something out of it, who cares?