Game Theory 5: Grind

Recorded on August 8th with Brian Fife, James Fingal, Thomas Westberg and the crickets in Brian’s basement.

Brian, Jim and Tom talk about grind. Grind is eventually defined as time or effort that isn’t enjoyable, that must be spent in a game reach an objective, gain an item, or an achievement.

Some may look fondly (in retrospect) on past labors that led to high achievement in a game - but often we look back at time we spend grinding and wish we had done something different.

Grind doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It’s sometimes nice to be able to kill time with a game – just like junk television. Persistent/MMO games also allow you to upgrade your character status while you do this.

Links to referenced items:

Carrot-Stick Forum Article,
World of Warcraft,
Final Fantasy,
Halo Skulls,
Braid Stars,
Banjo-Kazooie,
Super Mario,
Beyond Skill - Tobolds,
Sonic,
Left 4 Dead,
Angband,
Akimbo Assassin Achievement,
World of Tanks,
Workification,
Runecloth,
Winterspring Furbolgs,
Chess,
Starcraft,
Counterstrike,
Borderlands,
Torchlight,
Angry Birds,
Comfort Grind,
Jetpack Joyride,
Call of Duty,
Captured Firefly,
Captuar - Final Fantasy 3,
Dawn of War,
God of War,
Turtling,
Diablo 3,
Civilization,
Grand Theft Auto 3,
Pigeon,
BFG,
Morrowind,
Umbra,
Half Life 2.