Anyone else frustrated at requirements needed to 'fully complete' games?

[jwhalley]

Hi guys,

Just a forewarning, that this isn't a rant/whine. I was just interested to see if anyone here ever got frustrated like me at some of the requirements games put in to 'fully complete' them. (ps if TLDR, just press back now )

Let me explain, i've played games like most here for many many years, and i'm sure like a number here i'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to games. After completing games, i like to get all the unlockables, do all the extra stuff so that i've 100% completed the game.

However recently, i've noticed the requirements needed to achieve such tasks seem to,more and more often, be turned into a grind rather than a fun gaming experience. For example, these are the game i'm currently playing.

CoD4: After the single player mode there's the online mode, which is great and has 55 levels where you rank up, unlock weapons and accomplish achievements. However after you've hit 55, to carry on it resets you to 1, takes all your weapons away and resets your achievements. You have to get to 55 ten times to reach the highest rank. Getting their once is great, but the rest just seems like a pointless grind.

MGS4. Played the game, loved it, but to fully complete it you need to collect all the emblems. Some of these are good. ie doing it on a higher difficulty etc, however many are just completing the game meeting certain requirements which can most quickly be achieved by grinding through the game multiple times on easy. Yes multiple emblems can be unlocked per run, but it still requires many many run-throughs adhering certain rules to get them all. Again it seems more of a grind.

Burnout Paradise. After completing the game by getting the 'Burnout Licence' which is when the credits roll, I was expecting to have to complete the races not yet done and do the time challanges etc to fully complete it, but it resets every single race and forces you to do all 115+ again. On top of that whilst finding all the super jumps etc is fun, having to find 400 barriers to crash through is just tedious and again grindy.

All these games are great games which have playability long past completion without the need for these completely long winded obstacles put in place to delay you 'fully completing' the game.

As a result they leave me frustrated when i look at my games collection knowing that whilst i've completed all these games i'm not even close to 'fully completing' them and probably never will due to the greatly extended time committment needed to go from completion to full comlpletion. I know games have always have some degree of this in, but it just seems to be getting excesive as of late.

Anyone else ever frustrated by this?

 

[jwhalley]

Wow, lots of quick responses.

In response to the comments made such a:_

"If I enjoy the game then I have no problem grinding."
"I get your point but I see achievements, trophies & other features of things to do as a way to prolong the gaming experience and as optional - just that little extra challenge once the main game is done."
"its each to their own i suppose"

Whilst I do understand that these are there in an attempt to extend the gameplay experience and that if you enjoy the game you don't mind doing them, each of these games listed is a great game. If you took out some of the silly requirements like shoot 200 pigeons, crash through 400 barriers, people would still play the game, as there's still plenty of other things to do (such as online).

In fact if you actually asked people who killed all 200 pigeons, they wouldnt say that was their choice of gameplay experience, and would much rather be doing something else in game or online, but purely did it for the sake of the acheivement.

I like the idea of achievements and for extras after completion of the game. Beating the time/crash scores, finding superjumps in burnout is great, certain emblems in MGS are great, but I just wish they would take out those 'achievements' which could be classed as a mindless grind as people would still play, but be doing fun stuff as opposed to searching street after street for that last pigeon/barrier.

Edit:-
As a quick follow up, thought i'd suggest how i'd go about these achievements (using burnout as an example)
1) After getting burnout licence a player will have completed around 50-100 of the events in the city. To get full completion they would need to complete all the events they have not yet completed rather than having to do them all.
2) Time attacks / crash scores - left the same. Whilst they can be a little repetitive at times they are a different experience to the main events and go towards owning the city
3) Super Jumps - Remain as they are. Who doesnt want to find the coolest places where the biggest jumps/stunts in the game can be performed
4) Billboards (and the same goes for ipod songs in mgs, idols in uncharted etc etc). Rather than having them so that you have to look under every rock in game to find them have an option to display them on your mini-map/radar, so that the challange becomes more of exactly how to get to them rather than aimlessly going around finding them
5) 400 Barriers - remove it. Is there anyone who actually wants to go around finding these. Most will just get a faq. It's simple mindless grind

Some structure like this, would make the achievements more appealing, give players plenty to do and even after this was done, there's still a load of gameplay experience (online, beating best times/stunt runs etc). I think most would prefer to be spending their time this way rather than finingin billboard 399/400.

 

[jwhalley]

Exactly cb, i agree balance is the key. There should be things to do after completion of a game, but developers need to ask themselves when they put something in, will players actually enjoy doing this or will they simply do it because it's there.

Maybe it is a case of learning, but some such as pigeons/billboards are just absurd. Ask ten people if they actually want to do this and that should be plenty of research for them.