Did you ever wish you could bypass "The Grind"?

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MissMeYet

M
OK, lots of people who play Elite: Dangerous have wanted a way to bypass the grind and get the sweet ships, access to Jameson Memorial, and the big payout missions. Unfortunately it's not going to happen, but in 2005 a little guy who would go on to become Chief Strategist to the President of The United States of America joined a company that did just that! This is an interesting story that has Gaming! Politics! and Shiny Stuff!

"For wealthy gamers, IGE offered an alluring proposition. Instead of toiling for days, weeks or months to advance beyond the early stages of an online role-playing game, they could simply buy the virtual goods that granted advanced powers or unlocked new virtual realms."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...p-table-main_bannonchina-1210p:homepage/story
 
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CMDR Goro

CMDR Goro
1) What you call grind i call gameplay.
2) While i know its a thing i never understood people willing to use "services" like that. Isn't the whole point getting that stuff yourself? Whats the point of having everything from the get go...
 

lefty1117

L
Hm. No not really, I don't want to bypass the progression grind, but I want more options to keep things interesting as I grind. More ships, more missions, more community interaction. I think there's a really huge grind gap between for example Asp E and Python (in multirole ships for example). Either insert some more ships along the way, or make the journey on that grind more interesting. Maybe The Return will help with that.
 

Blackcompany

Banned
B
lefty1117 said:
Hm. No not really, I don't want to bypass the progression grind, but I want more options to keep things interesting as I grind. More ships, more missions, more community interaction. I think there's a really huge grind gap between for example Asp E and Python (in multirole ships for example). Either insert some more ships along the way, or make the journey on that grind more interesting. Maybe The Return will help with that.
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Exactly this.

The game feels like such a grind because there is so relatively little to actually DO. Deliver stuff. Mine. Shoot stuff. That's about it, unless you want to partake of the SRV Driving tech demo. You can shoot rocks there, because apparently shooting rocks passes for game play in the minds of some.

The game needs A LOT more game play variety. And it needs it very, very soon. Alas, the problem with making a game where you ARE (functionally speaking) a spaceship, is that vehicles are very limited in terms of their interactions with a world.
 

Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
I'm still playing and enjoying this game so...no! :)
Never had the need for bypassing anything. Everything is self-earned and my very own experience. That's what it really makes it 'personal' and unique. If it is ships, mods or just anything else.
 

House0fDerp

H
CMDR Goro said:
1) What you call grind i call gameplay.
2) While i know its a thing i never understood people willing to use "services" like that. Isn't the whole point getting that stuff yourself? Whats the point of having everything from the get go...
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Being free to experience the game with only its actual limits and your imagination holding you back. Only exceptions potentially being things earned in interesting or unique ways, IE getting a weapon from a boss in dark souls or exotic bounty series in Destiny, or finding one early in a secret like Doom/Nier:A to bring up a few recent examples of unlocks through interesting gameplay.

Elite certainly doesn't feel like it offers the same reward or engagement in its unlocking and progression methods. As such it certainly feels grindy to me. Also grind IS gameplay, typically repeated gameplay loops for no discernible reason other than time inflation, so you're not wrong with your first point, you're just not actually contradicting that it's a grind.
 
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Gully Foyle

Gully Foyle
I've never had to grind to play this game I let things come to me as I find them doing my other stuff. Nobody is forcing you to grind.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
IGE was also Class-Action Sued, lost, and has since abandoned this practice.

It's actually a pretty pathetic statement when you analyze what's really being said: "I'm too lazy to play my own game, play for me instead."

That's what it means to hand over actual currency for virtual goods.
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
There are ways around the grind...Ive been mode switching and mission stacking all week to build up credits and standings fast...the definition of grind basically. Its nothing more than a means to an end...something which just has to be done like painting the garden fence or doin the laundry. Not particularly fun but if ye want nice things, then ye gotta work fer the nice things.

I had less tha 10m this time last week and had never so much as unlocked a single casino...today I have close to 300m, allied to every faction in the system I chose to work out of and have grade 5 access to the casino. Ok, so in theory, thats 2 weeks grind not one as I didnt start credit farming till sunday past.

Why? Because someone who shall not be named set me a challenge that it couldnt be done in such a short timeframe...I did it to prove a point basically ^
 

House0fDerp

H
Gully_Foyle said:
I've never had to grind to play this game I let things come to me as I find them doing my other stuff. Nobody is forcing you to grind.
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The things I normally do are roaming around, participating in CGs and fighting in CZ/RES locations. Those don't give rank. So to get rank, I can't just do what I normally do, I have to grind.
 

MissMeYet

M
Gully_Foyle said:
I've never had to grind to play this game I let things come to me as I find them doing my other stuff. Nobody is forcing you to grind.
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I should add that for two of my three examples (sweet ships and access to Jameson), there were ways to avoid those particular grinds if you were quick off the line. There used to be irregular sales of the Imperial Clipper to anyone as some sort of gift following the Emperor/Empress ascension. And of course anyone could have bought access to Jameson during the Kickstarter. But that wasn't me...I spent hours doing charity missions and re-logging for Empire and Federation ranks before the whole system was revamped last year.
 

MissMeYet

M
IndigoWyrd said:
It's actually a pretty pathetic statement when you analyze what's really being said: "I'm too lazy to play my own game, play for me instead."
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It's a bit more involved than that, although I don't doubt that there are some lazy folks out there. from the article:

"Players in the West didn’t have time, but they had money,” said Lars Lien, who joined IGE in 2004 as head of customer support and worked there for about a year. “The reverse was true in China. People didn’t have money, but they had plenty of time.""
 

popuptoaster

P
It IS a grind, it's just become acceptable in so many games that many gamers don't see it that way, it's comparable to a boring job in many cases. It's a huge problem in sandbox games and online RPGs.

Just think how you get the good gear or progression in a single player adventure game or even a shooter/platformer, you get better stuff as you play through a story or improve your skill enough to make it to the next level, most sandbox games don't have that, you have to repeat the same activity over and over to earn cash or XP or access to new areas or whatever the game is using.

Some people enjoy that kind of escapism where they can just chill out and gradually amass whatever they need and I will put up with it to a certain degree (much as i do in real life, i like my job but its still a slow way to build up my cash reserves!)

It's just a shame that this game (amongst many others) doesn't offer a way to get "stuff" without having to grind the same things over and over.
 

duckofdeath

duckofdeath
Can we please put a plug on starting new threads every day with complaints on "the grind", i.e. legit game play?
If you don't like the game and only want to see the shiny "end game" ships. There are plenty views of them on YouTube.
 
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