Games that waste your time?

[DaHeckIzDat]

I spent the last few days playing Yakuza Kiwami, and while I'm enjoying it I can't help but feel like the objectives are made to deliberately waste my time. They sound simple enough, but they always turns into a long, monotonous checklist. Here's how one of the first missions in the game plays out: go to store > buy ring > lose ring > find pickpocket > lose pickpocket > find pickpocket again > fight pickpocket > go to pawnshop > leave pawnshop > talk to npc > go back to pawnshop > leave pawnshop > talk to npc again > get ring back > return to mission start. Another mission a couple hours later just tells you to "Infiltrate the Funeral," but that involves sneaking in, finding out the way is blocked, signing a guest list, finding out a funeral worker lost his employee ID, finding the ID, having the worker take it back, watching a cutscene of the worker quitting his job, talking to him again, finding out he threw away the badge, finding the trash can he threw it in, and then finally proceeding with the mission objective.

What do you guys think of games that do this? Can you think of any others?

[scotland]

How to stretch out gameplay: Create massive logic puzzles. Hey, it worked for Infocom text adventures back in the day

[lynchie137]

Most RPG's from the 8 bit era. Specifically ones like Dragon Warrior. Now don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed playing that game. But to me, it seems like you spend most of your time grinding in an attempt to build up your character's experience points instead of exploring the vast world and partaking in the quest at hand. And sometimes, that does get a little annoying.

[DaHeckIzDat]

I kind of felt this way about Batman: Arkham City. You could never just go somewhere in that game, you had to get there, find the door locked, find a skyscraper so your radar could locate all the magical door locking machines scattered throughout the city, fight some thugs, stealth some other thugs, smash the machines, go back, and then go inside to find a puzzle preventing you from going through the second locked door.

[GTS]

I'm okay with doing tasks like you described if the experience is immersive. I played through Detroit Become Human twice, and near the beginning of there's some vacuum cleaning, running errands, etc. I didn't mind it one bit because the whole game feels so lifelike.

[VideoGameCritic]

Wow this is a great topic, especially for a guy like me who likes to quickly bang out the reviews.

Definitely agree on the Dragon Warrior and Batman games. Another one that comes to mind is No More Heroes. Between the epic boss encounters you had to run errands or perform chores like mowing lawns.

I want to say Monster Hunter (Wii U) was a similar experience with the grinding.

I think some degree of grinding is acceptable, but some games take it too far.

[Stalvern]

I have a secret for you guys.

All video games waste your time.

[DaHeckIzDat]

The really annoying thing is, at least in Yakuza's case, you could cut these missions in half and not lose anything. Take the funeral mission for example. You find your way blocked, overhear the employee say he lost his badge, find the badge, and presto! No need to walk back and forth across the level (slowly, since the guards are suspicious of anyone running) having pointless conversations with the same people over and over again.

It's the same concept as writing a book, now that I think of it. Never use ten words where only two are needed.

[CaptainCruch]

What a weird subject. Aren't all games suppose to be fun ways to waste time?

(Well, if I have to mention something: recently, I start enjoying casual hidden object games. They are sure time wasters, but I really enjoy wasting time with them).

[GameOfThrones]

Elder Scrolls online. I love the Elder Scrolls series. I remember the fmv promo movie coming out on the org X box. Captivating visuals sold me and I have been playing the series ever since. Oblivion and Skyrim are two of my all time faves.

Then ESO came out and I was like okay. How bad can an online only game be. The quests are boring and very grindy but the reason for it is that you can just get more experience by paying for it. The quests are boring. Really not worth having