Has a game ever felt like it's become your job?

When you're doing your millionth daily quest, grinding for a particular item or just playing on autopilot, a game can suddenly go from being enjoyable to a weird obligation. It can feel a little bit like having a job, even when it's a game you otherwise love playing.

Here, PC Gamer share their experiences of that.

[italiangamer]

Definitely happened to me.

[Aceman18]

Destiny 1 did for me, that's why I stopped playing it.

[Fritzwochel]

I was determined to get the Hopscotch Pilgrim shotty (At least I think that was it) by grinding strikes. After ~100 strikes it still had not dropped and by that time I was on verge of puking. I was then I found out that I was burned out and still am. Destiny 2 did not do much for me at all.

[RacerX]

Elite Dangerous excels at this. There really aren't "quests", it's literally "your job".

[thekhurg]

The moment a game feels like a job (Destiny) - I quit. I already have a job - I play games for fun, not to be forced to spend countless hours doing meaningless tasks for the sake of "keeping up" while also having chunks of the game cut out and sold to me years later.

Hell, Destiny 2 has cut content from the first game in it. It's a joke.

[Skull521]

Not really a job but some games just feel like a chore. Bioshock 2 was unbelievably hard for me to complete, it felt like it just went on forever. Uncharted 4 has also become extremely boring halfway in.

[TheRealHeisenberg]

I did the same but it was almost 1000 hours of gameplay before I quit. I skipped D2 after the beta because it felt like more of the same in a stripped down sort of way.

[iofhua]

RacerX - Same for Elite Dangerous. I wanted so bad to do exploration, and got halfway to Sagittarius A before realizing how boring procedurally generated planets are, and how devoid of anything interesting Elite's galaxy is.

I'm hoping Star Citizen scratches that itch. It will be a lot smaller, but everything should be hand-crafted.

[Omnisonne]

Yeah I think every game can become a chore/job if you choose it to be. Especially games like MMOs really ramp up that time investment if you want to get the most out of the game. I've also seen friends slogging through games they got sick and tired of just to get all the trophies.
Personally I can hardly find the care and time to force myself to play something, used to be different years back though..

[rainslacker]

That's why I stopped playing WOW. It felt this way every day, and having the obligation to have to show up for raids being a raid leader and all, just got to be tedious. LIked the game and all, but I wasn't having fun anymore.

[ZeroX9876]

For me too! When you're just grinding the same mission over and over but the "drop rate" is just crappy..... thats one reason why I hate MMOs in general. Not their gameplay, but the "gambling" you do to get those rare items. Skills isn't the issue, it's the amount of luck you have.

[Kashima]

ffxiv

[capjacksparrow]

Yup, I had all 8 crafting classes as well as the three gathering classes maxed with the best gear possible for each... That's not to mention the few combat classes I maxed out -_-

[jukins]

Heh if ffxiv felt like a job then ffxi would've felt like a career

[InKnight7s]

Interesting statement!! Is it harder? more grinding and farming?

[chrisx]

if this hasn't happened to you before, you've never really gamed.

[Godmars290]

But are you really gaming? That's usually when to stop, when the game is no longer entertaining but something you do just to do it.

[Bobafret]

Oh FO.

[RedDevils]

*UFO

[andibandit]

Yeah tell it like it is....them people aint OG(original gamer).

/s

[isarai]

Oh yeah, once i notice it i usually stop playing that game. Unless im really close to a goal like beating the campaign or getting a platinum trophy. Arkham knight was certainly in that territory by the time i got the platinum

[moomoo319]

I wish arkham knight was better 😭 goddamn drones

[ziggurcat]

AC Unity was like that for me.

[shaun mcwayne]

Yeah definitely, but gaming as a job can be a bit tedious at times but always fun. For Most other jobs I can't say the same. ;-)

[AK91]

Nope but that’s probably I have a real job that takes up most of my time.

[thatguyhayat]

Yep the damn trophies are addictive. But so rewarding and worth it. Makes the games you paid for last longer.

[Smokehouse]

Never. I have too many games to feel like that. More often I’m sitting there looking at a stack of games and I just don’t want to play any of them lol.

[Double_O_Revan]

Sometimes THAT is the problem. You'll have so many games at a time it feels like your job to plow through them all, even if it's not enjoyable, just so you can try and catch up. Because Game X comes out in 1 month, then Game Y comes out in 3, and if you dont finish what you have, you can't get them.

[Smokehouse]

It’s not a problem for me lol. If I don’t want to play any games I go do something else. I just have to be in a mood to play certain things.

[xRacer74x]

It happens but its rare. Usually I get into a game the more I play it and I do not want it to end. The last game the felt like a job or chore that I just wanted over was TLOU. Beautiful game but by the time I got to the end I was more than ready for it to end.

[jznrpg]

How ?it wasn’t a real long game? Wasn’t overly hard? Had a great story?

[GortJester]

WoW

[Chaos_Order]

Not so much a game in particular, but a few years ago when I was trying to whittle down my backlog (it had gotten pretty massive) I would set myself certain targets, certain number of hours of play, a schedule of games in a particular order to mix up genres, and pushing myself to beat games so that I could move on to the next one and slash my backlog. It was better that way in some respects as it pushed me not to waste time doing nothing or watching random stuff on YouTube.

[mechlord]

every MMO/-esque suffer from this

[strayanalog]

It has happened to me more times this gen than any previous, but my backlog is now down to two so I pulled through.

[ninsigma]

Destiny, without a doubt became like that!

[Fritzwochel]

Yes. Destiny. I got really sick & tired of all the grinding. When D2 was released I did only last a couple of weeks before I went on sick leave to play fun games ;)

[T2X]

Oblivion and Skyrim for me! Trying to Level up so much. Also SOCOM! Obligated to clan and such, but Oh what a fun time!

[TheRaidenPT]

Yes, when a game prompts with a Fetch Quest that's how I feel about it

[Bobafret]

If it does then you have a problem.

[Skankinruby]

Every rpg does if you wanna finish it in less than 6 months

[Germaximus]

Yes, of course. But if it's a job you enjoy then that doesn't matter. I stop playing games I don't enjoy.

[Tetsujin]

Final Fantasy 11
Fortnite story mode

[bluefox755]

Yes. When I played MMOs, WoW in particular. If I missed a raid, I'd get a similar feeling of guilt to that if I called off at work.

[senorfartcushion]

Well, we are in the age of live service gaming.

Imagine so many companies trying to accomplish two impossible tasks such as: trying to make an open world game appeal to people after the credits have gone and making games that don't end thus wrestling for attention with the other games made to never end?

XD

[rainslacker]

I was a game tester for a while, so, yeah, it felt like a job when I was playing those games.

[King_Lothric]

What I have feel is when you make a game your personal mission, not your job. I can remember Super Castlevania 4... It was my personal mission as a Christian member of the Belmont family to put and end to evil Dracula and making him pay and suffer with my whip.

When a game can make you feel like that, it is not a game anymore, it is an adventure and a tale where you are fully and emotionally invested in it. That is why I believe game can be art.

The Last of Us made me feel that way too.

[jznrpg]

Everquest felt like a job at times especially getting keys for raid zones but it was the most fun job I ever had. Raiding new zones and killing all the bosses before anyone on our server was an amazing time, the game was super hard and fun but the people that formed our guild made it even better. There will never be a game like that for me since it was the first hardcore 3D MMO . FF11 was close and awesome too but EQ will always be the king of MMOs to me. WoW was like an easy version of EQ and I couldn’t play more than the first year we destroyed everything easily, boring

[Spurg]

If a game feels like a job, then you are probably not enjoying it. I'm currently playing Assassins creed origin and the game feels like a goddamn checklist.
Destiny was a cukprit as well, and I didn't enjoy being left behind so I had to forcibly put the game on and do the daily tasks. I'm glad I gave up on the game.

[TimelessDbz]

Easily FFXIV but yet I played phantasy universe day one and until servers closed . Had like 30,000 hours on just one characte and I never felt like it was a job . Just had too much fun

[warriorcase]

The second it starts to feel like a job I just move onto something new. Usually get this in Diablo 3 seasons running rifts.

[spwittbold]

Final Fantasy 14 Online.....Played it for almost three years and it's felt like a complete chore for the last year and a half. Finally uninstalled and unsubscribed.

[trouble_bubble]

PC MMOs do this a lot. endless grinds of boring tasks for RNG lol. Three strikes right there, but as long as it’s 4K at ultra max settings some people will literally play with dogs__t.

[Butters360]

Destiny as a franchise completely guilty of this. That's completely on Bungie being absolutely horrible at communicating to their community, to create the illusion of mystery. I don't mind if I have to grind for something, but at least, TELL ME what I need to do exactly. I have no issue eventually sinking in thousands of hours into FFXIV on PS4 to level up my base level and master every single job.

[Knightofelemia]

Ar Tonelico Qoga Knell Of Ar Ciel going through the Clustania Excutive District to reach Harvestasha that glass road with all the damn elevators gets confusing very fast.

[Fist4achin]

I dont mind a little bit of grinding for big benefits, but there comes a point when it becomes too much and the game is no longer fun. Then i guess you could say it feels like work.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

I still do this in Guild Wars 2 :D Rinse & repeat for that legendary gear.

[EDKICK]

Ark Survival Evolved and Act IV of Shadow of War.

[Good-Smurf]

Yeah that happened to me with BF3 and BF4 ridiculous assignments.
I can't even get a specific gadget anymore because of those are assignment on paid DLC maps that severed player base i can't even get to play a damn map for assignment anymore because nobody plays it.
UCAV is the worst did they ever thought about people who were not into jets? it's a nightmare grinding 3 jet ribbons for it.
I still only have 1/3 jet ribbon after half a month I'd say fuck that assignment and fuck UCAV only users.

[no_more_heroes]

pretty much every JRPG ever for me. If the game isn't already designed to be a grindfest, the way I play it makes it one. Even managed to put 90 hours into FFXV.

I regret nothing...

[ibrake4naps]

Job Simulator

[Silly gameAr]

Doom comes to mind. Loved it at first, but definitely wore out it's welcome before I finally finished the game. It became a grind.

[Nicaragua]

Eve Online and Warframe. Man i love those games but i just had to quit.

[Artemidorus]

If you feel like this then stop and seek medical help, the state of mind you have is unhealthy.

[P_Bomb]

Yeah. I generally don’t start a new game until I’ve beaten the one I’m on, so that can result in some crunchtime OT. Once I start it, I gotta finish it.

[MariseElos]

Blade and Soul.

[HeisenbergX]

Monster Hunter World .. i regret buying that game.

60$ wasted.

[iofhua]

Mighty Quest for Epic Loot was the only game that felt like a "job" to me, because you had to keep raiding castles every day to keep your score up.

I put a stop to that. Instead of building a hugely defensive castle, I built a castle with lots of rare mobs stacked together that maximized the invader's chance to get loot drops.

Then I invaded other castles and left comments telling them my castle was a loot farm and please come visit. My score plummeted, but I made the other players happy. I stopped playing shortly after.

MQEL had a great idea, and I loved building my dungeon, but it was freemium with microtransactions and was just trying to get you to keep opening your wallet. I am glad I put a stop to it. It would be a great idea for another developer to try, hopefully in a non-freemium format.

[LordJamar]

When i was back in elementary and some middle school it was probably runescape i played it daily every day after school just hours and hours of runescape. Today i still play it but very causally just a hour or 2 or do some new quest or event as im now a very high level with tons of money no need to hardcore grind any more

[Deathdeliverer]

Final fantasy 11, 14, and Fortnite latest season pass. I’m so over that game.