Can 'boring' gameplay be fun?

I've been thinking about the concept of fun and something I might like to do in a game soon. The concept I'm poking at involves basically putting the player to work. Mop this, paint that, repair this other thing, sort these things, figure out what's wrong with this bit and fix it...

There are no scores, nothing to dodge or shoot or jump over. It's relatively mundane except for the setting. My thought is that there is satisfaction to be had doing discrete jobs well and seeing your work matter... sort of like watering the crops in Stardew Valley.

My suspicion is that it will be somewhat meditative, relaxing, and satisfying to accomplish things, especially since doing these things will contribute to a massive fictional infrastructure project which will basically serve as the game story and backdrop and metagame.

Do you have examples of 'boring' gameplay that worked really well for you?

polypusher wrote:

Do you have examples of 'boring' gameplay that worked really well for you?

EXHIBIT A: Turn numbers into bigger numbers a.k.a "the grind"

Viscera Clean up on pc is very much this, I kind of enjoyed listening to podcasts and doing it.

There is a home renovation game on steam that looked mildly interesting or those gun and car games that essentially have you deconstructing or rebuilding engines or guns.

Just walking around, fishing and camping in Red Dead 2 has been really great and immersive.

I loved origins tourism mode just slowly walking around an environment.

I think the grind to me is a good mindless boring thing to do in games as well, I've sunk countless hours into diablo 3 just to do something while watching netflix.

I think if you're going to make a game based solely on boring gameplay make sure you really get the minutia right. The little details are what keep me engaged not so much the repetition.

I am a digital printer and often when working on colour for jobs I wonder if there is some sort of gameplay loop that could be done, just getting a skin tone right and matching it to a proof is something I could see some people enjoying. Not me personally but some people lol.

Rave wrote:

There is a home renovation game on steam that looked mildly interesting

Was it House Flipper you were thinking of? I've been tempted...

Rave wrote:

I am a digital printer and often when working on colour for jobs I wonder if there is some sort of gameplay loop that could be done, just getting a skin tone right and matching it to a proof is something I could see some people enjoying. Not me personally but some people lol.

Tother day I spotted a board game you might not enjoy...

Yeah it was house flipper I've never played but saw a quick look of it somewhere.

I'll have to check that video out after work but I cannot believe that exists. What could be the goal of the game? Find 485 red without the index? Match corporate colours to their pantone? Try to match colours using only cmyk instead of LAB values? The mind reels at the gameplay possibilities.

Feels like "fun" is a limiting term. "Boring" gameplay can be evocative, interesting, compelling. Is it fun to do chores in my camp every morning in RDR2? Not really. But it does immerse me further in the world, and I like that.

House Flipper is awesome, as is Viscera Cleanup Detail.

Along with those I quite dig Mundane Vehicle Sims like Farming Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, Car Mechanic Sim, etc.

These types of games are incredibly meditative and also include smart management elements to keep the experience progressive. I can certainly see the "boring" looking at it from the outside, but they're good at what they do and offer an alternative experience as people come to games for different reasons (hell even the same person will seek Action one day, Puzzle/Strat the next, and maybe even the relaxation found in Simulators).

It's also refreshing to engage in the medium on a non-violent level. To create instead of destroy. I additionally find the grounded, real-world aspects of these games novel as well. Fantasy landscapes are fine and all, but it feels like they're largely over-saturated in the market and getting hands-on experience with authentic activities is a welcome break from all the sci/fi-fantasy tropes.

So at the end of the day Farm Sim and it's ilk may not be for everyone, but man am I glad it exists. Doubly so that there's a large enough base of enthusiasts to keep the niche genre healthy.

I almost always have a "zen" game in rotation for later in the evening or when I just want to relax. For me it really comes down to anything with a satisfying loop and incremental upgrades/crafting. Great examples would be Harvest Moon / SDV, Slime Rancher, Graveyard Keeper, Path of Exile, Kingdom of Loathing (once you get into it), Faming Sim 20XX. I love having a game like this going at all times.

I had not heard of Viscera Cleanup Detail... adding to wishlist!

Sure, just put it in VR and it becomes instantly more fun.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Sure, just put it in VR and it becomes instantly more fun.

I read this as 'Viscera Cleanup Detail is in VR' and went to go buy it. Now I have a sad.

polypusher wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Sure, just put it in VR and it becomes instantly more fun.

I read this as 'Viscera Cleanup Detail is in VR' and went to go buy it. Now I have a sad.

I’d buy that in a second.

i don't know about "fun" per-se, but i feel like repetitive / grindy game play that you don't need to think too much to work through is useful for de-stressing and helping with anxiety. Or, at least, that's what i tend to use it for.

In related news : I started playing World of Warcraft again!

Scanning planets for resources in Mass Effect 2.

oooo...yeah, that's a good one!

100 percenting a system of planets was very satisfying.

I think it depends how it's implemented. Recently I tried playing Skyrim with the Frostfall mod installed. It just felt like busywork, not fun at all - it basically got in the way of the game. On the other hand scavenging for food and water in the early stages of Subnautica felt perfect. It didn't get in the way of the game, it was part of the game and it was desperate and tense and really, really well balanced.

Without wishing to get all philosophical, I think we need to agree what we mean by 'boring'.

I take "boring gameplay" to mean to activities that are not intrinsically interesting, and that leave me feeling dissatisfied. I do not take it to mean activities that are simply repetitive and that I don't think are a worthwhile use of my time.

Based on this definition, I find very little gameplay boring... but I come across a lot that I just don't like.

Planet scanning in Mass Effect 2 is a great example. I hated it, but I recognised that it worked quite well as mini-game. Find planet. Find most mineral rich bit of planet. Fire at it. Not 'boring' at all.

Sure. There's definitely an appeal in playing a game with repetitive or grindy mechanics to relax. However, that's not for me. I read books to relax. When I play video games I want a quick burst of intense action. The older I get and the less time I have to play games, the less patience I have with games that waste my time. The chores in RDR2 would drive me crazy.

I guess games with a lot of downtime fit that bill. RDR2, Far Cry 2 - they give you little to no fast travel, so you have to consider the world as a space, chart a route and take your time making your way there. Most people find that boring, but I enjoy it.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

I guess games with a lot of downtime fit that bill. RDR2, Far Cry 2 - they give you little to no fast travel, so you have to consider the world as a space, chart a route and take your time making your way there. Most people find that boring, but I enjoy it.

I always rushed to the next place I wanted to be in Far Cry 2,3, Ghost Recon Wildlands. After a while just driving around stopped being fun. In Wildlands I quickly learned where a bunch of helicopters were so I could steal them and use them to just go in a straight line. That's about the point where I realized I didn't want to play the game any more, or possibly more accurately, just failed to ever launch it again.

To flesh out the game idea a little more; it would be a VR game (I know that excludes a bunch of people but its what I do) where I would 'employ' the player. I create a contract system where there are dozens, maybe hundreds of space ships out in the solar system with on-board robots who have no autonomy. Say a ship takes a hull puncture, the contract system generates a job for a player. They take control of the on board robot and go investigate. They'll have to perform an EVA to patch the outer hull, then fix the inner hull and possibly repair any other damage like replace piping or a computer monitor or circuit board etc.

It's menial but important. Ensuring the ship arrives intact will further the meta-game.

There are no asteroids to dodge while you're doing it or aliens to shoot, or really much time pressure in most cases. I think it will be a lot of fun anyway. Performing these duties will be fun even if your inner eight year old hates chores.

Practicing a circuit in a racing sim. Running lap after lap, alone on the track, attempting to shave hundredths of a second off should be tedious as hell.