So, I'm playing Jump Ultimate Stars last night and, as with any game, I wanna get everything, here being read as level up all my komas. Now, you can all start praising me as the gaming god that I am for maxing out all the playable characters and being able to occasionally win online without abusing the fuck out of Trunks, but it got me thinking; here I am, playing this game for hours, farming gems, just to get the satisfaction of maxing everything out. There are a couple of points I'd like to go over from that statement.
1) Playing this game for hours
2) Farming Gems
3) Satisfaction of maxing everything out
Now, lets talk about #1 for a second. I have invested untold hours into this game. I have played this game for more hours than I have put into some classes. Compared to the job security that good grades would assure me, the rewards I would get for putting that time into a relationship, or even the satisfaction I would get at learning a new instrument or language, it seems almost silly.
About #2, how can something like this be fun? I would venture to say that about 1/3 of those countless hours mentioned above were spent farming. What is farming you ask? Okay, so you need green gems. How do you get them? Why, go to a level with green gems as enemy item drops. But, you need to pick the best level to maximize your intake. So, you are playing the same level, over and over, getting between 200-300 gems on average. Now, do that for about an hour. Congratulations! Now, go do it for red gems and green gems, and then realize you can max out about 5 good koma, if that. Speaking of that...
Maxing out everything, our #3. What is the satisfaction in maxing things out? I mean, it's virtual stuff. How can getting virtual rewards give actual pleasure?
In the end, it's just a matter of psychology. #1 is clearly about both immediate rewards and the pleasure of accomplishment. Beyond that, a lot of what people do isn't directed towards long term goals. Movies, board games, crosswords, even most reading doesn't really help you in the long run. It keeps your mind active, and without some of those immediate rewards, you would probably go insane. #2 Is a Skinner Box type deal. Press the Button, Get Bacon as it were. Instead, I press the buttons, and get my gems. Finally, to the people who subscribe to the "#3 is stupid school of though", fuck you! Did you know that once currency was taken off the gold standard, it only had value because a bunch of people said "Yeah, this paper is worth something. In fact, it's better than that other kind of paper over there for some very boring and complex economic reasons" (note: clearly I am oversimplifying macroeconomics here). Even when it was on the gold standard, it was only valuable because gold was a limited resource that people wanted. Gems are both a (somewhat) limited resource that I need to earn and someone has given it a real world value by assigning buying power to it, even if that buying power is for virtual things.
When it comes down to it, I love level grinding. I really do. And I think most people love grinding (heh, sexual innuendo) to some degree. It's a psychological matter. Some people might think that just because games seemed designed to take advantage of our evolutionary mental structure they are somehow bad. Well, eating ice cream is the same way. So is sex. So are drugs. When done in moderation, all are great things, because they feel great. It's fine to enjoy pleasure in moderation without slipping into full on hedonism. Your body was designed with so many ways to feel pleasure. Take advantage of it.
So just remember, videogames are good. Even grinding is good. But drugs are bad, m'kay?
Just kidding. Drugs are awesome. Go do them. Now.
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