21 Days

508 hours....

That's how much of my life I've spent playing Borderlands 2 and Battlefield 3 over the past 2 years.  I'm sure there's some truly hardcore gamers out there that can attest to many, many more but I'm just talking about 2 games here. 

Why have I invested the equivalent of 3 weeks of my life into games with a relatively simple premise, i.e., run around and shoot stuff?

Battlefield 3 certainly doesn't have the depth of story of say a Call of Duty but it's got better multiplayer.  Borderlands 2 is unapologetic about its simplicity.  It's all about "87 Bazillion guns" with plenty of targets to test them on.  Don't look for any veiled Tom Clancy references here.

Let's be honest.  Both games are about the grind.  In case you don't recognize the term, in gaming it's a series of repetitive objectives that must be completed to gain a reward.  How very Pavlovian, do a trick get a treat...

Life may be a journey but while gaming is ultimately about the destination you can't bore the player while they're getting there.  There has to be more than just the promise of reward to keep you engaged.  In a good game, the grind lives on the razors edge of being challenging without discouraging the player.

Pretty scenery and player customization alone can't make up for bad game mechanics and lopsided objectives.  Overcoming obstacles is part of any game but the core design shouldn't be one of them.  Look no further than the latest installment of EA's Medal of Honor franchise for an example.

Battlefield's take on the grind offered a multiplayer environment both immersive and beautiful occasionally offering up those "epic moments" that just don't happen in other shooters. For a gamer it's a fix that's worth suffering through the cheaters and endless developer tweaks.  What the game may lack in story it makes up for in realism.  Many a middle-aged gamer has lived out his Rambo tendencies  in the virtual desert wastes of Iran.  ...and it was fun...

Borderlands 2 allows you to engage your "Mad Max" fantasies while you strive for ever bigger guns.  That's fun for awhile but there's an overarching storyline with interesting characters that keeps the player engaged.  Even if you're doing badly you're still progressing.  Knowing that no action is ever in vain makes the sometimes insurmountable odds more palatable.   Players know that they will eventually win, you just have to find the right combination.  You may even forget that it's just another gaming grind.

I've played lots of games but few have approached the time investment I've made with these two.  Call of Duty came close but when missions became unwinnable after dozens of attempts my interest waned.  I've played many Need for Speed titles as well but found my attention wandering after one too many skill trees to get past just to unlock a decent car. 

Up till now I've been talking largely about the past.  Truth be told I haven't played Battlefield 3 since June.  EA's incessant push for add-ons and DLC releases began to veer off into just pretty landscapes without much more to offer.  After 213 hours I'd had enough.  EA made the mistake of focusing on marketing instead of gameplay and did little to keep my interest. 

It was just the same grind but for no real purpose.  I set the goal of achieving the rank of colonel and once I'd accomplished it, I was done.  I was starting to feel the grind instead of enjoying the journey.

I almost gave up on Borderlands 2 as well until Gearbox released Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's keep DLC.  Up to that point there was one remaining objective in the main game that I was going to have to either grind through what were now all too familiar missions or cheat the game to beat.  Neither was an attractive prospect.

As a gamer we know that regardless of how much we may love a game, we'll eventually get sick of it.  Battlefield 3 is pretty much dead to me now and that Battlefield 4 is really just the same game with a prettier face does little to motivate the purchase. 

Still, Battlefield 3 and Borderlands 2 kept my interest longer than any previous game ever did.  Only the original Borderlands and Star Trek Online came close.  The common thread was a focus on the experience and only when someone took their eye off the ball did I move on.

With games becoming more cinematic and a crossover of talent from Hollywood, it stands to reason that the gaming experience is becoming more than just a casual pastime. 

That's great news for all those salivating publishers already awash in the cash from rabid fans of their franchises.  But it's both a blessing and a curse.  They'll keep putting out titles so long as they keep making money but at some point you're going to end up with RoboCop 3.  That's called milking a franchise and EA, Activision and Sony are all guilty of it. 

I'm quivering in fear over Battlefield 10 for example...

Playing a game should be something you want to do not something to be suffered in hopes of it getting better with the next level up.  I've often said that in games there's "challenging" and "stupid."  Challenging at least lets me believe I can eventually win.  Stupid happens when you feel like you're being punished for some unknown sin.

If there's one thing that could save us all from boring game grinds it's a return of the game demos.  You know, like Doom, Quake and Commander Keen.  It's a refreshing change when it actually happens.

Battlefield 4 offered both a closed and open Beta where you could try out the game and I appreciated that.  It's also nice to know that my efforts weren't made in a vacuum.  The few paltry accomplishments I managed to achieve in the Beta are still showing up in my stats. 

In fact the beta moved me that much closer to purchasing the game but not enough to pay $60 for it.  I could almost see myself putting a few hundred hours into it, almost.  The Beta for Crysis 3, on the other hand, convinced me that my money was better spent elsewhere.

I'm sure I'll happen across another time sink in the near future but whether or not it's a triple-A title is by no means a certainty.  I'm already lukewarm on Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts but you never know.