It's a mindless grind
It was just another night at the Mash household. However, since it was Friday, Button was allowed to stay up later than usual. The foal decided to take advantage of the his mothers' leniency and play his favorite online game with Sweetie Belle.
"Sweetie, what was it you needed again?" Button asked, adjusting his headset.
"Ummm... I think it was... yea, I need three more mysterious shells to complete the quest."
"What drops those again?"
"They're dropped from King Boletes in the Brackish Blue Beach zone."
"Alright, I can go get those for you."
"Are you sure? They have a very low drop chance. Not to mention that they're constantly farmed."
"Don't worry about it," Button Mash assured, "I'll have those shells for you in no time. Just leave it to me!"
"Oh thank you so much! I'd get them myself, but Rarity is nagging me about how much time I've spent on the computer today. It's so annoying. Thanks again! See you tomorrow!" Sweetie Belle gleefully thanked the foal and immediately signed off from the game.
With a new objective, Button set off for the beach zone to retrieve the items for his friend. It really was too bad that Rarity had to take Sweetie Belle away from their Friday night adventures. After all, it was a Friday, and since there wasn't any school the next day, being able to goof around and play is something all children should be able to do. However, after thinking about it rationally, there are different rules for different households. Regardless, Button Mash had a job to do. He made promise to a friend to collect seashells and that's exactly what he was going to do.
The Brackish Blue Beach was located on Caballa Island, an area that was quite far away from the capital city of Clovox-Ris. To use the fast travel services to get to Caballa would mean that he would have to spend seventeen thousand galders. Despite not having enough money for transportation, Button knew that since this was for a friend, he'd go any distance. He decided to walk half the distance to the mercenary outpost and then spend eight and a half thousand galders to fast travel.
Button cracked his neck and got up from his slouched position with a feeling of excitement,
"So it begins. The great quest for shells!" Button declared with fierce devotion, as he directed his avatar towards the city gates.
"I am Sir Veywind Swift! Sworn member of the Order. It is my duty as a royal paladin to protect my people from the Legion. I cannot turn down someone in need, especially if it's a friend. I will go forth to Caballa Island and-"
*DING*
The chime pulled Button out of his role play and brought his attention to the private message he had just received.
Kries3210: Go to www.galders4cheap.com for cheap money and items. 100% trusted and affordable at 10k = 20 Bits!
This was something that always got on the foals' nerves. There are ponies out there that just farm for items like slaves and sell the items for real money. Button liked to take the easy route as much as the next stallion, but he had some standards. Buying items with real money didn't do anything to help the games' economy as well as take all the fun out of the game.
Ignoring the third-party advertisement, Button continued his way to the mercenary outpost. The walk there wasn't nearly as long as he had expected thanks to a speed buff that was cast on him by a player who wanted to help out. When he finally arrived at the mercenary outpost, Button clicked on the Portal Master NPC, paid the fee, and was whisked away to Caballa Island.
Button unsheathed his sword and ran to the combat zone.
"Button, sweetie?"
"Yea mom?"
"Your father and I are going out. Your brother is with Featherweight."
"Out? Out where?" Button asked, occasionally peering back at the screen.
"We're going to meet up with some friends. You remember the Oranges, right?"
"Oh, honey, he's not going to remember them."
"I guess. He was really little at the time."
"How long are you going to be gone?"
"We probably wont get back until very late tonight."
"There's food on the counter and numbers on the refridgerator. See you later."
"Bye mom. Bye dad." Button quickly said his farewells and then turned his attention back to his game, but not before hearing one last thing from his mother.
"I know it's Friday and you'll be home alone, but try not to stay up too late playing video games, all right? Good things are best in moderation."
"Okay mom. Have fun with the Oranges."
"Bye sweetie, have fun."
With the final farewell, Button listened for the sound of their front door opening and closing. Not that it mattered too much, but Button always enjoyed playing video games when the house was empty. Perhaps it was that he felt assured that nopony would sneak up on him or otherwise distract him from his video games? Even he wasn't quite sure.
After clicking on the Brackish Blue Beach zone portal and waiting for it to load, Button saw that the area wasn't as populated as he had thought. There were only three players in the area and it seemed like only two of them were farming King Boletes. Button hovered his cursor over the NPC and saw that it was a level ninety-seven fighter class monster with eight thousand hit points. Nothing Button couldn't handle, but he'd probably have to stop and heal after every two fights or so.
Aware of what he was up against, Button Mash bravely left-clicked on the monster and began attacking. He struck first with, "Preemptive Strike!" a skill that stuns a target for four seconds if it is used to initiate a battle. He decided to take advantage of this opportunity and used his, "Maim," ability to inflict twenty points of bleed damage over fifteen seconds. By now, the monster was no longer stunned and immediately struck Button with a basic attack, dealing one hundred and fifty points of damage. The King Bolete had a better defense than offense. However, while its basic attacks were pathetic, at best, it had a spell called, "Purge," that dealt massive water damage and healed itself forty percent of its base HP.
It wasn't long before Button saw that the monster was beginning to cast "Purge."
Button's eyes widened in fear, "Oh crap!"
Just moments before the spell was cast, Button opened his inventory and double-clicked on an item called, "Swine Flute." In that instant, a massive pig appeared in front of him, absorbing most of the damage.
The King Bolete uses "Purge" as a last ditch effort to kill players with one strong attack. It uses it when it's at or below twenty percent of its HP. After the spell is cast, it receives a debuff that lowers all of its stat points by twenty, making it an easy kill, if the player should survive.
With the debuff active, Button activated, "Grudge," an ability that dealt tremendous damage to targets that were debuffed and below twenty percent HP. The monster roared as Sir Veywind Swift's sword pierced its flesh. It fell to the ground and next to it appeared a little white bag.
"Alright, lets see what it dropped." Button said as he clicked on the bag to examine its contents.
Inside the bag was nine hundred and thirty seven galders, five impure pearls, an archmage water ring, and a rusty dagger blade. No mysterious shells.
Button sighed. Feeling defeated, he felt like he should just stop. All the build up for an anti-climatic ending just didn't seem worth it. Before he could teleport away, he remembered that this wasn't for himself. It was for Sweetie Belle. He remembered that he had made a promise to her and he intended to keep it. Button canceled the teleportation spell he was casting and drank a health potion.
"This is for Sweetie Belle!" Button shouted at his monitor as he rushed towards another King Bolete.
Buttons' head hung to the side and stared at the screen with glossy eyes. He had been killing King Boletes for the past five hours and hadn't gotten a single shell to drop.
"Gotta get the shells. Sweetie Belle needs these shells..." Button mumbled in a half-conscious daze.
He kept telling himself that the next one will drop a shell over and over again. After a few hours of mindlessly fighting the same thing repeatedly with the hope of getting a specific item, the foal started to believe it himself. He was so engrossed in his game, he didn't even notice his mother standing at the doorway with a disappointed look on her face.
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We all know that feeling, Button....XD
Nice short story here, by the way. ^_^
Funny, I don't enjoy any Video Games as much as I used too.
In fact, Htyrule Warriors gave me a headache after playing 1 1/2 levels.
5073683 May I ask why? I personally found Hyrule Warriors an enjoyable romp. I think I might know where your distaste comes in...
5073711 Don't you mean Cave Shooting Simulator?
It's tagged as a comedy, but I don't see the punchline. Or anything funny at all, really.
5073860 I don't really know what caused it, I was just playing and then my head started to hurt so I finished the level I was on and then I stopped.
So, how about Destiny?
5073711
5073894
5074213
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8328303616/h3A8046FC/
5073960 Huh.
This was FFXIV for me when I quit... though really it was a combination of that and elitist pricks. Seriously. How much of a fucking asshole does anyone to have to be to DEMAND people in an online game mere hours to maybe a few days after new content is added to be a fucking pro at it or be blacklisted should you even try doing new content without being an instant master at it. And the having to do this kinda stuff for good weapons made shit even worse as people started demanding you have upgraded ultimate weapons.
Star Trek Online.
Lol noob.
*stare lovingly at Onyx Netherwing Drake*
*sighs* This is one of those stories where you wish there was a PC around to teach the difference between item grinding and fun-farming.
<- oldschool FFXI player.
I used to have friends that would just sit there with a single spawn, AFKing between them and getting bored silly, hoping for that rare shiny to drop.
Me? I'd be gleefully splattering everything in the zone people needed, using the local monsters for crafting supplies, popping chests...instead of staring at a spot waiting for same-old-same-old monster to appear. I'd make deals with friends not just for Rare Shiny, but to get them stacks of crystals, and whatever else happened to be worth it. When you're a Thief and your talent is literally getting better drops, why not share the love?
King Bolete would have had dead friends up and down the line to keep from going brain-dead killing the same-ol-monsters, and my wallet would be full of whatever was getting me plenty of galders...so either way, Sweetie's getting her shells. Lucky drop, or all the loot to buy one off the other players farming/auction house.
Poor Button Mash. Nobody's taught him that if you can't have fun farming, it ain't worth farming it.
5074672
Aion.
As an example: at about level 40 you get a series of quests for some level 40-ish class-specific armor.
One of those quests has you collect 20 teeth (iirc). The teeth drop from elite monsters so it works best with a full group of 5 players (and you still have to pull them cautiously). The teeth have about a 20% chance of dropping - so that's about 100 kills for you to get your items for that one quest. The teeth drop individually and are loot-able by only one person. So for a group of 5 players that's ~500 kills. You will be level 50 before you complete your level 40 armor quests.
Oh, and bosses were not guaranteed to drop loot. Take 40 people in, manage to kill boss, get 3 gold coins each. Well, better luck next week!
"Twenty bear asses. I usually get them from Fluttershy, but she's been banned for PK."
Ugh. Even in Equestria.
I feel your pain, kid. The number of hours I've wasted on that kind of fetch quest...
And now, for some criticism:
This feels unfinished. As another commenter mentioned, it's tagged Comedy but lacks a punchline. It just...ends. And it ends in a really awkward place.
If I might make a suggestion? You should write an ending, a resolution to this. Something like...
Button spent all night hunting the shells, never finding a single one. He woke up the next day and started again. By the time his mom made him stop for lunch, he'd managed to find just one shell. He eagerly presented it to Sweetie Belle the next time she signed on (after his mom forced him to take a break)...only to find out that while he was away from the computer, Sweetie managed to collect all the shells she needed on her own.
OR:
He succeeds in collecting all the shells, and Sweetie asks him to help her find an even more rare item.
Brings me back to my Runescape days.
5076497
Ugh, mining gold ores, then selling them for as low as possible was very annoying, got all rune gear though...
5077799
I got a free account and got everything to about 73. Took me that long to realize "Holy shit, this boring."
If people will PAY MONEY to get around your content--- your content sucks. It's not "unsportsmanlike," it's people getting frustrated with your BORING, REPETITIVE NON FUN SO-CALLED GAME.
5078176 Weapon hunting in Borderlands 2 still haunts me today.
5079237
One of those things about MMORPGs...
...everyone wants everything. However, the way it's set up, it inevitably means that X people making effort towards an item equals X-Y people getting it. That is, effort is not 100% efficient in getting rewards, and if something is TOO inefficient, it's content that's exactly what you said. Not fun grinds. A lot of free-to-play games make this happen, thereby proving that one way or another- oh, you'll pay.
The difference is usually rectified by money exchanged to those who got to those who didn't get, or worse still- RMT's.
Alternatively, you don't want everything and be happy with what DOES come along and sell off the excess that comes your way to make up the difference.
5073860
Hyrule Warriors was fantastic. When I bought it, had my best friend over and we blew through it until we reached Gerudo Desert. We finished that and then we decided to do Adventure so we could unlock some stuffs. Yet again, blew through it. Two player is much easier than one player, even on Hard :3
5079695 I agree wholeheartedly.
Right when I saw the title, I immediately thought this was going to be a Destiny crossover haha!
As someone that crawled up to Level 240 in ol' Trickster Online (RIP), this story made me really happy. Caballa Island, galders, teleport NPCs. The nostalgia. But now I'm having flashbacks to all the drilling...drilling...drilling...blasted Poppuri events making me get dumb premium drills.
5081623 that game is back on by a new game hoster
5081623 You mean the private server, right?
5081669 Thank god for someone who knows of this game!
5081695 most kids today play maple story or runesacpe becasue when a kid go to google and type in free mmorpg games those are most likely the two on top of the ruselut
5078176
I thought MMOs HAD TO BE worse, after all, they have to keep the players paying for that monthly fee.
And this is the end? But there's no conclusion, no resolution.
It's funny and witty, but the story just stops.
This reminds me of Destiny. Speaking of Destiny why isn't it on PC. I maybe would have bought it if it went on sale.
...And then Sweetie wakes the next morning and facehoofs upon coming to the realization.
hehehe
"It wasn't King Bolete that dropped mysterious shells! Oh, I hope Button figured that out."
5081695
I played it back when it was straight under Ntreev.
5075226 lol Ikr in FFXI I would mix farming and leveling. That way I would a least get something useful. If I didn't have anything low enough I think I would always find some low level character and level sync with them just so I could still have a challenge. Easy kills are nice and all, but it gets monotonous after a while just one shooting everything. Minaswell get some levels out of it right?
As an RPG-Lover who also hates item grinding, I approve of this story.
This reminds me of when me and my friends were trying to farm for a Jungle Key Mold in Terraria. We were sitting there for awhile, and when we finally got it and made the key, we got the Pirahna Gun and realized we had better ranged weapons.
FUUUUUUUUUUU...
Am I the only one who actually ENJOYS item grinding?
Yeah?
Okay...
5079477 That's like my favorite thing ever to do in that game, besides farming the Warrior for rare loot.
6652427 I remember fighting the warrior on true vault hunter mode... I went into a rage fueled psychosis.
6652526 One time, I got him down to like, three HP, then he knocked me into the lava and I threw my controller at the wall.
Then I had to buy a new controller, because that was the only one I had.
I know that feel, Button... only I have to wait a week inbetween attempts, and instead of killing King Boletes I have to kill a Lich King. INVINCIBLE WILL BE MIIIIINE! CURSE YOU .72% DROP RATE!