Something I get asked every so often is why I play so many games that feature foraging and/or farming/gardening if they’re both features that I find really tiring. Crafting can also come up sometimes with this, but not as often and is usually more expected with the general issue of limited inventory spaces while needing to constantly hoard up things, but even Crafting cripes kind of boil back down to those same two subjects: Foraging and Farming.
Before I get into it, I want to state that these are absolutely my personal struggle with them, and I know is not an issue most people have (or there’d probably be less simulation games that include them). It’s also very likely that others who also don’t care much for these systems may not have the exact same reasons as to why and that’s fine! This is just me talking about it.
So, to answer the initial question: The reason I keep playing them is because of pretty much everything else. I love collecting things, I love decorating my house, I love talking to the characters in-game and making friends, I love customizing my character, I love designing in general. I also love doing quests and helping out the characters. There’s so much I really enjoy that I try to deal with the grind despite how much it drives me nuts.
As for what I dislike, mainly I really struggle with doing the same tasks over and over. Even with my love of quests, doing repeatable quests (especially if I have to do the same one daily) is exhausting for me. After a while, it almost feels like a constant state of deja-vu and even doing it just once suddenly feels like doing it 10+ times. I’m not always up to doing dailies in general, but when it adds on that feeling, it becomes even worse. It’s also part of why I wish things didn’t have as many limits because sometimes, I do have that moment where I can just… stomp on through 50+ of the same quest and hit that goal I need to (Using New Leaf as an example, I listed to K.K. songs 100 times in a row for that badge versus New Horizons that decided that no, it only counts once a week so have fun doing this every week for 2 years).
Foraging especially, while relatively simplistic, I find almost mind-numbing. I know some people find it relaxing, but I just… at best, I’m just bored, at worst, I’m losing my mind. Especially if I can’t keep track of where I’m even going. My mind is always going and when it comes to things that are just… collecting up stuff for no reason and just because, my mind is just going to wander in the worst places because it has nothing else to focus on.
With farming, it’s essentially foraging with extra steps and a time gate on top of it and so it’s just… multiple stages of boring for me. And I’m sure a lot of people reading this will just not be able to wrap their head around it and to be honest, I feel the same way about people who love these features! I think if they have more of a purpose, like… getting one of each to complete a Research Book or a Museum or something can be fun, but when just collecting to level up or to hoard materials for some kind of crafting/upgrade system, it just feels so incredibly exhausting. Like I’m just walking in circles endlessly. Especially if there’s inventory/storage limits.
Obviously, there’s no real option to such a thing, a lot of the times it’s more a core mechanic than I make it (as every Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons game, I suddenly exclusively have a Dairy farm), but it’s definitely a system I struggle with in every single game and especially when I’m not feeling well, it feels even harder to do.