I'm looking for the Holy Grail of multiplayer gaming

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Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨judgyweevil@feddit.it⁩ to ⁨gaming@beehaw.org⁩

What is a good multiplayer game that is both (almost) endlessly replayable AND with less grinding as possible?

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misk@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Unreal Tournament 99.

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve spent countless hours in the 2004 version
  
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- richardwonka@lemmy.one ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I was going for counter strike classic, but yup.
  
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- Jode@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  To this flavor: splitgate
  
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WilfordGrimley@linux.community ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Sea of Thieves.

There has never and will never be any pay to win. Everyone has access to all weapons at any time, no unlocking, just pure skill.

Up to 4 players on your team (ship) open servers with other players all sailing around all the time. You can get in an organic fight over treasure, or matchmake for ranked battles.

All of the progression is cosmetic based.

The devs have been adding content constantly since launch that fleshes out the game systems and makes for more interesting interaction.

I come back to this game all the time. Highly recommend.

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- orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This game is so much fun, even when I’m the loner getting my ass handed to me on my sloop (which is most of the time). Seeing a ship looming in the distance and wondering if it’s going to come after you is such a rush.
  
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- ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Is it worth getting this late?
  
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  - BootyEnthusiast@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Absolutely, it’s still constantly getting updates, and got an actual anti-cheat recently which helped the health of the game a TON.
    
    Huge learning curve to the game, but there’s nothing else like it.
    
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  - WilfordGrimley@linux.community ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Definitely, even better if you can try during a free weekend or get it half price on a sale.
    
    Amazing with friends, on your own or with randos.
    
    So many organic ways to interact and communicate with other players. Seriously cool, unique and worthwhile experience.
    
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arsCynic@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Chess.

- -
✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

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- richardwonka@lemmy.one ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  At the tightest-possible definition of multi-player
  
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- drspod@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  lichess good
  
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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Checks out
  
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Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What do you want? Lots of games fit that description.

In some shooters, you basically only grind for cosmetics, like Overwatch or Counter-Strike. Dota 2 is a Moba and also only has cosmetic unlocks, I think.

Maybe Minecraft or Terraria? I don’t think you really grind in these games, but you do very similar stuff all the time.

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I consider digging hours for diamond as a form of grinding, and you have to get it for crafting advanced stuff. I could play creative mode, but at that point it’s more like a 3d Paint than a game
  
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  - endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Vintage story has grind also but it makes it way more interesting and satisfying.
    
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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  These are the features that I want to avoid: grinding for resources, cosmetics, and anything that require repetitive and/or mindless action. Any genre is good, the question is more like a test to see if a game like this can exist
  
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  - Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    No cosmetics pretty much disqualifies almost every game, because all of them have it, even old games.
    
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hamsterkill@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My interpretation of your request boils down to “what’s a good multiplayer roguelike” where the grinding is the replaying.

So, depending on how many players you need it to support and preferred genres, you might check out games like

Risk of Rain 2

Enter the Gungeon

Children of Morta

Vampire Survivors

Streets of Rogue

Gunfire Reborn

Barony

There’s also a game Jumpship that i’m keeping an eye on the development of that’s supposed to be hitting early access in the coming months.
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mohab@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Fighting games:
1. Endlessly replayable because there's always more to learn.
2. No grinding because there's nothing to grind.

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- Comment105@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve enjoyed Tekken more than Mortal Kombat.
  
  I mostly played Tag Tournament 2
  
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audaxdreik@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Trackmania, although depending on how you want to slice it, you might consider it ONLY grinding.

Incredibly low skill floor (4 button racing sim) but with near infinite skill ceiling as you learn to master all the nuances of movement, surface types, tricks, etc.

Endless amounts of content with the seasonal campaigns, tracks of the day, and weekly shorts, but also just a full blown track editor for community content on the side. Each track is like a little puzzle where you memorize all the details then try and get your best performance. Play in an online server with your friends and just chat, listen to music, or watch a movie in the background. Find your favorite style and master it: tech, dirt, NASCAR, lol.

It’s my favorite game to just turn my brain off and drive.

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Geodad@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I play FF XIV online. There’s as much or as little grinding as you want there to be. I’m in a really chill social FC.

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Can you advance in the game without any grinding?
  
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  - Geodad@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes, they give you the gear you need to make it each step of the way through the story.
    
    Crafting and gathering are optional. Relic weapons are optional.
    
    There are some players who like to role play. There are casuals, hardcore, and everything in between.
    
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Zacsau@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Old School RuneScape.

Some people will say it is grindy, but those people are just weak minded.

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- endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  People who imply rs has grind in it disgust me
  
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loops@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Deep Rock Galactic!

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ve played it, but it has become a bit of a grind. The only reason for doing mission has become unlocking stuff
  
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  - endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I had issues with grind as well since the unlocks system required every single person to start at the same time and not play alone, as everyone had the same missions.
    
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  - loops@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Personally I’ve always just played the game to play it. I only ever cared about a few of the cosmetics and have long since unlocked everything just as a sort of byproduct. …The vanilla gameloop can definitely get repetitive and stale, so I play a lot of modded games these days.
    
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ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Tetris effect connected.

It made game of the year for a reason.

I think I’ve sunk 200 hours into tetris this year alone, I have it on like 4 systems including my SP handheld clone

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- Elkenders@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I got my hopes up it was on portmaster for a moment and you were talking about rg35xxsp.
  
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  - ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Oh, no I play Tetris Rosy Retrospective on that. All the new amenities on classic GB tetris.
    
    That’s exactly the handheld I was referring to, the anbernic rg35xxsp
    
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owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The obvious answers are the games we endlessly replayed historically: Mario Kart, Goldeneye (VS mode), Halo (VS), Smash Bros.

If you specifically want ones on PC, I’d suggest Starcraft, Age of Empires, and probably Counter Strike (I wasn’t into that one, but it had a huge following).

Many board games fit the bill as well. Codenames (physical or online at horsepaste.com) comes to mind, and another commenter also mentioned chess.

Basically any games that were made before endlessly grinding became a thing (yep, that’s only been a thing for a decade or two).

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Pheonixdown@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Does Factorio count? It’s a good game, you can play multiplayer, the factory can always grow (at least until your hardware, or in the extreme the software, can no longer handle it) and if you’re grinding for something rather than automating it, you’re doing it wrong.

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I guess it counts because you are not grinding, the factories are grinding for you. The problem is that it’s a niche game and not many of my friends would play it
  
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  - mosiacmango@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Its a wildly popular niche game for good reason.
    
    It’s the defacto automation game, and van get pretty wildly funny with mulitplayer. It also has head to head vs modes where you face to build bases on a grid and kill your opponents first.
    
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Sunsofold@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
When you ask for something without ‘grind’ I have to ask if you know what you are asking. Grind is entirely subjective. It’s not a mechanism of a game but rather what happens when you personally don’t find a game mechanism fun/rewarding.
Take classic examples, like mining in… most games, really. It’s smacking a rock. It doesn’t have much variety. For some people, they love their own little game of ‘hit the rocks in the most efficient way,’ or they like to relax with music and bust rocks, or they feel like every rock is a loot box. Other people hate it for being too complex to automate and too simple to feel engaged.

The difference between ‘grind’ and an ‘endlessly replayable part of the game’ is how the player looks at it. You are asking for ‘the drug to which you will never build a tolerance.’

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Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The Finals.

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FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Battlefield 1

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JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Really depends on what you consider grinding.

Pretty much all MMOs or PVEs have you grinding for gear (helldivers 2 I don’t feel is grindy in comparison, but some do)

Survival games like ark, valheim, etc… Have you grinding for bases and the next section of the game

Pretty much all PvP games (CS2, valorant, apex, starcraft, Rocket league, etc…) have you grinding out muscle memory skills

The antithesis to these are instance-based games where at max you grind aesthetic gimmicks, but in single player games they don’t have those like REPO where you always reset and fall guys where it is minigame based

The problem with these games is since you don’t have a “reward for work” (grinding), people get bored of them.

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fracture@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
honestly check out archipelago, it’s a framework that allows you to play a lot of different randomized games with your friends. you can play synchronously or asynchronously, and if you’re handy with code, you can even add any game you want to it

::: appendix: “what’s a randomizer?” a randomizer is a method of scrambling the items in a video game, while keeping it solvable, to be able to re-experience the same game with a fresh sense of progression. an easy game to think about this with is something like metroid or zelda. you need powerups to unlock certain parts of the game, but what if you could find those powerups anywhere you found a missile expansion or a chest? that’s what a randomizer is

“how does that work with multiple people?” now imagine that, between you and your friend’s randomized games, the items for both games could end up in either game. if we use the metroid/zelda idea from earlier, metroid might have zelda’s boomerang, while zelda might have metroid’s morph ball. the logic to ensure the games are solvable is still there, but you might be stuck waiting until your friend finds your key item. this is called “being in burger king” or 'being bk’d"

other vocab: check: any spot you can collect an item in a randomizer (think all collectibles and powerups in metroid, for example) burger king: when you have run out of checks of your own and are waiting for someone else to send you a critical item you need to make any meaningful progress again. named after the first multiworld randomizer, where someone was stuck for so long, they were able to go to burger king for six hours and return only to still be in the same situation :::

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thanks, that’s interesting
  
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BmeBenji@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
In all honesty, Rainbow Six: Siege is as ungrindy as any game could be, and it is as endlessly replayable as there are combinations of all the active players. The whole game is about finding ways to use the deep sandbox to outsmart your opponent, utilizing yours and your teammates abilities in unique combinations and it’s wonderful

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BmeBenji@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Titanfall 2

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muhyb@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
For me, it’s Starcraft 2.

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ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Warthunder is really fun without much of a grind

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- endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I especially love how warthunder js a f2p game but doesn’t feel like it forces you into parting with youe money.
  
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  - ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I agree :) and honestly paying for premium and planes you want is worth it. I have 750 hours and have spent maybe $100-200 on premium and planes. $3.75 per hour of birthday Monday seems decent to me. Better than my VR header which I’ve still only played down to $10 an hour
    
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  - comically_cluttered@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Don’t forget about the great bonuses for participating in the community forums, such as classified documents, toxicity, classified documents, and classified documents.
    
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  - Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    This is how you bait a bot, folks.
    
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outerspace@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Beyond all reason

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sculd@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
fall guys among us

Both infinitely replayable and has nothing to grind for except some cosmetics that doesn’t affect game play

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Didros@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There is a game i would recommend called Mechabellum. It’s a mecha auto battler where you can’t really move units between rounds. You build up a bug army trying to constantly counter your opponent with the 20ish available units.

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termus@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
SpiderHeck!

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match@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
space station 14 (or space station 13 if you’re nasty)

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- judgyweevil@feddit.it ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  There is not even the early access
  
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orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Quake 3 Instagib.

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anti_antidote@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
How’s Bean Battles sound?

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