Farming

We All Have Those Moments…

Let me set up the scenario for you; you are playing your favorite RPG game (just pick one, I am sure there is at least one.) You have been really enjoying the quest progression, the unique enemies, and you are just taking in all the landscapes. You come across a boss fight, and you think you are more than prepared to take him down! Three hours later, you are salty, tired, and the boss is still silently mocking you, undefeated. You have hit a difficulty wall, and one of the best ways to get over this wall is our topic of the day: Farming!

A Bit of Context

Not to be confused with the large amount of video games about farming (the Simulator game series, primarily,) “Farming” in video games describes the process of doing a repetitive task in a video game, usually with the goal of overcoming an obstacle or gaining an achievement. While I used the RPG genre as an example, modern video games have discovered many ways (for better and for worse) to implement a farming method into their games.

Farms, Farms Everywhere

Weapon skins in FPS games. Secret achievements that require you to kill X number of enemies or collect Y number of items in Adventure games. Unique character animations in Battle Royale games. If there is something a player would want in abundance, there is a game that has made players farm for it. In most of these games, farming methods or “farming routes” are usually created by the community and shared via word-of-mouth. This is typically the result of the game designers not accounting for the need to farm in their games, so the game’s community picks up the job of finding the most optimal ways to play.

Farming vs. Grinding

Whenever the topic of farming comes into a gaming conversation, it is quite easy for the term “grinding” to enter the conversation as well. Although the two terms are used interchangeably these days, there are clear differences between farming and grinding. Firstly, “Grinding” refers to the process of doing a monotonous task, usually resulting in annoyance in the person playing. While farming is something anyone can do, grinding is used to point out something in a video game that makes gamers angry. Secondly, there is the scope of the term. While farming can apply to anything from experience in games to gathering resources, grinding exclusively refers to gathering money and experience.

Obligatory Elden Ring Blurb

Since Elden Ring has been the only game I have been playing for the last week or so, it was only appropriate to include the game here. Elden Ring is a nice example where the game developers knew that gamers would try to find out the most efficient way to farm runes in the game, a resource that serves as both currency and experience. Their solution? Make the efficient way as easy to access as possible.

Without spoiling anything, you can access all the fastest ways to farm runes as soon as you begin playing Elden Ring, allowing players to hit the ground running and spend less time farming, and more time exploring the world. I would be surprised if other games do this in the future because this solution also comes with the downside of potentially trivializing the rest of the game (you cannot lose if you are max level,) seeing a company explore this way to address efficient farming methods was very refreshing.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this article was helpful in helping you learn more about the term Farming! While it is straightforward when you think about it, knowing a little bit more never hurts anyone! In addition, I hope you enjoyed this fresh style of blog post, I am happy that I was able to make this transition smoothly. Until next time!

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