I’m glad I’ve had a few epiphanies over my gaming time that have resulted in no desire to spend any money on P2W or content skipping.
First one was in the first Turok game on N64. I was playing normally but at some point looked up the cheat codes for things like unlock all weapons, unlimited ammo, and unlocking all levels. There was one weapon that you needed to collect hidden pieces of from each level, and then you only got 3 shots with it that would pretty much AoE clear an area. There was another gun that you’d only find 2 shots of ammo for at a time that was similar. I had fun for a bit running around and shooting those guns at will, but after that it was hard to get motivated to play the game without the cheats because I knew the big weapons were basically just temporary consumables, which meant I’d probably never use them while trying to ration them for moments they’d be most useful. Using those cheat codes ruined the game for me.
The second epiphany was after raiding for a while in WoW and thinking about the loot motivation. It was a circular motivation: you get better loot so that you can raid more to get even better loot. If the loot was the main motivation, then it was pointless because the loot didn’t serve any purpose outside of the game. So it only made sense to do raiding because I enjoyed the process, not because of the rewards. And this applied to most reward mechanisms in games. Taking that logic just a bit further made me realize that P2W is actually paying money to avoid playing a game and short circuit right to getting the rewards, which was kinda pointless when the rewards were meant to improve the experience of playing the game. Either a) you don’t want to play the game at all, or b) you don’t get as much satisfaction from using the better loot or whatever because you skipped the part where you had to do it without those rewards.
And then the last one is finding PvP less satisfying when the game mechanics give significant advantages based on either time spent grinding or paying money to avoid grinding. Did I just win because of my skills or because I’ve acquired better gear? Did I just lose because the other player outplayed me or because they got better gear? And I didn’t even want to give any satisfaction to those who just paid money to win and don’t worry about what it does or doesn’t say about their skills. It’s similar to the line of thought when you know cheating is possible… Did I get beat by someone skilled enough to aim better or someone using an aim bot?
Comparing P2W to cheating is spot on, especially as these are much more heavily advertised and used in PvP games. What really annoys me is when these players, or similars that never go after equivalent players, feel all superior despite showing zero skill
On WoW, I remember playing a few times on instant 255 private servers, back in 2007-2010. It felt so damn pointless to me, especially as the raids still needed you to make a raid group. I enjoyed a portion of the grind, even as a mostly solo player.
Thing that cured me of my destiny 2 fomo was to get the transmog system to make my character look like a year 1 day 1 player (the broken armor you get when Ghaul takes your light) and then that’s my “look” I’m the guy who looks like they’ve never change their armor. Then I picked one ship and one emblem I liked (Xûr’s rock ship, and Strange Coin emblem) and that’s it. no more MTX.
When you get around to HZD, the DLC Frozen Wilds and Horizon: Forbidden West are highly recommended. I’m halfway through the second and it’s so amazing.
So that’s great, but halo IMO is the least FOMO inducing mp game on the market with battle passes. You can actually “equip” the season pass you want to level and work on it, the best thing is they never go away so there’s literally not a single bit of FOMO, only the illusion. Regardless, I see your point for the other games and I commend you for making the change.
Just ditch the idea that you need any of those things. You don’t. From a personal gaming perspective, these have been great for me because I get to play all of these games for free because other people are paying for it for me.
I understand the joy comes from playing the game itself, not the loot.
This is a life lesson as well. You don’t need any of the flashy shit. Trying to avoid it is a losing battle, better to just understand it.
yeah I never understood the point and unlocking loot boxes that are just having some skin in them. I’ve never once done it. i bought a skin once for fortnite cuz it’s a free game and okay I guess. that was my $1 donation to the publishers
I play a lot of deadlock right now and i think it’s fantastic. But even if it’s like in early alpha, i already miss the base designs, because i assume it’s gonna turn into a tf2/call of duty nightmare, once the looboxes are in.
I feel that playing a game that has micro transactions and not participating in them still contributes to the problem. In fact, it seems to me that these micro transaction heavy games NEED people that don’t buy the cosmetics. It creates a greater sense of superiority in the people that do buy them by creating a hard line between the “plebs” (f2p players) and themselves. Regardless of how it makes you personally feel, lots of others will succumb to the social pressure of wanting to feel superior to f2p “bots”/“noobs”/“plebs”. It’s the same reason that people buy shit that they don’t need in real life, the difference being that you don’t get to choose whether or not you participate in an economic system
Im not a big fan of pay to win, but I see no problem with micro transactions for cosmetic stuff. If people are dumb and want to spend their money on that, more power to them, especially if I benefit from it.
Yeah I understand your viewpoint, and this was my perspective for a long time as well. But I’ve come to realise that it’s a self-centered perspective. These people aren’t necessarily dumb, they’re being manipulated by the game developers. Micro transactions are engineered to take advantage of natural human drives for reward and social connection. So I’ll just not play those games, because I don’t want to support that kind of behavior from game studios
I’m not going to avoid enjoying myself because you say other people can’t control themselves. That’s like telling someone to not drink alcohol because some people suffer from addiction, and alcohol companies advertise.
Is it not more like saying “I won’t drink Budweiser because they advertise a known harmful substance and I consider that a manipulative business practice”? I could still drink hundreds of other beers and instead support breweries that don’t rely on manipulative advertising tactics to make money. I’m not saying that I don’t play video games, and I’m not suggesting that anyone stop playing video games. I simply choose not to play video games that employ business practices that I consider to be manipulative
But people will buy alcohol because they are addicted. It’s a harmful substance, that the producers know is harmful, especially to addicts, and sell the highly addictive substance anyway. It’s profiting from manipulating weaknesses in human psychology, just like the games are. If no one bought it, people would stop producing it. So simply extending your logic, buying alcohol is self-centered and contributing to alcoholism.
Might be better off building a new one in the US and shipping it with your other stuff. Sales tax (import tax?) is pretty bad for electronics in the EU, stuff is a lot more expensive. Everything costs pretty much ~30% more.
You can package the computer in the box of the case and maybe take out the gpu and/or the cpu cooler and pack that separately so it doesn’t break in shipping.
How much stuff are you bringing? Are you getting like a shipping container for furniture, etc. or just essentials? Are you staying in one spot for long? If not, gaming laptops might suit you better (once again, cheaper to buy in the US).
Remember that prices in the US are before taxes (VAT) since they differ for each state and are calculated during checkout. I think I’d prefer to move -> buy than to buy -> move.
Very very little to move. Just what we can carry onto planes basically. Hoping to stay in a spot for many years, but you never know. The packaging is a good idea, I should price compare properly
That makes sense then, I wouldn’t trust the plane luggage handlers with the pc. In that case you’re probably right to sell. I would still price compare for a gpu or cpu and get the rest of the build later, but also heavily factor in the hassle of carrying stuff and basically not having a warranty for parts that you bought in the US.
I did actually move with my gaming pc twice. But I had most of my stuff shipped in a truck and only the essentials on the plane. You’ll probably end up having limited space/weight in the checked luggage anyway. Gool luck with the move!
Yeah, a truck would make me feel better. It’s definitely a risk to move it myself uninsured. For comparison, looks like post tax prices delivered of ~14-18% more in Denmark than the US where we are.
That’s a fair bit, but I’m not sure we’re in the market to try this hard to save a few hundred dollars in such a massive move. I lean towards selling, especially once we packed a big suitcase and it went VERY quick with stuff we love lol
In the sense of “do they require lightning fast reflexes or mastering a deep combat system”, no not at all. They mostly require paying attention and learning.
I don’t mind learning. I suppose it’s sort of like solving a puzzle. I’m used to horror games with puzzles so I’m used to thinking things through in games.
This isn’t to say it’s not a game that won’t challenge reflexes if you let it. I think it’s fair to say better reflexes in a souls like can serve to make a boss easier as you play more on the edge. Of course this takes having your game knowledge and pattern recognition on point.
I left mmos due to my wife spending to much on "free" games for awhile. I miss them in some ways but also am sorta glad. They were easy to over indulge in and I have a lot of responsibilities. single player, buy once and done, games along with streaming shows or movies is so much easier to take or leave. No limited events or dailies or anything.
If I may, I’d recommend starting with the Demon’s Souls remake if you’re interested. Bloodborne was the first Souls game I ever played, and it was quite punishing. I got quite far and greatly enjoyed parts of it, but it was my experience that it was extraordinarily challenging for a newcomer. Among all the Souls and Soulslike games, BloodBorne is intended to be played aggressively, which is not a good starting point in my opinion.
It was actually Returnal that taught me how to approach challenging games, i.e., almost like a puzzle game in how you try new things to break through impasses. That being said, I also found the Demon’s Souls remake to be a much more forgiving entry point, especially if you play as a magic caster. MP is limited so you still need to engage in melee, but magic is a powerful tool to play things safe if you play smartly.
It’s also just a fantastic game with great level design. I actually kind of like the segmented levels with a central hub.
I have a copy of Demon’s Souls remake as luck would have it. I have not played it yet but now I’m tempted. I wouldn’t mind playing that first actually. It looks really fun.
I loved it. I’ve since also played 100+ hours of Elden Ring and some other challenge-heavy games like Hollow Knight - I’ve thought about going back to Bloodborne with some experience under my belt because it really is a great game. But for me it feels like a lot to start over (and as much as I hate to be an fps snob, they never released a next-gen update and playing a game like this in 30 fps is a turn-off).
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Aktywne