i don’t know when or how it happened but once i realised FOMO was being used against players regularly and aggressively i just- stopped caring. Oh a limited time special one week offer especially for me now and never again? Too bad i just launched the game and have no intention of buying your “newbie pack”. Oh my event limited time items? Dang, those look expensive, anyway i’m happy with my normal looking armour and normal looking tools/guns cheers
& i only ever buy cheap cosmetics. If your game is bad and grindy when i play it without throwing money at the screen then your game is bad and grindy & i will tell all my friends about that experience
Yeah, that’s the attitude I take with this shit now.
I play a stupid colour matching game on my iPad that’s almost scientifically designed to try and rinse money out of users’ pockets, but I’ve got to a place where I see the offers and last chances and know that even if I did pay for a few boosts or power ups, it’s not going to bring me enlightenment.
That’s not to shit on OP’s point, mind. Microtransactions really are a menace, preying on those who are least able to ignore them, who are often least able to afford them. But it’s a world we’ve kinda made by not wanting to pay for games.
That said, how much is WoW these days? Paying a monthly fee AND getting bombarded with ways to spend more money is straight-up cunty.
Super cool photo, but does this technically count as astronomy? Isn’t astronomy “a camera on (usually) on earth, pointed up into space”, not the other way around?
The science which treats of the celestial bodies, of their magnitudes, motions, distances, periods of revolution, eclipses, constitution, physical condition, and of the causes of their various phenomena.
A treatise on, or text-book of, the science.
From the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
It’s refreshing seeing your list since people often blame gachas nowadays, but MMOs were the issue originally, it’s just that other genres took a lesson from MMOs so now we have way more grinding options and it gets tiresome.
I really appreciate that because someone was over here trying to convince me to play a gacha game claiming that it’s not that bad. Some people just don’t get it
Gacha games are like magicians. You know they are total bullshit and there is no “magic”, yet some people still look at it and think there is something else going on.
Total waste of money, I don’t understand how people get sucked into those things.
I cannot tell you how much better my mental health has been since I stopped playing Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Rocket League. I never had anything against the gameplay of these games but the microtransactions and battle passes were just straight up toxic. After a couple weeks you simply don’t give a shit anymore and it’s amazing. I see my roommate playing these games until 3 AM every day because he has to do his daily challenges for 4 different games. He’ll be so pissed off that he can barely speak as he powers through game after game to get them done so he can go to bed. And in hindsight, that’s probably what I used to look like back when I played those games.
Apex Legends … the microtransactions and battle passes were just straight up toxic
My friend bought Battlepass for Apex once because it had a pretty decent skin in it. Then, he was straight up *PISSED * when next season they had the most ridiculous, incredible looking skin ever. He felt like he had to purchase it again that season, and was bitter he spent money the previous season for something so mediocre. That kind of thought process is just awful. These games lure you right into it.
Apex battle passes have always given you enough credit to buy the next season’s pass. I’ve been playing since launch, I’ve completed all battle passes save for maybe 4, and I’ve spent a total of $10 on the game.
Until they start charging only money for the battle passes. I never even used 80% of the skins I got on the battle passes anyway. I just wanted them so I didn’t not have them. As someone that has over 2,000 hours in Apex, I’m so glad I jumped ship. The grass was very green on the other side.
Funny you should mention that. They attempted to do precisely this (only buy the BP with real money) a few months ago. The player base revolted, and they walked it back to the way things were.
He’ll be so pissed off that he can barely speak as he powers through game after game to get them done so he can go to bed.
If you want to help him get out of that, give him a burn or two every once in a while: “How are your second, third and fourth jobs coming along?” - “With all that work you do, you should ask for a raise!”
Hopefully he’ll realize he’s not playing, but working, and give up on that. Hopefully.
My 80-year-old mother is stil hooked on Hay Day (2012 Farmville clone). She doesn’t alarm-clock overnight events any more, but that could be because she can’t sleep through the night now. Got a team of other old ladies around the world for contests, and it’s right on the edge of where I think it’s great that she’s got something to keep her engaged versus might need an addiction intervention.
I’m not usually one for those types of games but I had a lot of fun with the player economy of Hayday. You don’t even need to do any farming, there were always desperate players selling low and buying high lol
WoW auction house feelings right there. Dunno how it is nowadays, but I remember that back on Battle for Azeroth, that was the only way to get the 5 million gold for a super exclusive mount
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
bin.pol.social
Aktywne