Welcome to capitalism. Big gaming companies do not care about games anymore, they care about how to maximise profits. Their games are manipulative and developed together with psychologists solely to get your hard earned money at any opportunity. They got so good at it, that they are able to release pieces of software which are looking like games but actually are milking machines and no games at all.
You just have to take a step back and you will be able to easily differentiate between products of corporate greed and games.
Games once were supposed to be entertaining and even art. And there are still some, mostly indies.
When I did this quitting thing from MMOs and FOMO inducing gachas that you describe, I suddenly
got a non-dead-end job
got a girlfriend
got a promotion
travelled around Europe
girlfriend died
travelled around Europe some more
got another girlfriend
ended up in Canada
got married
got kids
stuck in dead-end job again without promotion for the past five years
I still think it was worth it to quit though. My mind just gets stimuli from the seemingly simplest things, like looking at a beautiful tree on the roadside, brutalist architecture, interesting conversations that I focus on instead of my mind wandering onto the next mount or raid boss I will have to tackle.
And when it comes to gaming, if I want to satisfy my itch for twitch and a bit of adrenaline, roguelites scratch it the best, without the long term commitment to playing them for days or even hours.
But what works best to keep sanity is exercise, and with riding a road bike at least twice a day I can combine elevated heart rate with zoning out and Zen for stress relief really well. It’s simply meditative.
I think of the twelve years I’ve spent playing MMOs fondly, lots of memories were made. But I would never do it again. And it has nothing to do with self-control, and willpower to not start it again, although quitting cold turkey definitely required both. But it had everything to do with the realization that it’s a trap that’s a poor substitute for real life, even if real life has dealt you shitty cards.
I can spot the hazy, reality-disconnected look of addicts from a mile away. The self-deluding statements when the topic somehow gets brought up. And I can do nothing but feel a bit sad for them, and hope that somewhere, someone manages to gently nudge them on a path that helps them escape from this trap.
“Valve is the savior of gaming” as they invented micro transactions and neglect as many IPs as EA and Ubisoft do, but its okay since they have so many fun sales to tie to your account.
Valve is cool some of the time, TF2 is my most played game, but the moment GabeN keels over, is the moment a lot of people are going to notice that “owning” all your games on a digital storefront was a bad idea, like when Playstation and Microsoft remove games people bought with their hard earned money.
When I was a kid I played a flash game called World’s Hardest Game or something like that. It was a puzzle game where you move a red square through a maze with obstacles. Bloodborne looks like a walk in the park in comparison. I know it’s sort of random but the meme games reminded me of that.
the thing about souls games is that people on the internet insist that the only REAL way to play them is through extra difficult self-imposed challenge runs (summons? resin? pyromancy? you didn’t beat the game)
ignore that and you can temper the difficulty down a lot, though you’ll likely still need a good amount of patience and perseverance, especially if it’s your first time playing
Maybe its the 'tism but I never gave a shit about most microtransactiony things unless they have a “pay-to-win” element. That’s why I gave up on GTA online.
But if its just like “exclusive skins”, I could give a shit. My default skinned character can still win against a guy in a bear-suit with a golden AK and that’s really all I need. I have no particular FOMO of not winning the fashion part of the game.
I do wish games I could turn off their constant begging for my money though.
My default skinned character can still win against a guy in a bear-suit with a golden AK and that’s really all I need. I have no particular FOMO of not winning the fashion part of the game.
Twitter user strahfe recently shared a patent by Activision that suggests buying cosmetic items could increase your chances of being placed in games against less-experienced players. The patent reads: “The microtransaction engine may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player”
I’m not heavy into conspiracies, but I’m suspicious enough to not give Activision the benefit of the doubt and bet that they’ve done this in secret if they have a patent for it. But really… if we’re even thinking about these kinds of things, the game is a lost cause.
An argument I heard, and adopted is that it’s never “just” cosmetic. Your enjoyment of the game is impacted by how you perceive your avatar. This is why fortnite skins sell so well to new players. It’s not just cosmetic to drop $20 on Cuddle Team Leader. It makes a user feel silly and increases enjoyment running around as an obvious pink mascot costume. It prolongs how long you play both by increased enjoyment, and sunk cost fallacy. In any game with cosmetics, purchases drive playtime.
Used to play games and I was so focused on gameplay, I always thought “why even have a lot of art in there”. But then you realize if the art sucks, you wouldn’t even be giving it a chance.
And this extends to skins and stuff. If it’s “just cosmetics”, that still means there is some art that is now hidden unless you throw money at your screen. And depending on how much it is, the game might be way too boring without it. So you’re still buying bits of a game after the fact. And voila, we’re back to the reasons why DLCs suck.
Team Fortress, I’m assuming you mean TF2, was one of the very first games to have microtransactions. They aren’t required for play but they’re definitely there.
I bought that game day one, actually played like the first 4 missions, thought to myself “Wow, this is going to be incredible! I should wait until I have a loong weekend, hehe~”, and then never touched it again.
I am glacially making my way through the first 4 now, though.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne