After playing World of Warcraft for 15 years, I started becoming increasingly bored and disgruntled with the game. The game being grindy and repetitive is no real surprise, I mean it’s an MMO. But the one thing that was really frustrating was paying monthly for a subscription and a huge chunk of cash for an expansion, but still having extra stuff flashed in my face all the time that was simply not possible to earn in-game. Mount skins, cosmetics, miscellaneous stuff that is only available in the Blizzard store. They also began adding loyalty items that require being subscribed every single month, and doing repetitive, extremely boring stuff on top of the other repetitive boring stuff, so basically double dipping on your grind, which really isn’t fun.
Aside from that, I also played other games that required a heavy amount of grinding too, and each one of them had similarly frustrating elements. Destiny 2, overwatch, Battlefield, Fortnite, Halo, and the list goes on. Each of them has the same issue: fear of missing out. FOMO basically makes it so that if you don’t seize the opportunity to spend real life money, you will never be able to obtain something really cool, because it’s only there for a short time, and then it’s gone, and you are made to feel guilty and bad about it. It’s just kind of depressing playing kind of games and realizing that you are now mentally dependent on financial transactions in order to get the full enjoyment of the game. That to me is a very very awful way to live life, and it really messes with your emotions
So I ditched every game that had any element of an in-game purchase. This is honestly helped my mental health a huge, huge amount. Now, I only play games that either have no microtransactions in them at all, or are completely free and 100% possible to play with no purchase required at all. So games like team fortress, deadlocked, Stardew Valley, and many other indie games that you can purchase and then never have to worry about getting suckered into the microtransaction cycle for
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?
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
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.
Yeah I agree with you here. A lot of Trackmania players are annoyed by Trackmania’s $20 a year subscription and have called to make it F2P with cosmetic microtransactions, but I’m pretty happy that hasn’t happened. There isn’t even any DLC. It is really nice to see not have to see ads to pay more money for stuff.
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.
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.
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.
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’m able to keep these games around because I’m pretty good at ignoring FOMO and microtransactions. I don’t need everything. One fun skin that I like when I’ve already enjoyed the game more than I’ve paid? I’ll consider it. But I don’t need everything from events - sometimes they’re just a good reason to play it together with friends at that time, like when the carnival is in town.
Still, there’s enough games out there that no one really needs to consider those types of baited experiences, especially if you know you’re susceptible.
If everyone was following your path, micro transactions wouldn’t be there anymore.
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.
My mental health improved after dropping games with time gating and or daily quests
I was just talking about farmville the other day, howbmassive it was. Feel like it was an early example of this
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
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 started playing only arcade games for some months now and I’m so happy, this games are just gameplay and nothing more!
Except for like 3 helm pieces which they released like 15 years ago and have since made available through others means, there’s literally nothing beyond a few mounts and pets. So your whole “mounts, cosmetics, miscellaneous” thing is very misleading. Other than that, I agree with you and I’m glad you’ve managed to get away. Kudos.
Edit: seems I missed a few of sets that they released in the last 4 years. 5 of them to be precise. And a pair of wings and a helm piece. Some of which were given for free to subscribers before being put on the store.
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I checked the site before posting just to make sure because I didn’t wanna post BS, but it seems I missed a couple of things. I apologize, they also released 6 cosmetic sets in the last 4 years, an extra helm and a pair of wings. Some of which they simply gave for free to subscribers before putting on the store.
That’s still less than you’re making it sound. Definitely not one every month. Again, not defending them or disagreeing with you, I just don’t like it when people make things sound worse than they are to get people to agree with them.
Also, that transmig restriction bit is also a lie. There’s quite a few cosmetics that are armor class agnostic. I know because I have them and I’ve never spent a dime in the store. Here is a list of most of them.
I’d you don’t have a job, and can play 12 hours a day to farm that gear. Great! Enjoy school life. But adults don’t have time to farm all that shit, purchasing is effectively the only way to get it. It is disingenuous to conflate "being obtainable ’ with “no need to ever purchase”.
There’s a list of 2000 pieces. And only 5 sets that you can buy. Also every month you get free trader’s tender for simply logging in. You use that to buy those pieces. If you do a few world quests you get even more. I literally cap out on the monthly 1k tender by playing a few hours. Why are you people being so negative for no reason.
There’s plenty of things to hate. There’s plenty of things even blizzard are guilty of. Look at overwatch for thousdands of reasons. But wow is one of the games that’s most respectful of your time. Nowadays and as far as MMOs go, that is. I literally have a 4 piece set without ever stepping foot in a normal raid. Only did LFR once, got 1 piece. The other 3 were given for free. You get so much shit in this game by simply logging in and playing a couple of hours it’s insane.
If you want the entire transmog collection the game has to offer, that’s been released over the course od 20 years, yes, you have to grind. But let’s not pretend you need to play a lot to have some nice sets. That hasn’t been true in a long time.
The length of your explanation should make you realize why paying is easier. Hell, I’d pay not to read your explanation.
Play the game for a few hours or pay. Yeah, complicated. You sound like you have too much disposable income if you’re so willing to pay for stuff… also, some of us enjoy playing games and don’t mind doing it.
If you want to scratch a similar itch, and have not already, try Guild Wars 2.
It does have microtransactions, but only because they have no subscription fee and they are mostly cosmetic with a few rare exceptions.
It also has no FOMO except cosmetics from certain festivals, which you can also buy in the next year.
It is still the best MMO on the market IMHO, because it values your time and money compared to other games in the genre.
You know I’m a true RS fan when I say stuff like “Jagex is a shit company run by morons.”
May I recommend taking it a step further and going for games that have no cycle in them at all? That is, finite games that you can play and actually finish, for good. That’s what I’ve been looking for a lot lately.
Some recommendations:
- The Talos Principle (puzzles with a story)
- Outer Wilds (best to go in blind, read absolutely nothing about it, not even the steam description)
- CrossCode (fast paced fun combat and a cool story and characters. Somewhat grindy but still finite)
- Beacon Pines (short and sweet visual novel)
- Chants of Sennaar (language translation game, surprisingly fun and satisfying)
Chants of Sennaar is absolutely one of my favorite games. It’s one of the few games I’ve played where the mechanics of the game and the themes of the game were in perfect harmony.
What’s the SorteKanin description of Outer Wilds?
Well… Without spoiling anything I would say, you are a member of an alien species on another planet. You are also an aspiring astronaut about to take your first journey into space. Let’s just say your journey is quite remarkable.
I’m not them but…
Outer Wilds is a gem of a 3D first-person indie game. Other games might have you find required items so you can progress (like Pokemon or Zelda games), but in this game it’s all about the knowledge you learn while playing (like Tunic). You explore, learn, and puzzle solve. By looking up anything about the game, or by looking up a solution to a puzzle, you essentially lock yourself out of experiencing that piece of content. It’s all about the journey.
It’s a game you can only really play once, but it is so worth it. It’s my favorite video game and I wish I could forget everything about it so I can play it again for the first time.
I dropped them all like 8 years ago. Not even the microtransaction parts for me since I never played any pay to win games and not big on caring about skins or hats. It was that any game time I had, felt like I had to play league of Legends, or I’d fall behind.
So I dropped it and have happily gone back to pretty much exclusively single player games. It’s nice.
Yeah, same for me. I like Apex. It is an Insanely fun game. But I’m the kind of guy who plays something for a bit and then something else before I may or may not come back. Apex being live service makes it that I don’t want to come back because many of the things I know about the game are no longer true. So I’m not installing it again
Yep. You take a month off from league of legends and all of a sudden 50 things have changed/rebalanced and there’s 2 new heroes to figure out.
So nice going back to gaming on my own terms. I’m replaying ffvii right now with 7th heaven mods. Been over 25 years since I played it last, and it’s still awesome, mostly.
