this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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I've been playing apex for years. I don't care about ranked, and I've never spent a cent on it.
But even with some peaks where I'd play a bit every day, I don't think I've ever completed a battlepass (you can progress through it even without buying it, you just "miss out" on most of the content in it). I can't even imagine how much I'd have to play to do so.
The whole system is just a way to exploit the sunk cost fallacy, keeping people hooked on the game for longer. It's disgusting.
I know people who've come to treat these games like jobs. They feel compelled to put in the hours every day to keep getting every meaningless cosmetic they can out of it. Except by doing so they're turning down the opportunity to actually have fun playing something else once in a while. They log into these games even when they aren't in the mood for them, and even as the monotony sets in they refuse variety for fear of falling behind in this one game.
Instead of moving on, or just taking a break, some people can only quit these live service games once they reach actual burnout. And afterwards it's like they've survived an abusive relationship. They go from playing every day, to hating the game so much they refuse to even keep it installed.
Menwhile I'm still having my occasional fun with it by never even spending a cent, and only playing when I want to.
It's kind of frustrating because I keep having fun, but all my friends are swearing off these games forever, one by one. I'm running out of people to play with.
This was exactly my experience with Destiny and Overwatch. Played until burnout doing my daily chores and weekly tasks, barely getting in enough time to do everything plus enough other stuff to make me still feel engaged with the game. Spent a good amount on micros because the FOMO was real and carefully implemented. After burning out on Destiny, I realized I hated the game design and business model because the game design was a business model. Now microtransactions are a glaring red flag for me, instead of a yellow one. I even avoid online multiplayer games because almost all of them use these tactics.