The "game as a service" model is evil

So I disappeared for a while, mostly because I stopped playing Hearthstone. In fact, I stopped playing video games period. But I still have love for this community, so I’m going to offer some friendly advice: stop playing Hearthstone, or any game remotely like it.

The title of this thread was almost “video games are evil,” but I won’t quite go that far. If a game has a strong narrative that has a definitive endpoint — like, say, Final Fantasy 7 (Remake or otherwise), or the SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN for StarCraft, that’s okay I guess. That’s similar in some ways to watching a movie, and some of the best fiction these days is in game form. The story of Arthas is (was?) epic and I wouldn’t want to deter people from experiencing it. I’m not anti-entertainment.

But what I’ve come to discover is that, for the most part, “gamer” means someone who will work for free, so long as they enjoy their work. Because that’s mostly what video games do. Just like a job, you’re given a set of tasks to perform — the term “quest” is really just a euphemism for “to-do list,” to the point that there are literally quests with rewards in the Uber driver app. But even after you complete your quests, always more to do.

All so you can get that little dopamine rush of a job well done. I mean, have you listened to the sh…tuff the bartender tells you in Battlegrounds? “You’re the best. Surely no one is as legendary as you.” Blizzard knows why you’re here: to be told you did a good job, to get recognition for achievement. Let us not forget what Terrence Fletcher had to say about the words “good job.” But even if you don’t buy into that particular ideology, you should never believe in that kind of affirmation unless the money is flowing in the opposite direction, friends. It sounds exactly like a con artist at work, because it is.

And I get it when it comes to depression. I’ve struggled with it plenty myself throughout the years. It’s a rough world, and the work we do too often goes underappreciated. The thirst for recognition is real, and satisfaction sorely wanting. But games (as a service) aren’t it, they’re an illusion of it. Like the premature enlightenment of psychedelic drugs — indeed, almost exactly like it, these games are designed to toy with you on a neurochemical level.

My friends, the Matrix is real. A prison for your mind. And the vast majority of you reading this are trapped in it. And much like that movie franchise, I don’t have a utopia to offer you as alternative. Only the desert of the real. But at least it’s the truth.

So please, for your own sakes, stop questing for worthless digital items or in-game currency. Quest for something more, or at least for IRL currency. Put that imagination of yours to work doing something real.

And don’t let fear of starting your own business hold you back. Right now I’ve got more than twice the income I ever had as a wagie, and I’m not actually all that clever — I’m just gaming the local economy as hard as I used to game Arena mode, mostly with app work like Uber. It’s amazing what working 70 hours a week will do for your bottom line. And let’s be real here — if you’re reading this, you probably already work 70 hours a week, or close to it. You just spend 20 of that in Blizzard’s hamster wheel, and ten thinking about it browsing these very forums. Wouldn’t it be great if you actually got something for that time, beyond the feel of pwning someone with a reply?

Live true, friends. Peace and love.

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I wish that would make community stop playing. But let it sink in. Psychological warfare is in play.

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I miss the days of PS2 when you owned the game and the player…

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There are still games that are pretty much straight ownable. Mostly single-player, story-driven affairs. I am not telling people not to play those.

I’m saying don’t play any game you can’t own outright.

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Glad to see you’re still out and about man.

Luckily, I’m not trapped in the Hearthstone quest cycle. I never play games for the daily quests anymore, that died years ago in the age of WoW some 13+ years ago for me. I simply play only if I have the desire to enjoy the game building a deck and playing it on ranked. BGs here and there. Never for the dailies. In fact, I’ve got 3 dailies and 3 weekly quests till up and I have absolutely no idea what they are.

If anyone is just logging in just to do the quests because they feel the “need” to, they should definitely just stop playing. Games should not be jobs (unless you specifically want them to be).

I don’t work any where even remotely close to 70 hours a week. (yikes!).

However, your words of starting your own business ring true. I want to start my own business, but I’d need to take out a pretty big loan to do that and if it fails it would basically ruin my life. Not a risk I can take yet, so I need to save up a bit so that the risk isn’t as great.

Keep on keepin’ on Scrotie!

Edit: I’m currently playing Red Dead Redemption 2. Halfway done with the story. These are the games I like. It’s beautiful.

PS: FF3 > FF7

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Start now — well maybe not this instant, but, um, convince yourself you’re a Fight Club human sacrifice or something — but start smaller than you dream. Test the risk as small as you possibly can. I’ve had one failure already, cost me about a thousand (edit: probably more like two, valuing my time), got over it, moved on to stuff that works. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, kill it and embrace experimentation.

if you mean FF6 (released in the US as FF3), you’re objectively correct. It’s like the Joker killed Bad German Man then stole and snapped his Infinity Gauntlet, but then Endgame happens without time travel, you can’t beat that. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

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Ah, it’s not really about testing. I have already done the math. I’m wanting to open my own Escape Room business. It takes a lot of time and a lot of initial investment, so it’s not just a $1,000 hit to start. You need like $30,000 to start and barely break even. Have to invest about $60,000 before you can start turning a slight profit.

When I was in my teenage years back in '94, I didn’t know it at the time, but I already had the concept of escape rooms in my head and was building them in my house and making my sisters/brothers run through them. I was a good decade ahead of the game. If only I was older then and thought of it as a business, I’d be rolling in $$$ lol.

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It is a little late in the season, but I’d look into a haunted house attraction as a smaller version of the same genre of business.

Anyone remember the Star Trek Next Gen episode where aliens try to get the crew addicted to a video game? They almost succeed but the heroic Wesley Crusher crushes it.

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Yeah, FF3 in the US.

However, determining if FF3 is better than ChronoTrigger is a hard one for me. I lean towards CT a bit more.

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Well, back to work.

I think musically I’ll start the night with

FF6 is probably still my favorite FF. What a game. Then FF9 is pretty close. I miss Square Soft.

Edit: Great song.

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Please don’t.
After witnessing your HS deck building, I fear for the participants sanity by the same designer.

But if you must. Remember. Tentacles, Starfish and Zucchini themes never goes wrong.

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My phone broke mid September, and I didn’t bother installing HS on the new phone. I’ve always seen HS as a bathroom or treadmill game.

Maybe you should reinstall.

As you get older, you might find yourself running to the bathroom far more often. Sounds like a good game to help you make it on time. Youre working on both criteria at the same time!

(sorry, couldnt resist)

We could setup a company that does installation of bathroom/gameroom integration!
Imagine: Ragnaros voice assisted toilet bowls!
We gonna be RICH!

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i don’t know what drugs you did but i agree with this BASED and TRUE take on capitalism.

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Just don’t televise grandmasters please

Yes we can have special toilets that someone safely eliminate waste by incinerations with the Ragnaros voice line by fire be purged when you flush.

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CT is a remarkable rpg and my top 3 fav, though FF3 or 6 is just the climax of a series of good games ff7,8,9,X, XII, 13 I played till the end boss of the 2 dvd of 4 and 15 stood brand new and barely played 4 years till I gave my ps4 to my son and he finish it recently. So many good rpg on snes and ps2(i remember donwloading and playing every single rpg on this console, had over 400 games)… Good all rpg days.

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