No offense but… I know what the thing means. I read what it means and I know how folks refer to it. With the greatest degree of respect possible but yes, it is a form of peer pressure by others by causing a “fear” of “missing out” - hence the name.
It isn’t a business strategy, because you’d quite literally just burn out your customers. Here’s an example of what FOMO is and why it falls into ableism to use it the way folks are on these forums:
This is FOMO - this particular type of peer pressure. FOMO isn’t a lack of self-control, it isn’t a business strategy, it isn’t some magical word or phrase that means “I miss out on something that has limited availability”; it has this very specific type of societal and sociological meaning of where folks peer pressure each other into a situation of feeling like one risk missing out on something.
That’s what it means. Literally every single source I have read, ranging from scientific articles to just a basic reading of it on Wikipedia, confirms this. The way folks are using FOMO to equate one of the best phrases to explain the issues of when people are tired, or are overstimulated, or any myriad of perfectly fine and sensible reasons to not do something because it would hurt oneself … but is frequently run over by folks with good intent …
There is a reason why I hate folks’ use of this phrase and I am both disappointed and not surprised I got flagged for telling people that what folks pretend FOMO is ain’t FOMO. And the way folks are using it is 110% at the very least borderline ableism.
Also Kinda feels like the trick to getting noticed on the forums lately is to spice things up with words that light a fire under everyone. So, cheers for helping me prove that theory right!
Not really, no. Because you quite literally require the peer pressure.
It isn’t a viable business strategy to try to incite people to injure themselves just to buy something. Everytime there is a question of “Do you want to do this” or a button to confirm one’s actions, that’s a step to prevent this thing.
I’m not naïve enough to believe there’s no business who has tried to engage with this, that’d just be beyond belief stupid to assume. But it ain’t a great business strategy as you quite literally just burn out your customers, not to mention that this would be a strategy used more commonly by scammers than anyone or anything else.
FOMO as an academic phrase to describe this type of peer pressure concept is for all intents and purposes only applicable when folks are either getting scammed. Think of all the popups that say ‘Only 5 minutes left to get this great deal’, because those rely on the suddenness of it. If an activity has a limited availability associated with it and it is clearly advertised repeatedly to showcase how long folks have to decide, that lessens this impact - not increase it.
And the only other time when it is frequently applicable is in the circumstances where people cause this kind of injury to friends and family unknowingly.
Neither one of these are applicable towards Blizzard as a company. But it is applicable to the people on these forums who, unironically, cause FOMO by the way that they treat the phrase of FOMO.
^ Yes. Thanks to the people like this who have empathetic responses.
It’s not, though. Different people’s brains are wired different ways. It may seem silly to you, but others struggle with this.
It’s why some people are alcoholics and some are never bothered by it. Or why some people cry at sad movies and others are apathetic. It doesn’t mean one person is better than the other - our brains are just different.
So I do wish people wouldn’t dismiss these things so easily. I do look at these people as victims. I used to have anxiety over this, but it was mild compared to my friend. I can break out of my “must have” collection mode when the requirements become ridiculous or cost too much money. Like I used to have every Tracer skin in Overwatch, and I was proud of my collection, but when they started selling some for RL money I was like … nope, I’m out. And now I no longer care about it.
That’s my out. It works for me, but my friend goes in deep and loses sleep over these things. I’ll often filter a game to tell her if she should play it or not - gatcha games are a big no for her due to their exploitation of people who suffer from this as well as those susceptible to gambling addiction.
Anyway, sorry for the tangent. I just wish people would try to look at other people’s perspective from time to time. Brains are pretty unique.
I wonder how the average person’s luck has been I have done it once a day havent gotten a manuscript, a rocket, or a plague mask (not that I need another one) but only tokens everyday when you are supposed to have higher drop chances for stuff is kind of crummy.
It’s just a video game. No one needs to play it. Do you think they should all quit? That is your logic, why are you playing?
Truer words were never spoken. How much real money do you think all these collectibles should cost in the cash shop, since you don’t think they should be free?
I don’t understand why so many of you and your ilk are trying to convince players to stop caring about the game. How is working hard to drive away players from the game not a pointy head thing?
OP does have a point, RNG and FOMO have no correlation. The dragon skin drop might even be more rare, 15 daily attempts for 14.5ish days a year. It’s annual FOMO, you can only try for it during the seasonal event. There is no skill requirement, only luck, and you either get the drop or you don’t.
Im not trying to get people to quit the game, that’s the “you missed the point” part.
But no one “NEEDS” every single thing that comes up, if you accept that, you will no longer have a self induced fear. After all, it’s all pixels, one day, it’s all going to be gone.
Not playing the game when mount X dropped is also not a valid argument. It’s incentive for you to do what’s required to get the current limited time offering, so you too can be part of the “I was there, I did the thing” club.
On topic yeah it’s aggravating as hecc to run this silly event 20 times a day knowing I’m probably not gonna get it. Yeah it sucks getting so frustrated at never seeing a Headless Horseman mount that I don’t even like the holiday anymore and gave up on it. But on the same token three weeks from now I’ll have moved in and forgot the mount is even in the game until next year anyway.
Is it awful design? Yes. Will it be replaced by other things to keep is occupied and satisfied (or complain about) two Tuesdays from now? Absolutely.
