Category Archives: Games

Welp! Despite trying to avoid the responsibility that comes with authority, I find myself once again in the position of Community Leader (for the record, I did not ask for the role), this time on the Diablo Immortal Australia Community Discord.

I’ve run and founded many successful online communities since the late 90’s, but in 2018 I hit rock bottom and I’ve shied away from the spotlight ever since. Where I was once so hungry to make more marks in the wall and add more feathers to my cap, I now just mostly don’t give a fuck.

That said; I did ask Heazy for admin access to the Guys & Gals Gaming discord a while back as I felt that I consistently put energy into contributing ideas and posts to the discord, but I was denied the role.

Heazy has ALWAYS put every single little thing to a vote when he was leader. What blows my mind is that as a clan, we didn’t get to vote on who will be our new clan leader. I believe this is where things started to go off the tracks.

For the past week I’ve felt like the jam in the middle. I love Heazy to bits, and I’ve slowly but surely been getting to know our new leader CrazyGoatVapes. IMO it’s absolutely nuts that Heazy would not give admin access to CrazyGoatVapes for the discord. From my experience, you simply cannot grow and run a community without admin access.

I saw that CrazyGoatVapes had started a new discord server, and when I saw this I pleaded with Heazy to just give CrazyGoatVapes admin access to Guys & Gals Gaming so we can just move on, but nope, Heazy refused, and nek minnit CrazyGoatVapes went to town with inviting you all over here.

When Heazy saw that CrazyGoatVapes had literally copied the Guys & Girls Gaming discord channel for channel, word for word, he was pretty cut (understandably), so I’ve asked for admin access to make some tweaks going forwards (and I started the “word-game” channel as a fun way for members to contribute, an idea I wanted to implement on Guys & Gals Gaming which Heazy didn’t approve).

Ultimately the way I see it, is that Guys & Gals Gaming is more of an umbrella discord. It’s not tied in to one specific game (though it has been tied in to DI too much IMHO), it’s more about Australian guys and girls who game. That way if a game dies, the community stays alive. I truly hope Heazy keeps it going, and I put my hand up to back him if he’ll accept my help.

Anyways, just wanted to get all that off my chest because that’s how I roll. Hoping to avoid bad vibes and to keep the peace!

/rant.

Why are games still $100? Bus tickets were 20 cents when I was a kid, $8 movies in the cinema, in fact everything has gone up in price over the years, but games are still $100 (and very rarely more than that). Personally, I would say it’s fair to pay $300+ for a good game in 2022 so long as it had no micro-transactions, but since that seems a little crazy, it makes sense that cash shops HAVE to be in today’s games, and maybe the P2W model is the only way forwards.

What’s truly fascinating is that P2W wasn’t created by developers, but instead by players. Players wanted to pay to win. There was a huge demand there, so 3rd parties created web sites where players could buy materials, gold, weapons etc. It’s obvious devs caught on to this, and so they started putting P2W into their own games instead of allowing 3rd party services to profit?

We’re 5 months into Diablo Immortal and I’m honestly surprised at how many completely Free to Play (F2P) players there are out there, both on this reddit, and on my server.

To be able to constantly ignore the devs trying to bait you to spend your money, and also to be OK with playing against some very strong Pay to Win (P2W) players (especially in regards to PVP) every single time you play DI.

I’ve seen a few F2P players put in massive hours grinding to flex huge stats that even some P2W players haven’t achieved, and I’ve also seen a few players play regularly, but more casually, and these players are often below the server paragon level and need to be carried through harder content, yet they happily log in and enjoy the game daily.

The whole F2P system, generally speaking, is predatory. So those who know best probably stay away from F2P games to begin with (and prefer to pay a one off price for a complete game with no micro-transactions), but I think long term F2P players are an interesting breed.

In the grand scheme of things, is someone who has played DI completely for free since launch winning over someone who’s paid to win for some convenience (inventory space for example via boon) and more power (and potentially more enjoyment?).

What I’m curious about is the psychology of long term F2P players. Do F2P players feel like they’re winning against “the system” by playing this game for free? IE: They feel like they are getting enjoyment without the pain and disgust from paying for it, and that challenge (of not paying Blizzard/NetEase) alone is what drives them? Or is it more a competition against other players who do P2W?

Not at all having a go at anyone. I’m just curious. Hoping some F2P players who have been playing completely free since launch will chime in and share some insights.

Turns out being back on Netflix isn’t so bad at all.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was so fucking great and true to the Cyberpunk genre, which isn’t about winning. It’s about the will to fight against an impossible enemy, to scrape the smallest moments of happiness to the bone and suck out the marrow. There was never going to be a happy ending, but they fought as if it was possible. That’s Punk as Fuck!

Another awesome IRL meetup! This time with Heazy, the leader of the Diablo Immortal clan I’m in.

End of the day just remember, we’re all into Diablo Immortal… until we’re not! LOL! Complain about the game as much as you like as that shows you care, but if anyone on this clan is leaving the game, just be sure not to announce it over the loud speakers. This isn’t a fucking airport, right? So no need to announce your departures here lol!

The shit stirrer in me refuses to die. This morning I came across a reddit post, specifically on the Diablo Immortal subreddit that was titled: “Why do people hate players that spend money so much?”. I come across a LOT of stupid shit on reddit that’s so stupid I can’t be bothered responding, but I like to pick my fights, and this was one I couldn’t resist.

The OP states that he’s spent $1,200 in the game, a lot less than other players, and when he let people know in a previous thread he copped a lot of hate. He then used the analogy of spending $1K a month on a gardener, or a yearly gym membership, and that these 2 unessential things aren’t considered stupid so why should spending the same amount in a game be seen as being stupid.

He wraps up with just wanting to know why people care so much with what he spends on the game.

I responded by saying that his opening line of suggesting that he had spent $1,200 in the game but “others had spent a lot more” instantly discredits him. Just because you suck a lot less than others that suck doesn’t mean you don’t suck.

Then I went to town on his analogies as IMHO both are generally seen as being way more constructive things in life than spending $1,200 on a mobile phone game. It’s arguable that tree trimming and mowing grass in your garden is an essential part of house ownership, and too right, as he suggested, no one should ever think that someone who’s wanting or trying to get fit is stupid.

On his last point about people caring so much. I suggested that he seems to be the one that cares so much as he’s the one who’s made this post in search for some sort of validation on spending $1,200 on a mobile phone game.

Ruthless! Right?

At this time his post had been up for a few hours and gotten a fair few upvotes and a LOT of responses. Despite my post being way down the page I unsurprisingly got a stupid reply. In his response he explains that his point is that it’s his money, and that he should be able to do whatever he wants with it, but “people like me” seem to care too much to understand.

Juicy!

I replied and suggested that ultimately most people would agree that it’s his money and that he can do whatever he chooses to do with it, but that doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to have an opinion on whether or not spending $1,200 on a mobile phone game is stupid, or not. And in regards to “caring”. Just because someone “hates” on him for spending $1,200 on a mobile phone game doesn’t mean they care?

I refreshed the page 30 minutes later and sadly the OP had deleted the entire thread. Damn it! I was really looking forward to getting the popcorn out. My inner troll is unsatisfied!

One of my fave Sci-Fi artists!