Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

i have the urge to strangle a person in the discord call i'm in atm. i just needed to say it somewhere.

weeew i saw my favorite character in the remake!

2minutes of highlights from Race 6 yesterday.

Again, incredibly light winds for these massive boats, and honestly both races 5 and 6 were incredibly boring in terms of head-to-head activity...but the nuances of strategy were startling. Definitely not the kind of races one shows friends unfamiliar to sailing!

In Race 5, 'Luna Rossa' completely dominated the start, and throughout the race were able consistently force 'Te Rehutai' into bad pockets of light wind on the left side of the course.

Technical info: the way yachting works on an 'up and down' course is that they sail INTO the wind and then with it at their back- while their sails appear oriented for a crosswind, that would remove all tactics from these races. If you have to sail into a headwind, you then have to zigzag up and down the course, and the tighter angle you can effectively sail, the less distance you have to go. This can negate speed advantages if you can "race high"- with your bow pointed in the direction you really want to go vs larger angles back and forth.

The Italians were able to race high better than the Kiwis due to multiple design differences, and once out in front, they then could use those massive sails to dirty up the air for the boat behind them. The Kiwis never were fully out of it, but also could never get closer than 150m to the Italians. They kept getting out-maneuvered into bad air every time they'd make even the smallest gain.

But in Race 6, ETNZ finally won a start, and it got really ugly after that. Unlike when the Italians had the lead in prior races, Once the Kiwis got out front, they looked on auto-pilot in clean air, constantly expanding their lead until by leg 6 it had expanded to over 1km at one point. They didn't have to worry about being forced to weaker locations, they didn't have to fight for clean air...and 'Luna Rossa' had no chance to ever recover. Nonetheless- the day ended the same as it began- tied. Just now fewer races to decide the final winner.

This is HUGE. This means that if Italy can't constantly win the starts, they simply cannot recover against New Zealand once in open water. Its like seeing a race where one team has significantly better equipment, and the other has more experienced tacticians. As long as the tactician can stay in control, they have a chance. But once tactics no longer matter and its reduced to raw speed...no amount of skill can fix it.

More light winds predicted for today's races 7 and 8, putting even more weight on those 5 minutes that happen before the race technically starts- and thus keeping Italy's superior tacticians in the hunt. But if the winds pick up in the next few days after...keep an eye out for ETNZ 'Te Rehutai' to end this quick.

Have any of you guys ever tried Raid: Shadow Legends before? I installed it out of sheer curiosity. By like the 5th stage it brick walled in difficulty, forcing me to either wait for the game to trickle-feed me the currency for the gacha, or start spending money immediately.

And it was frighteningly predatory. Every time I'd make way to the hub screen, it would send 5 ads for in-app purchases my way, moving the "X" to close it every time so you couldn't even mash your way past the ads without accidentally clicking on one. And of course none of it was reasonable, either. Every purchase is between $100 to $300, and if you accidentally did click one of the ads (which I did) it's literally one button press from a no-refund purchase (which thankfully I'd managed to avoid).

Awful, awful experience. It wasn't even a fun game.

Good lord. At that point, are you playing the game, or is it playing you like a dice roll to see if you pay up?

That's every mobile game. Predatory.

Some obviously more than others. (*)

Those kinds of games are not supposed to be fun, they are supposed to look good to keep you playing for a short while and then use predatory tactics to get you invested and addicted.

They pay influencers $3-4k for shilling it, so it shows how much cash they are making to be able to do that.

Oh I get the design, guess I've hit the "older by a lot than target audience" age where I just don't get the desire to play such things.

Pardon me while I get my cardigan and feed the pigeons.

All comes back to the INT stat lol.

I know that if I can spend money on it, someone will be willing to spend 100x more and it's an instant nonstarter for me. So if I'm even going to consider it, it's never going further than free for real.

What is it that gets a person to bypass that step in the logic to just do it anyway. No matter how much effort you put into it, oil prince is going to be better than you.

The logical outcome strips any modicum of fun out of it. You know it's literally not designed for you. And there's no money in designing a game that doesn't do it. I guess unless you're that "type" that insists on fighting uphill, with the sun in your eyes, with no protection, in mud.

Obviously I haven't done any research on the what price points make the most money for predatory mobile games, but it's just amazing how excessive the prices are for some of them. Like, I've played a few non-PVP gacha games where I would have been willing to throw a few dollars at the game here and there, but when a single pull is $30+? Nope, you can have none of my money and I'll play for free, thanks. They're completely cutting off a large chunk of people who would pay a little for virtual content just to cater to the few who will pay a lot.

I guess it's just another one of those situations where consumers with more money than sense are feeding the predators and screwing it over for everyone else.

Any online game with a cash shop is predatory (even if it's "just cosmetic").

At the basic level, yes, obviously.

Define Predatory; seeking to exploit others.

Offering pixels for money is intended to exploit a person.

Yes, someone put work into coding and designing and coloring those pixels. A fisherman baits his hook with intention of catching a fish, it's predatory.

I spent so much time back in the day farming for a Verm cloak, if I could of spent $15 for an outfit that looked similar I would of done it in a heartbeat. The problem with an mmorpg cash shop is it's akin to a vending machine in a train station. You're very often tired and/or bored after many hours playing and it's so easy to just throw cash away on these pretty items that make you feel good for a little while. That then gets addictive.

They even force you to change your cash into the games currency so you forget how much you're spending on this garbage.

Ummm... yeah. 489 fantasias and 15 world transfers? I don't mean this in any offensive way, but I'm pretty sure that's indicative of some kind of impulsive mental disorder.

I had to look up what a fantasia is, yeah, there's an issue there.

(It's the way you change your character in 14)

possibly. The question to me is the design attracting those already at that point, or is the design magnifying borderline cases to that threshold.

It's taking advantage of.

If you've got a personality order... they sell you a cure. Well... cure is NOT the right word.

i mean if that is someone's main form of entertainment then i don't see the problem. i have a friend who fantasias a lot for different themes on her stream. she doesn't really play any other games so every so often she buys stuff in xiv and revamps her house, outfit, or look. it keeps the game going and motivates SE to pump out new stuff that interests her.

i use to only play league of legends. i have something like 900 skins. i've also played for like 10 years and at least 150-200 are from free stuff. it's just another thing for people to spend money and support the thing they enjoy. i've seen people on here with multiple power ranger figure sets. if you enjoy it, and it's your hobby go for it. is it really different than grandpa with a tackle box full of baits and rigs he never uses, but liked the look of?

some things are predatory, especially when it's loot box systems. gacha games, especially ones targeted at kids, are the offender in my book. i don't think there is anyway you can compare that to something like xiv where it's entirely cosmetic and not something that you have to gamble for.

Possibly both, but I've met people like that. He/she would probably be blowing money on frivolous crap whether XIV existed or not.

The type of person that I find most intriguing is the type who spends a boatload of money on bargain items. Yeah, you feel good because you "saved" a bunch of money compared to retail price, but now you have 40 lbs. of fig paste that you have to figure out how to use (<- real-life example).

Ha, I dunno, I think the key difference is moderation. Spending a little money to make yourself feel good is different than putting yourself in debt due to uncontrollable impulse buys.

It's ok to fall for a little exploitation, you're not a machine.

Bright colors on the box, sugary addiction in the box, AND a pokemans!? Who could resist.

It's the guy filling an entire shopping cart because there's a shiney charizard but won't eat the cereal.

Because I have been playing XIV forever the game gave me 4 fantasias. I have used one and had the aesthetician existed then, I wouldn't have. I used it to modify stuff he does.

Yes but at least you can eat the cereal.

As long as you aren't diabetic.

One of the problems I have with what 14 did is they pulled in players who normally avoid F2p games because of the predatory cash shop (I know people that refused to play Aion back in the day because lolf2p), then they added one anyway. So it's a trap of sorts, lambs to the slaughter. The point of buying a game with a sub is to avoid that stuff and be protected, many XI players who were never used to this kind of thing got sucked in hard on the cash shop on 14. It's so easy to get addicted to it and then rationalize how much money you're spending on virtual crap when you would complain about spending anything like that amount irl.

I played a f2p game for a while 5-6 years ago with really fancy glowing cosmetics and also played Warframe, I spent so much damn money on those two games. It's so easy to spend so much money in so short amount of time, it mounts up fast and you lose track how much you're spending.

I spent thousands on Warframe and at the time I was fine with it but I should of never been able to do that, because you're addicted and easy prey to spending loads of money on a game you're putting hundreds of hours into.

Surprised how judgemental you’re blindly being.

For a game that’s been out for like 11 years, that’s like buying a Fantasia each week you got paid.

If someone walked up and said, “I like collecting stamps, so I usually try to buy a new one every weekend”
Would you think “mental disorder?” That someone is spending ~10 bucks on a hobby each weekend? It’s not like Fantasia is gambling in any way.

the xiv cash shop is so clunky, slow, and doesn't save your payment method. i don't see how anyone could think it's predatory. i backed off gifting someone once cause after reloading it 3 times it still wouldn't process. maybe if it was in game, popped up full screen, and made you click out to start playing i'd think a lil different.

also i don't think you should restrict or criticize these things just because you/some people have addictive personalities. some people will drive themselves to diabetes eating cereal to get their pocket monster collectibles, but most people can have a healthy relationship with these things.

*edit* being targeted at kids is the only time i make an exception.