Reject multiplayer embrace single player

Ive been able to avoid this by not having friends at all. It comes in handy sometimes.

The problem with the live service model is that every single company wants their own slice of the pie. And each of them wants _their slice_ to be the _biggest_ slice. And some of them want to take _multiple_ slices and have all of them be the same size. Unfortunately - for them, that is - the problem is that the pie is a finite resource, and you are only able to cut into so many slices and serve it. And once you’ve done that, once the pan has been emptied, the only way to get more slices is to attempt to steal some off of another company’s plate, and you’re not going to get away with doing that every time. Sometimes you’ll snag a bite, and sometimes you’ll get a fork stabbed into your hand. And eventually, in your hasty efforts to all try and take bits off each others’ slices, the pie’s gonna start falling apart and the only thing that will be left is a bunch of crumbs and icing smeared all over the place. And then everybody will wait around until someone comes along and serve a brand new pie, and they’ll repeat that process, of destroying perfectly good dessert out of selfish greed, all over again.

Meanwhile great non-predatory games continue to not meet their financial targets

Agreed. The gaming industry doesn't respect our time and lives. It's painful for casual people nowadays.....

Great topic. One of the biggest issues with modern day online multiplayer. In the quest for "engagement" they prioritize these fomo tactics. Having fun is no longer the objective!

I grew up on single player jrpgs and action adventure platformers on PS1, PS2, PSP, Gameboy, N64 and GameCube. I feel sad for anyone that didn’t get to experience or grow up in that golden age of great games.

i'm glad i'm not the only one who feels this way. i hate feeling pressured to do anything, let alone pressured into playing a game that's supposed to make me feel *less* stressed, not more!

They’re trying to form a habit. Some games even reward you for simply logging in. If you log in, you’ll probably play, at least for a moment. - The first step towards addiction is habit formation.

Battle passes are just a means of selling stuff that would¡ve been in the game as standard 10+ years ago. You used to get skins, weapon unlocks, attachments, etc just as a byproduct of playing the game at your own pace, now you have to both pay for the privilege and rush for it too. Plus, it can be used as a cover for the dev not finishing the game before release and paying them extra for their laziness.

What sucks is that an entire generation of kids/young gamers have grown up only knowing Battlepasses and playing games like a job. This is normal for them and once we grow out of the medium when everything is nothing but live services they'll be feeding thst machine.

That's one thing I like about HellDivers 2. Once they release a "battlepass" it's released. Buy it when you want to. Complete it when you want to. I've got items on the first paid battlepass from 3 or 4 months ago that I haven't unlocked and I'm in no hurry to do so. You may grind to get the few items you really want, but then the rest is there when you decide to pick it up.

I know its not the same thing because its a co op game, but Deep Rock Galactic recently updated their free battlepass where you can chose which seasons battlepass you want to play. 1 season lasts for 6 months so if you finish your battlepass in 3 months, you can just start a season 2 battlepass for example and play that if you didnt before. Its good for new players. Again, DRG is an indie game and they are not greedy and predatory as these huge company games you talked about.

This is why I follow the rule of: If I complete the battlepass before buying it I then think about buying it.

Hearing people talk about coming off of live service games is like hearing someone talk about their experience with coming off of drugs. I don’t play multiplayer games outside of fighting games, which don’t ask for any commitment from the player. I mainly enjoy single player gaming experiences and my love for gaming continues to burn brightly because of this I believe.

This recently happened to me with the last apex season when I was trying to get a certain skin

It feels like being an older generation of gamer that grew up in the 8-bit era is what has helped me avoid these grindy games-as-jobs. Back then, games were designed to simply be fun. And perhaps make a little money, so that the designers could keep the lights on and survive to make another great experience. So once the first of these game-as-jobs showed up around 2004 it immediately struck me as not being any fun at all and was very easy to pass on. These days all my gaming is done offline with single player experiences, and I think it's a big part of why gaming stilll remains a fun time for me. Great video and discussion! 👍

Many of my personal stresses are merely because I haven't gamed in a long while and focusing on my job all the time really leaves me such little room to restore enough energy to divert attention and focus to gaming on my days off, because that time is spent handling chores and doing personal upkeep. I live alone and everytbing is on me. So when I do get a moments rest, the only thing my brain wants to do, even though I'd love to get back into gaming, is to not do anything at all. I'm just...tired all the time. Eberything costs too much, it's exhausting.

6:08 COD battlepass weapons are unlockable via challenge at the end of the season and are free to unlock u just have to pour time in. Unfortunae, but thought I should add that

Fortnite damn near has two battle passes to grind after you hit the final tier you have to basically get 100 more levels to get the recolors its ridiculous

Simple solution to avoid these triggers: play only retro games! Not only is the sheer amount of choice in the library engaging enough, but there’s multiple platforms for you to choose, so you’re never bogged down by a single one.i have a Wii, GameCube. DS, 3DS, Switch, XB360, and OG Xbox library, and I love going into each and every one of them! Only you can break the fomo cycle.

Xdefiant is a nightmare for leveling up.

I feel this sometimes with certain games because they're the only games my friends want to play and sometimes it feels like I get dragged into playing. I've learned to say no and value my own free time and the games I actually want to play and so should anyone who feels like the game they're playing is more of a job than an actual fun game.

tbh, the battle pass type of transaction you described exists in other places. For example cinema tickets, train tickets etc. You book your ticket for a certain day, certain hour. You need to go an watch/travel at this exact hour or you miss out on your "goods".

I remember when i used to play games 8-10 hours a day. Now im lucky to play 8-10 a week

I’ve come to realize lately with my relationship to video games is that games in general take up way too much of my time. I find myself not being too competitive with these multiplayer online games like Apex Legends or even single player games like Fallout 4/Skyrim or any other open world games that require time. All games essentially require time but like you said with the Battlepass system, it forces you to complete the BP before it vanishes and losing all the rewards forever. It feels like homework honestly. BP system reminds me of the dopamine hits people get from social media with the likes and comments. There’s only so many games with the BP you can handle or have time for. And yep, just like you said, it feels like a job. COD I’ve been playing recently but only for the recent Gundam RX-78 skin and getting the rewards just for that. lol I really like Gundam. But yeah, I don’t pay for any BPs anymore. Anyways good to see you back. 👍

Love the runescape music in the background

My way of combating it is just to not pay for the battle pass until Ive made enough progress to get the items that I want. Most all of them allow you to unlock retroactively after you've paid

Yep, had this same experience with Destiny 2. I was a long-term player from Destiny 1 and was so invested in D2 in both time and money, but whenever I took a break and came back on, it was all exactly as you described, so I just stopped playing. Great video Fanta. A sad truth it is.

I've just tried to focus on the video so badly and can't unsee the ghost shirt and just think "man he has such good tastes. I bet if I listened to the video I would agree with it but also I can't unhear the marathon of ghost music in my head now"

Was literally thinking yesterday, "damn fanta hasn't posted in a LONG ASS TIME....WTF HAPPENED TO THIS DUDE?? today was a fun gift!

As someone who started playing Fortnite a year ago, I'm already feeling the burnout. I haven't even bought this season battle pass yet. Another thing that's making the experience worse is the FOMO. I can't buy Spider Man or Darth Vader because they came from a battle pass and they don't resell battle pass skins after that season is over. So what's even the point if I can't play as my favorite character Darth Vader? They're punishing the player for having a life outside of video games.

I wish companies would understand that if you don’t unlock all the goods from the Battle Pass, that a refund might be the option! Or make it free. Because the timed event is stressful if you work n stuff outside of the Pass.

I had this experience recently with multiverses. I felt like I was just logging in to complete challenges to earn XP for the battlepass and it was moving so slow. I wasn't playing the game because I wanted to. I quit the game.

I hope this goes viral!

This is where I am with Foamstars. I bought a few passes, I'm getting over it. How many useless emotes and decals do I really need?

When I first found this channel years ago, I was a broke part time worker and I spent the majority of my time playing Destiny. You literally had to treat it like a job, or you would fall behind every time an expansion came out. Now, almost 7 years later, I simply do not have the drive to play video games like that anymore. I find myself avoiding multiplayer games because of this reason, they ALWAYS want you coming back. That’s why they lock rewards behind a paid battle pass, why some games offer additional transactions toward the end of the pass so you can get the stuff you missed, and why some games don’t let you earn credits to get the next pass without buying. It’s insane how much gaming has changed. Also, thank you for being so impactful on my outlook on gaming over all these years!

I've never played an online multiplayer game other than Fortnite for a few weekends in 2019 and a game called Ghost in the Shell: First Assault on and off for 2 months in 2016, that's it. That allowed me to play over 600 proper single-player story-driven games in just 9 years (indie and AAA) and I've finished over 450 of them and I'm very proud of that

Fortnite definitely has become a job. i was gifted a battlepass last season and even that wasnt enough. It’s just hours of gameplay for very little progression

Destiny was that for me. It was like a fun job for a while, though. The bad thing is, after you get out, it's hard to get back in even if you want to because you feel like you've missed so much.

Brother your channel is on the path to a million subs. The quality is finally at that point. Keep grinding, keep posting. Ima be happy when your channel gets huge

League of Legends player here. Even though I already decided to take a break from the game this year to focus on the backlog, your video still resonated with me. I haven't played League or any other multiplayer grind game since early February and have focused primarily on playing games from my backlog. The only game that I played this year that released this year was Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Every other game has been a single-player game from my backlog and its been absolutely outstanding. I have not touched my PC in months. I've played so many amazing games on my Switch this year. Octopath Traveler II, Signalis, Harvestella, and many others. Just started Astral Chain the other day and loving it. I wouldn't have had half of these experiences if I was still grinding ranked solo queue games on League.

That's why I play single player games. All of my favourite games are from the PS1 and PS2 Era where there were no battle passes and all that crap and you got exactly what you paid for with no DLC or in game currency.

Was having this issue recently, my friends all play MLB the shows version of Ultimate Team and this years game just felt super grindy and boring, I just didn’t feel like playing it. So I pitched them a revolutionary new idea of just gathering together whatever baseball gear we still have from high school or whatever and you know just going to a field and playing lol. We had a ton of fun, so now we just do that 1-2 times a week instead of wasting our time on MLB.

This is why i usually complete the pass before purchasing it to ensure I at least get what i pay for when i pay for it

Stockpile and refinery reserve timers in Foxhole can feel like a job.

Monetization of fear if missing out is the death of the casual game

I was trapped in Fortnite, call of duty mobile, pubg mobile, pubg new state, zula,💀💔 it was like a nightmare

Didn’t realize this was fantavision until 5 minutes in. I was smoking, paying less attention to the screen. Your videos have gotten so much better, the editing, pace, audio. Good shit bro! I haven’t watched since you made GameStop story videos

Battle pass system also gives some games an excuse to cut content that should be free or belong in the base game as an exclusive item to be released later

Trophies are the bane of my existence. If I work on them, it feels like a chore but if I ignore them, I feel inferior because people who see my profile will think I suck at the game. I've lost touch with playing games for fun and it now seems like a second job.

It never happened to me because I have always played single player games/campaigns

I feel into this trap during lockdowns and learned my lesson, these days there are too many games trying to follow this business model and it doesn't work if I can't finish your battlepass or unlock guns or characters because you want to lock stuff behind a battlepass or limited time events then I just won't play.

It’s the battle passes man like they need to gooo

Super Animal Battle Royal also has battle passes that never expire, you can also work on a previous pass while on the current ongoing 'season'. :)

I feel you so much on this. I enjoy Fortnite so much but the cosmetic system in place with the battle passes does feel more like a job then ever before. I just decided it doesn’t matter if I collect every item in a pass anymore. Gotta enjoy the game for the game not the stuff they try to sell you on.

I feel the same way about single player games in my backlog. I’m still working through games I got for Christmas.

It's almost as if you've read my mind and articulated exactly how i feel. Great video. I hope it wakes up as many gamers as possible.

Games feeling like a job is a sign that you should get a real job

We only play runscape when we fall in depression

Played this video in the background while mindlessly grinding OSRS. Then I heard your background music. Audibly laughed

Halo MCC and Deep Rock Galactic are my gold standard for battle pass systems in game. Never expires, you can choose to play through passes you missed out on and earn the items at your own pace

This is exactly how I felt with FFXIV! I don’t want to go back, and after quitting a year ago and actually enjoying playing other games or just doing other things besides the grind without any sense of guilt for falling behind. It’s so hard to explain that sensation to people, I think. Gaming addiction is real.

battle passes are similar to how timeshares work. you pay up front and then you “have to” use them otherwise the time expires

This video really resonated with me I felt this way for the past 4 years since 2020 I felt like I wasted my life on these fomo games than learning new skills and experiencing new things. I still play fortnite because its the main game that's accessible to all my friends but honestly after coming home from a night shift and hoping on fortnite instead of other games I want to play or other activities I want to do like drawing, learning guitar/making music and editing. Buying a battlepass feels like I made a soul binding contract that I constantly think about. I think I found a way to get around this by having lego afk and doing something else its still not healthy but its the first step to actually doing what I want now

I’m so happy I came across this video 😢 now I know what to do

This is exactly why I have always loved single player games. For example I stopped playing Alan Wake 2 for a couple months because of life. When I came back I not only didn't miss out on anything but there was a new DLC that I could play that wasn't contingent on doing anything but pay for it, download it and take as long as I need to get through it.

Bold of you to assume I have a first job.

Off topic but love the Ghost shirt! Looking forward to seeing the Movie on the 20th

Firstly, I do believe live-service games have a place in the industry but I also agree that the FOMO implemented by a majority of studios is horrible. Publishers, even including Epic from the sounds of it don't understand if a battle pass can be knocked out in 1-2 weeks which encourages us to play more. I think a great contrast between two games that just came out is xDefiant vs Multiversus. I've put similar time in each game since launch and while xDefiant has slow weapon leveling I'm done with the BP. With multiple double XP weapons, the game gives XP boosters for completing weekly challenges through Uplay and it only has 50 ranks alongside giving you enough xCoins to buy the next pass. MVS on the other hand, I'm not even a 3rd of the way and I'm burnt out on that. While I love the gameplay I refuse to have a 2nd job while playing games. They gave me a free battle pass for playing the beta but I'm not buying the next. Any game that has any paid price point and charges for Battle Passes is an immediate no for me as well. I hope more studios adopt the Halo Infinite model and take FOMO out of the game but the games industry is incapable of learning from failures and more games like S-Squad, Avengers, Anthem, etc will promptly die.

You can unlock a gun in cod that was in a battlepass after the season is over… that is what armory unlock is for

This happens to me with single-player games when I get stuck, and then i struggle to pick it back up. Conversely, i used to play so much League with friends because I felt I had to. I'm glad I quit and started picking up single-player games and fighting games.

One thing I tried not too long ago was try last year’s Call of Duty. There’s no more updates, no more FOMO tactics, no BPs, etc. because they moved on to the next game. It has been a blast playing. I’m playing because I FEEL like playing it. I’m not pressured into finishing my current BP. I’ve always been a MP person, but I’ve enjoyed more single player titles recently, or even coop with my gf. When it comes to MP, I don’t think I could ever drop it. But I’m definitely more aware and more careful about my choices.

Jobs give you something of relative worth for your time, battle passes and modern games in general are closer to chores.

Play Deep Rock Galactic. The battle pass is free. No content locked behind a paywall. Only dlc is cosmetics but you can get plenty for free just by playing the game. There is no fomo. You can go back to previous seasons and keep your progress. Also you can find old cosmetics through lost packs/cargo crates found in levels. So nothing is ever truly gone forever in game. It’s season pass done right.

Just got the notification a little bit ago for this. Quality content fanta! Never thought of the concept of buying FOMO. But it makes sense!

10:40-11:17 Around the end of 2023, I pretty much came to this same viewpoint. It just dawned on me how many great games I missed out on that year because I was stuck on the same multiplayer games. This year I’ve been spending way more time on other games and doing so has felt way more fulfilling.

I find if you play Mid Games that get Yellow Scores on Metacritic, or only care about the Social or competitive aspects of a game, then you're definitely going to spend time feeling like it's a second job.

Love the new video! I'm currently going through this with several games. The one askect i have have not heard anyone cover is about the game that just keep expanding the endgame levels, and increasing the mob levels as well. Amazon's New World being an example.

Deep Rock Galactic respects your time.

The aspect of one battle pass paying for the next isnt beside the point. Id argue that its even more so something that makes you feel like you have to keep playing the game.

Mortal online 2 is like this for me lol. No battle passes or microtransactions, but the grinding and time dump it requires to get shit done is huge. It takes my entire guild days of constant mining just so we can get steel weapons 😂

This is the best explanation of the current state of gaming I’ve heard. Basically only play single-player games now. I’ve starting going back through my library, and have enjoyed a lot of the older games more than anything which has come out in the past 2 years. Another method is the login bonus, which basically forces you to boot up the game at least once a day or suffer missing out on something in game. I eventually realized as I wasn’t even enjoying what I was doing. It was just another task to complete. As a result I’ve focused more on older and single-player games. They seem to still not be quite as predatory yet.

Should rename the video to "when multiplayer games become a second job"

This video is spot on to what's going on. Keep up the great vids.

I always play 3 or 4 games in rotation so I don't feel like an addicted zombie to one major open world RPG or multiplayer game. With all these big games now a days I just play for a few hours and then come back tomorrow while I switch to something else more arcade like.

I used to play DCUO it was totally like that. I had played from launch, definitely was addicting and what like "I had to show up" for raids and dailies

Great video man. I am in that burnt out state myself. Not alot of games out there I find interesting. One exception is Helldivers 2. They have battle passes that never expire and the game is cheap. You can also earn the currency just for playing the game. Arrow head are the exception to the rule.

not sure what happened to me but i can't play games anymore, i have a huge backlog of 360 games & games in general, but my desire to play games has gone

This happened to me with Helldivers 2.

Deep rock galactic has the best battlepass system period. 100% free and even if the season ends you can go back to it or get the items in the new season by other means.

Worth mentioning up there with halo infinite deep rock galactic is adding in the next season(which is next week at posting) the ability to reactivate any season and it's pass even if you didn't play then. And they are free. So the bar is was higher than even halo infinite set tbh

You're right, of course. But when you buy a battle pass, you're not paying for the rewards - you're paying for the chance to earn the rewards. Just buying the rewards wouldn't come with a reason to keep playing the game. The value is in earning rewards, not owing rewards. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for battle passes or FOMO, but the value distinction is worth pointing out.

To combat the FOMO with battle passes, I won’t buy one until I’ve unlocked the entire free component of it, so I know I’m not missing out.

I am 30 years old. For my whole life I only played 2D/3D platform games, and AAA FPS and TPS Shooters. Gaming did get boring for me... Until I played my first beginner friendly JRPG's wich were Mario & Luigi SuperStar Saga and Monster Hunter Stories. Since that day I am obsessedy with turn based combat. I played Advanced Wars, Into the Breach, Fire Emblem Echoes, Hard West, Paper Mario 64 and (a really big one) Xenoblade Chronicles 1. Currently I'm playing The Thousand Year Door Remake and I think it's gonna be an all time favourite of mine and after that I will play Shin Megami Tensei 4 on my 3DS.

Me with GTA and Clash of Clans. Quit both years ago before it got too bad. Both felt like a terrible mundane job 💀

Absolutely hate how fortnite blocks selectable styles for XP once the time period is over. I went from 10th grade to adulthood on that game and didn’t always have the time to finish events. The fact that you can still see the styles in the locker with a lock over it is messed up 😂

You are so right they should really just make all battle passes not expire

GTA online. Fucking hell, don’t even know where the enjoyment comes from anymore. Buying a car to drive to another poorly designed repetitive mission

Not only battle passes ruin my gaming sessions but also my life