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Corroded @leminal.space

What games have you played due to FOMO?

FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out.

I've tried playing some JRPGS because they are considered classics and detective games like LA Noire before realizing the genre just wasn't for me.

I've also been stuck in the mentality of if I want to play a game in a series I need to play the prior games. I'm doing this currently for Deus Ex, the Witcher, and Splinter Cell. I guess I'd consider that FOMO to a degree.

Edit: I meant FOMO as in the fear of missing out on something relevant. Not necessarily something that is intentionally being time limited like raids or micro transactions.

89 comments

  • That's not what fomo means. I have a bad case of FOMO right now with Genshin Impact. I genuinely like the game, but it forces me to login twice a day with the resin system (basically energy that accumulates over time), otherwise it caps and I lose progress. Also a lot of their content is in the form of limited time events. They do this for the obvious reason of it being extremely profitable. This is why you should be very cautious about getting into live service games.

    • Welp, I was interested in trying GI until reading this.

    • The only live service game I have and likely will ever allow myself to play is Another Eden, ostensibly a mobile gacha but unlike any others in that genre (and yet... not entirely if you know what I mean:-D - it is less predatory than any modern game that allows in-app purchases that I've ever even heard of but that aspect is not entirely absent from it). It hits the JRPG nostalgia feel for being a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger and Cross, made by some of the same developers actually, and the artwork and music especially are just gorgeous.:-D

      And ironically, many people complain bitterly that they want it to be more like GI, with a pity system. Never mind that the gacha can be irrelevant here as you can do everything purely with the free characters (and more effort, especially JP-style i.e. heavy grinding), the FOMO salt is real, and I see now that games are just giving the people what they want, regardless of whether that's good for them or not. On the one hand it keeps further game development going, and people are free to spend how they please, while on the other there are horror stories of people dropping hundreds or even thousands of dollars (I think even USD $ currency), while having little to show for it in the end.

      Predatory is predatory, and while on the one hand I'd love to check out GI someday, on the other I just don't think I could stand the gacha elements in it. It warps and twists EVERYTHING it touches, e.g. increasing pressure to make waifu/husbando portraits that objectify both women and men in it, and leads to content that looks visually appealing but in Another Eden at least, has not been tested and is not "fun" to play.

      The funny part is that originally I had to choose between GI and AE, and I am so glad that I went the way that I did. Although probably better to avoid any such gacha at all in the future.:-|

      • To be fair, a pity system should definitely be a thing if there's any sort of gamba. That way there's at least a hard limit on what you can waste your money on until it's guaranteed. I at least find GI characters not to be too predatory, you mostly pull them for fun. In fact some of the best characters are the starting 4 stars lol, and you pull cuz you like the character a lot. They really develop the characters a lot, and if you've seen any comic cons or anime conventions, you'll see an insane amount of Genshin cosplays cuz they suck you in by really loving the characters. The gameplay is honestly so easy you absolutely don't need a good character, and it's actually incredibly balanced. The earliest characters released are actually still S tier because they fucked up the balance a bit with them so the new characters are still good but more niche focused, so everything is still relevant.

        The only hard content is what's called the spiral abyss, which is a completely optional dungeon that rotates every 2 weeks and 100% clearing it gives you like 5 free gacha rolls, so people really just use it to bench mark characters since nothing else in the game is remotely challenging, nor is there any pvp aspect or anything.

        But yeah, also Gacha and live service games tend to be a drug, once they have you hooked it's hard to quit. Sunk cost fallacy is real hard to overcome in gacha games.

    • You really don't "need" to login twice a day. A single extra domain/boss drop isn't going to completely make or break any content in the game. Even spiral abyss is only 2ish extra gacha pulls if you are really pushing it. Which again, won't make or break any content in the game.

      A huge amount of the event stuff is totally skippable, some minor lore here and there can be watched on YouTube, there are sometimes event weapons, but the majority of those aren't even that much better than other permanently avaible ones, and certainly not over weapon banners.

      I've been playing GI for almost a year, and it has been an absolute blast. I do the content I care about, skip stuff I dont. Its a fantastically fun game, that I can pop in go hunting for chests for an hour or two, maybe do some event minigames for pulls. If you have low self control and cannot bare to be 5% less effective in combat where you one shot everything with a single burst then it might not be a game you want to play, but for casual playing around and exploring the world fighting random monsters for happy treasure chest sounds, it has been an absolute delight.

  • A lot of the Zelda games, for me. I tried Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask and they were not my thing. A lot of people raved about those games but I couldn’t get into them. Then there were a couple on the DS that I couldn’t get into, either.

    But then I found Wind Waker and absolutely loved it, and then loved Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (so far), too!

  • Fallout 3 was one. I had just transferred to a new college and was dorming. Several of the guys were playing FO3, so I decided to get it, even though I knew almost nothing about FO games. But I knew it'd be something to talk about with people. And it worked, even though I didn't get that far into the game. Made friends; some that 15yrs later I still talk to on occasion. As far as the game itself, I haven't played another FO since; just generally not my kinda game.

    My gaming buddies now, who I've known them for several years, have the attention span of goldfish, so I've largely stopped FOMO games purchases. I can't keep spending money on games they'll play for a week or two, or less. Though if it appears there's some longevity, then maybe I'll jump in. Barotrauma and Project Zomboid are a couple where the FOMO eventually won out, but it did pay off. We've sunk hundreds of hours into each game over the last 2-3yrs.

  • Warhammer 40,000 Darktide

    I really wanted to be in on it from the beginning to be along for the entire story as it develops, and ooh boy was that a mistake. Haven't played it since January and looking at the progress since then there isn't really much to draw me back in.

  • Overwatch was basically the only way I could socialize with my friends for a while, even though nothing about it really spoke to me. I thought for sure the allure would wear off with my friends quickly, but they stuck with it for a long, long time, until after it became Overwatch 2, though the sentiment had turned on it before that.

    I’ve also been stuck in the mentality of if I want to play a game in a series I need to play the prior games.

    I do this too. I just played through Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 before starting 3, and I already know there's at least one recurring character who will show up in this new one; it's that kind of thing that makes me want to see what came before. However, if I was playing Armored Core 6 right now (which I'm not, but if I find the time, maybe I will), I won't be compelled to play the earlier games in the series. I tried Armored Core 4 back in the day, and the story is as much as "you're a mercenary; shoot stuff". Not a whole lot lost there, and that means that the sequel is more of an upgrade to the software than it is a totally different chapter in a continuing story.

  • Pretty much any game made by Valve. I have a bunch of friends that are really fans of them and I gradually started enjoying them as well.

    • Nice. That's one of those games I wish I got into at the same time as my friends. Portal co-op looks like a lot of fun

  • Just getting back into gaming after eons. First up was Witcher 3... still working on it but damn glad I didn't miss out on it. It's been everything I had hoped for.

    RDR2 is next. I started it. Not sure.

    Stellaris was lauded on Reddit. Excellent game.

    I have been wanting to play half life 2 since I first saw it but also never played the first. Am working thru that too. It's been awesome.

    X com UFO Defense is one I played but never finished. Tried to. Fuck that game lol

    • Half Life 2 doesn't truly need the first one. It adds some context and there's some callbacks, but you can totally start with 2.

      Avoiding spoilers as much as possible, in HL1 something goes wrong at a research facility. Main character fights his way through then gets "knocked out" at the end. HL2 picks up ~20 years later after an entirely new big bad took advantage of the events in HL1 and conquered the world. MC "wakes up" and is dropped right in on a train into an occupied city.

      There's decent plot connections, but you aren't missing out on anything gameplay wise or largely plot impacting, as the game world has changed so drastically.

      All that said, if you want to play HL1 and aren't interested in it in terms of it as a tech marvel of the time it was created, you can just play Black Mesa. It's a fan remake that got the greenlight from the original creators to be sold, and by most accounts is a better experience for modern gamers.

  • Agree with other commenters: this is healthy.

    For me, I bought Elden Ring day one because the hype was real. It's a good game -- but not really my jam.

    I explored the Yakuza series for a similar reason, and I've absolutely loved that. I really want to try Ishin.

    I bought a PS4 Pro for RDR2. I stand by that decision, but I probably wouldn't go that far again.

89 comments