It used to be subscription only back in the days.

I wonder how much different it is now, compared to when the game was in closed beta.

It was a literal floating camera back then, lol.

Never played the game afterward due to subscription-based access.

3 monitors for me

Simply because I want 2 stacked on top of each other with 1 more vertical on the side for apps like Discord, Notepad, etc.

It has a lot to do with my job, though. Otherwise, I would’ve just taken 2 monitors.

Ultrawides don’t have this versatility. They are great for immersion, however.

“One that will never let me see a frame drop again?” None, that’s just how it is.

As for one that will give you a satisfactory performance? It depends.

Personally, I mainly play Beat Saber, so even my 6700xt is capable enough, despite all the shortcomings AMD has in VR.

What you want to do is check what kind of games you’re playing, what resolution you want to play them at, what amount of money you’re willing to spend, and choose the GPU that fits all of that.

Genshin Impact’s first anniversary was the most horrendous one I’ve seen.

They couldn’t even bother to send out an in-game message to congratulate the players.

What they did instead is paying thousands of dollars for Twitter emojis and dishing out a few give-away events where you had to practically advertise for the game to enter. Were you guaranteed to get any reward? No.

Essentially, instead of even acknowledging the anniversary, they made players advertise their game.

They were also supposed to introduce a paid bundle with some cosmetic items alongside a free concert stream (the concert was pretty good). But that was after the anniversary. Keep the bundle in mind, however.

What did it lead to?

• Thousands of outraged players flooded social media.
• Their discord was spammed with “qiqi fallen” emote (one of the characters laying on her back with a blank stare).
• Review bombing got to the point where even Google Classrooms became one of the casualties

I’m probably missing some other details, but this lasted for weeks.

After a long while of non-communication, the devs gave in and finally decided to give players something. This “something” turned out to be the bundle that was supposed to be paid content alongside some (read “very little”) in-game resources. There was also another another giveaway event with, this time, guaranteed rewards. The rewards were, practically, you either get a scooter or one cent. Needless to say, it left a sour taste afterward.

Honestly, it felt like a slap in the face, but it was enough for the things to start calming down.

So far, even though they’re still very stingy with any sort of rewards, they at least make sure to congratulate the players somehow and give something.

CPU 3600, Mobo b450m, GPU 6700(xt), RAM 16Gb 3200mhz

Something like this: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/WC2VTY

Comes out at 637€. A little over budget, but that’s also all new parts. It’s definitely enough for 1080p, often 1440p even.

To get the most out of the budget, I’d definitely be looking at the used market.

Definitely used 3600 for CPU. They go for very little and will pair nicely even with 3070 class cards.

Used 6700 or 6700xt for GPU, but since they aren’t as robust as CPUs, do pay closer attention to damages, dust, performance compared to benchmark, and etc.

Used case, because they don’t matter unless for looks. Just make sure it allows for air to pass through.

Heatsink can sometimes come together with CPU. I’d be spending no more than 20$ to cool this one. (However, PA120 is kinda too good to pass on, despite being overkill for the CPU).

RAM may as well be new, they aren’t very expensive. SP Xpower Turbine, Ripjaws, or Kingston Fury 2x8Gb 3200 or 3600 are all good options.

Motherboard, wouldn’t buy used. And I wouldn’t be buying the lowest chipset either. b550m DS3H would be reasonable here or b450m (“m” means mATX, which are smaller than non-m, and usually cheaper), depending on if you need the extra features of b550 chipset.

Power Supply should never be bought used, look up tier lists, and go with middle range one for reliability. 550W and over should be enough for the build. Try not to cheap out on these.

Storage, also never to be bought used. Look for M.2 NVMes. SN770 is best bang for the buck imo, but even Kingston NV2 will do fine. 256Gb is enough for OS and some additional software. Imo, that’s too little. Get at least 500Gb. Ideally, 1Tb. Mind you, you could always add more later.

Storyteller

A short but memorable puzzle-type game where you have to put together scenes and characters to create a story. Actions in previous scenes affect how characters behave or appear in later ones.

Really liked that one, it’s fun.

In my experience, the longer you type, the faster you get at typing.

That’s like getting into the rhythm. If you do it a little and then stop, then you never become proficient as you never got into that flow.

Try learning a guitar by pulling a few strings a day. Try learning to read in a different language by reading a few letters each time. Try running by taking a few steps.

Doesn’t it sound ridiculous?

Have you ever tried learning a different language? You don’t become proficient by reading one sentence, then stopping and then another one. You do it by struggling through many, and the more you do it, the faster you learn.

Note, I’m not writing this because “boohoo, bad parenting.” It’s the first essay, who cares. (although her being 13 does make me raise a brow. I’d expect it with a 7 y.o., but 13? w/e, you do you). I just think you have a misunderstanding in how learning core-level skills work. Continuous repetition is the key.

Another glaring example is how toddlers learn languages. In a span of a couple of years, they are capable of learning a language to native level with absolutely no prior knowledge, just by listening and trying to repeat the sounds day in and day out. Just think about it.

I’d also add Beyond: Two Souls to the list

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d play the hell out of BG3 when I was 12.

The amount of time I spent on TES 4 and 5 back then, and BG3 hits just the right spot with the variety of ways it allows you to play it.

Minecraft is also in my top favorites.

What I’m saying is, don’t count BG3 out completely. Not to mention that it’s very saturated, so a shorter attention span shouldn’t really be a problem, but you never know.

As for suggestions. Definitely Terraria, as others mentioned. There was also Lego Fortnite, which looks like it would fit the tastes. Maybe also party games?

Be aware that 8Gb version of 3060 is practically a different card. Think of it as 3050Ti or smth.

If you care only about games, you probably want to look at 6600xt (8Gb), 6700 (10Gb) and 6700xt (12Gb), as those offer better value than 3060, or any Nvidia card from those classes for that matter.

Also Intel A750 and A770 are an option, although you’ll have to tinker a lot more with those.

Also, since you’re budgeting your housing, you could also budget (as in save now, buy outright later) the GPU. It shouldn’t be impacting your finances much if you do that.

There are a couple ways in which its useful to me.

First is when I just want a windows-esque interface with lots of floating windows. Especially for Office apps, because they also start looking more like their Windows counterparts. Through tablet itself it may not see that much use, but when connected to an external monitor it’s really nice.

And second is when you want to separate your daily routine with work. Because Dex is visually very different you can use it as a sort of “focus mode”, which works great for me personally.

Although whenever I need to do something more demanding than Excel I tend to just remote to my home PC.

I should also mention that I am studying at a uni, so unless I need to work away from home specifically and if it’s not related to studying then Dex doesn’t get used much and I just stick to conventional means of consuming media.

But I do know people who straight up replaced their PCs with that thing, depends on your use-case scenario.

My Samsung tabled does that. Same with their phones, it’s called Dex.

You can even use the phone as a trackpad.

Pretty neat feature, I agree.

So, it’s the same idea, but not necessarily related to money? Understandable.

I’m missing one key detail here.

What are your criteria for a mechanic being predatory?

Heed to my long explanation of what I would consider predatory or not:

In my opinion, a predatory mechanic is one that is set to make you spend more money by means of obfuscation.

So, obstacles to progression, purchases with no affirmation, currency obscuring and etc.

In this way, for example, if an item can only be bought with non-tradable premium currency, the currency is predatory. However, if the currency is tradable then it isn’t predatory because it’s main purpose lies in trading and not obfuscation.

Same way gacha is also a predatory mechanic, gambling is predatory, and loot boxes. Because you don’t explicitly know what you’re getting and how much it costs you to get the thing you want.

Therefore to me a free battlepass cannot be considered predatory, as it’s main purpose is to increase level of player engagement.

I would agree, however, that making BP permanent would make it a much nicer feature. As in, you can work towards completing previous BPs you’ve missed. Otherwise it’s kinda meh. I don’t particularly like them anyways, it’s a pretty lazy way of achieving that goal.

Warframe’s “BP” system is the most non-intrusive out of all games with BP that I’ve played.

I was disappointed when saw it initially as well. But on closer inspection, it is completely free, you’re not being locked to playing on a certain week to get the missions done and, what I recently found out after years of not playing the game, is that old rewards return to BP on low levels.

This essentially makes it very easy to catch up should you choose to.

About player interactions, toxicity happens, but it happens in every online game. You can’t really expect an MMO game to not have player interactions.

I too am a little anxious when dealing with people I don’t know, but it really is not that big of a deal. If you’re actually having problems with it, consider seeking advice from a specialist.

Having an auction house, although is nice from a convenience point of view, could be going against the design of the game. A bazaar type of trading has it’s own charms, and some people may prefer it. Either one is fine with me, personally.

Most of what you’ve listed don’t sound like problems with the game itself, but rather the game being just not for you. And it is normal.

And trust me, there are quite a few problems with warframe, especially for newer players. Like the story not being explicit, you being thrown into the game with no real set goal, game mechanics not being explained properly and so on, which makes you have wiki open on the side to play the game without issues.

If we’re being completely honest, all of those are in rotation and although some items cannot be grinded for during that time, it can still be traded for, so it is not an issue.

Dailies and weeklies are here to keep you engaged. They provide some rewards, but I wouldn’t call them mandatory to progression. They’re more of a side-bonus.

Personally, whenever I’m bored of warframe I just leave. After a while new quests appear, new guns and all of the other stuff to work toward.

The best part is that whenever you return you’re pretty much at the same place as you left it off.

Hence I personally see no rush in getting all of the stuff I want. I’ve been playing this game on and off since 2013 and have yet to experience fomo with it, because of the things listed above.

Destiny, for example, is much much worse. Especially after they decided that it’s a good idea to vault planets and remove quests. Made me leave the game, I just can’t deal with it and have life stuff to do. Mind you, D2 is easily one of my most most favourite games.

Same with gacha games like Genshin or Honkai 3rd. It’s exhausting.

Didn’t have that experience with Warframe.