McDoot
BACKER
Bio
If I stopped playing DOTA2 I would have cleared my backlog by now.
If I stopped playing DOTA2 I would have cleared my backlog by now.
Badges
GOTY '23
Participated in the 2023 Game of the Year Event
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Loved
Gained 100+ total review likes
2 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
Well Written
Gained 10+ likes on a single review
Gone Gold
Received 5+ likes on a review while featured on the front page
Shreked
Found the secret ogre page
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
GOTY '21
Participated in the 2021 Game of the Year Event
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Elite Gamer
Played 500+ games
Gamer
Played 250+ games
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
N00b
Played 100+ games
Favorite Games
918
Total Games Played
026
Played in 2024
103
Games Backloggd
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So the bastards roped me back in with hundreds of free packs, an expansion featuring the return of some of my favourite characters and I managed to make the push to legend. I'm older now, the player base is more mature, metagaming is solved quicker, easier and more definitively thanks to sites like vicious syndicate. The end-result? This isn't what I was playing when I was booting up the game everyday to complete my dailies when I was 14. This isn't the game that me and my friends would play when we would mirror match up Legendary Priest. This isn't even naxxramas.
I don't know what happened. I usually play a weekend of a league, finish the campaign in one day and then spend the next two days playing maps until I am satisfied, bricking my character in some YOLO move to stop myself from feeling like I have to keep playing and then move onto other games until the next season comes around. But this time it was different. I realised that I could complete (almost) all of the league challenges. Have they always been this straightforward? who knows. I reached level 100 for the first time, had a hinekora’s lock drop for me, managed to afford a headhunter, cleared 38/40 of the seasonal challenges to unlock all of the "free" MTX outfits (rip the final totem reward), levelled a 2nd magic-find character and then decided I was done.
I started watching Noah Caldwell-Gervais' Diablo Franchise Retrospective in the background during early maps and I was positively mental stimulated by his discussions of casino psychology, skinner boxes and how they relate to loot-driven RPGs - specifically the idea of an addict sitting a slot machine all day, not because they think they will win big, but because the world around them can fade away to be only the wheels spinning in front of them.
I laughed at the time, but after some 100 hours of playtime in just under two weeks, I understand that sensation deeply. Path of Exile is the most finely tuned slot machine to ever exist and thankfully, for the most part, it doesn’t require credits to spin the wheel, only your hard earned time.
The most insulting part for myself is that Necropolis isn’t even that good of a league! I graveyard crafted one(!) good item, sold any allflames for profit and then spent the rest of my playtime mad that I couldn’t disable corpse drops or atleast hide them without clicking a tiny button on their massive UI tombstone. I quit affliction much sooner because I had FOMO from picking the wrong build and atlas strategy but I now realise that anything can make profit (at least with the new atleast/scarab set up introduced in this league). Running Harvest, Heist, Incursion and selling the outcomes lets you get such a steady source of income that you feel more like a business mogul than a gambling addict.
5 I can quit anytimes out of 5.
I started watching Noah Caldwell-Gervais' Diablo Franchise Retrospective in the background during early maps and I was positively mental stimulated by his discussions of casino psychology, skinner boxes and how they relate to loot-driven RPGs - specifically the idea of an addict sitting a slot machine all day, not because they think they will win big, but because the world around them can fade away to be only the wheels spinning in front of them.
I laughed at the time, but after some 100 hours of playtime in just under two weeks, I understand that sensation deeply. Path of Exile is the most finely tuned slot machine to ever exist and thankfully, for the most part, it doesn’t require credits to spin the wheel, only your hard earned time.
The most insulting part for myself is that Necropolis isn’t even that good of a league! I graveyard crafted one(!) good item, sold any allflames for profit and then spent the rest of my playtime mad that I couldn’t disable corpse drops or atleast hide them without clicking a tiny button on their massive UI tombstone. I quit affliction much sooner because I had FOMO from picking the wrong build and atlas strategy but I now realise that anything can make profit (at least with the new atleast/scarab set up introduced in this league). Running Harvest, Heist, Incursion and selling the outcomes lets you get such a steady source of income that you feel more like a business mogul than a gambling addict.
5 I can quit anytimes out of 5.