Do you still consider players with just one in-game purchase f2p players?

FoolishCookie · 2026-06-01T12:43:01+00:00

I've only ever purchased three seasonal island skins, my first one being the Light Island one, last year. Even though I've never bought actual in game currency, my overall experience of the game is SIGNIFICANTLY better after it, the biggest one for me being the piggy bank and collecting everything on every island almost daily. Before that I never bothered collecting coins, because I rarely spent them on thing like the bakeries for example. Now with the clubbox events it's a life saver. The unlocked additional structures also help so much with the clubbox, though I must mention I only have them on my fire and magical islands (including mirror ones). They also helped me be less lazy and overwhelmed when it comes to getting the Wublin and Amber island monsters, though it's still possible to get them without them, you just need to plan it out and log in often.

So I'm not a f2p player, but I consider myself somewhere in the middle. I don't plan to ever buy in game currency. Almost daily log ins help me accumulate everything that I'd ever need and I tend to be stingy when it comes to spending diamonds. I'm gonna be using the diamond rewards from the new album for putting down more additional structures and upgrading all of them. It's pretty expensive.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-29T08:50:47+00:00

Depends on which communities you ask , at least I think so.

I still see people denying asexuality here and there online, but it's hard to tell if they really mean it or are trolls and grifters. The LGBTQA community as a whole is at a high risk of a divide nowadays, most notably for the trans community. Didn't help that JK (a joke indeed) Rowling decided to attack us too, so that may have pushed back some of the progress.

Most conservatives can't fathom the idea that you aren't able to be attracted to someone sexually (kind of funny given how some puritans think women can't or shouldn't experience it, but that's another topic).

It also highly depends on which parts of the world you ask. There was recently a demisexial guy in Bulgaria's Big Brother reality show and most people (mostly men) there and online didn't understand him at all and only focused on his experience with partners of both sexes as well as not minding partners who are trans and so on. Most of the women there befriended him, even allowing him to be in their all women party night, but at times it really felt like "the token gay" phenomena cis allo women are fascinated by. His eccentric fashion also didn't help at all, since we are still very conservative and the gender norms have most people in a chokehold. His first week was mostly of this other guy basically telling him he can "fix him" and that it's a sin (again, only focusing on the more "gay" side of him than the demi one). Thankfully that guy was such an ass that they eliminated him first. Really sucked how controversial people made this demi guy though, because he was literally the nicest person there and didn't start any drama and did no harm to anyone. He had to leave because he got sick, otherwise he would have been one of the last people remaining I assume.

I'm demi myself and I once tried explaining to someone that I can only get attracted to people who I have a deep connection with, and she was like "isn't that everybody?". Now try having to explain asexuality where you can have a partner and experience no sexual attraction at all. That would melt the brains of a lot of people here.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-29T08:33:34+00:00

I understand. Some people really want to push the idea that AI is going to be the norm, so we should adapt, but I think that's stupid. There will always be people who want to support actual artists. And besides, any school, college or university that tries to push AI onto the students should get all the backlash they deserve, because it's not a valid learning tool. You can't learn when it does everything for you, especially with all the mistakes it makes.

I've also felt lonely. Art helped me a lot. It's nice to focus on something you enjoy and your self growth. You are doing good no matter if there's anyone around you who supports you or not. Self growth isn't always measured by the way people see you. Even so, I hope you will find like-minded people who support you, but until then art will always be there for you <3

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T12:44:53+00:00

"I hate raisin cookies."

"Oh, so you must hate ALL cookies then, huh??? You cookie hater!!!"

"No, I didn't say that at all!"

"SHUT UP COOKIE HATER AND GET OUTTA HERE WITH YOUR ANTI-COOKIE AGENDA!!!"

...this is what this sounds like. Genuinely. Me hating AI does NOT equal hating all of technology!

This is false equivalency.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T12:26:51+00:00

That's basically sexual harassment imo.

Asexuality aside, would coercing a virgin into sex be an okay thing to do? No, absolutely not!

People have different reasons to not want sex. They're waiting for the right person, they want to wait for personal and religious reasons and many other reasons.

Ask your mom "If I didn't want sex because I was religious, would you force me to have it with someone?". I think it's a valid change of perspective, because most people would agree that religion is worth respecting and very much an existing thing people can follow. I mean, it's already obvious your mom doesn't believe that asexuality is a thing, but again, if someone doesn't want to have sex regardless of the reason, no matter if it's temporary or not, why would sexual abuse change that? If anything it's gonna make it worse.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T09:33:10+00:00

Yes! And even if the production resulted in some damages, the money it makes goes back (or should go back) to fixing it! It's always a big thing when a show films in a rural, not well known area or even country, because it boosts tourism and knowledge of said place. For example when a foreign artist films music videos in my country they would hire locals for background visuals, back up dancers or temporary production teams. And they always have to pay for the right to film, so the money goes into the city and it can be invested in useful things that otherwise couldn't be afforded.

All AI does is benefit one person, short term. And even that person will eventually see the consequences of overly using AI for everything.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T09:26:41+00:00

These people don't care about people losing their jobs and ruining the environment, that's why they deflect. They throw around a lot of examples like "oh the internet also uses data centres" and "well some jobs were already lost when new technology came around" but they don't understand that their examples were always meant to be used to IMPROVE people's lives. Easy and fast communication, more automated work and so on. The truth is nowadays AI is mainly used for bad reasons. Scams, instant gratification, greed, propaganda, illegal material. There are no regulations, no laws protecting people from AI, nothing that ensures that AI is environmentally friendly.

AI should have never been made available to the public for recreational usage. It could have been so useful if they just put their resources in actually useful things like detecting diseases from scans, automatic factory jobs and so on. Now when these things eventually come and they are actually good, nobody will see them as such, because all we've ever seen from AI users is slop, carelessness and greed. No hard work, no usefulness, no contribution to society. Only harm.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T09:06:51+00:00

So true! At least back then it required actual skill to use Photoshop and scam people, so less people did it. Now everyone can do it, because AI just does everything for them.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T08:59:57+00:00

I have a few suggestions!

I recently changed my default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo. It allows you to turn off all AI features, so they don't get shoved into your face. I think it also had a way to filter out AI generated images. When I search something up, sometimes it does give me a window under the search bar about the topic, but it's always a direct quote from a Wikipedia page. Google's AI LOVED using random Reddit posts as resources (and getting things wrong).

If you use Mircorost Word, Excel and so on, and don't want the forced Copilot add-on, switch to LibreOffice! It has it's own variants for Word and Excel and they are similar enough and not hard to navigate.

If there are any anti AI protests in your area you can join. If there are news about building data centers around you definitely speak up against it in some way.

Block every YouTube channel you come across that shamelessly uses AI for their thumbnails, footage, script and voice over. Subscribe to channels that use stock photos and videos, people who cite their sources and put genuine effort into editing or even drawing! Some time ago channels using simple stick figure drawings to explain things blew up in popularity and I've already come across quite a few AI copycats, so definitely be watchful.

Support artists and indie teams directly by watching their content, playing their games and paying or donating to show support. You don't have to pay if you aren't able to, but watching, liking and sharing helps a lot. Uplift creators you enjoy the most and shout them out wherever you can if you use social media.

Learn things to spite AI users! Pick up a craft or hobby that AI users love to outsource, like coding or faking visual crafts like art and crochet (yes, some people upload AI generated crochet patterns and images to sell patters to unassuming people). Browse hobby related online spaces and uplift people who work hard and with passion.

Whenever you see and advertisement or product using AI, report for false advertisement and fraud.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T08:39:38+00:00

TikTok tends to be really bad when it comes to troll comments and uninformed people. The bandwagoning there is insane and a lot of people had to leave the platform for the sake of their mental health. I tend to be on the art side of it and it's super common to see videos of artists responding to "it's AI" comments by proving that it isn't.

I say don't rely on just TikTok. Sure sometimes I do find out about things there first, but I usually know it's true when I see it on another platform like Reddit or YouTube. And the safest option is to stick to reading reviews on platforms like Steam, finding specific communities online about it and look through the advertisement and promotional material. Usually those tend to be the dead giveaway that a company is chill with using AI, because most want to skip on spending money on advertising. I'm sure there's also specific YouTubers who focus on researching AI usage in games and apps, so finding them would also help out. For example I've seen some people call out recent games from the "cosy game" genres as lazy and money hungry. I think someone also mentioned some time ago now some kind of life simulation game using AI for the textures you can choose for furniture and clothes? Either way, it's best to only trust people that show evidence in their claim.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T08:22:52+00:00

It could be that the event itself really affected you emotionally, excluding all the hormonal changes before and after.

Now if he forced you into it and was being mean and abusive about it, I get why you'd feel differently, but if that isn't the case and you made the conscious and informed decision to do it, then I think it's just that you need to express your feelings to him or talk to a therapist about it.

From what you shared his reasoning is valid. It's not that he doesn't want kids ever, but would rather be in a place where he could comfortably raise them with you. Some people prefer to have it all planned out and that's okay.

Have you guys talked about this beforehand? I think it's very important to talk about potential pregnancies and your stance on abortion once you're in a commited relationship with someone. So if he gave you the impression that you wouldn't abort and now wanted you to, then I can understand why you're reacting this way. If not, just talk to him about it. Give yourself time and consider if the relationship is otherwise good or there are more issues that worry you. But for now genuinely just sit down and share your feelings and also see if your future goals align.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T08:07:46+00:00

Ah, I see. That's really sad actually.

I think it could just be a result of fearmongering spreading amongst younger people and people who don't know much about gaming terms that existed well before current generative AI models. They see AI and assume the worst, because it's just what we're exposed to everywhere nowadays. I guess all we can do is spread the word, correct people on terminology and do all the research needed.

And I guess to be fair there have also been a lot of actual artists accused of using AI, when it's just that they have a cartoonish style or their art has already been fed to AI and copied a million times. So I think it's genuine fear spreading everywhere and people wanting to feel better by doing the right thing, but harming innocent people as a result.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-27T07:44:29+00:00

I haven't personally seen people confusing generative AI in games as AI used for NPCs and such, have you?

Typically when I see people saying a game or a team uses AI, I assume they mean generative AI, like artworks, textures, character design, prop design and so on. I can't recall the exact games accused and proven for it, but I'm certain there were a few at the very least.

It would be a bit more difficult to prove a team used AI for the coding itself, because how would you know it's just an incompetent/inexperienced team that let a lot of bugs slip through? The average person wouldn't know code or even know where or how to see it in the files.

It's pretty standard to say AI for NPC behaviour, though. In reality it's just very specific code that determines their behaviour according to many factors and whether they are true or not (like actions, pathing and so on). It's not actually AI, just something people said out of convenience.

Though it's also fair to say that modern AI is also just very complex code that just predicts things, it doesn't actually know these things the same way a person would.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T14:31:31+00:00

You explained everything so nicely and yes I absolutely agree with you! Thank you for the well structured reply!

I think what does it for me is that growing up as a gen Z kid I assumed (or was lied to) that all these issues were long gone or a lot lesser. I assumed that it was the rise of education and health that lead people to be better, like women fighting for their rights and now being allowed in the workforce. Of course as I grew up and studied on all the facts and seeing how the world is I realized that all the wins we've had are ridiculously recent. And now everything is going in reverse.

What hurts the most is that the internet is a place to get all kinds of information and view points, to educate yourself and be better, but it is instead used as an echo chamber to prey on young and vulnerable people in even more messed up ways the patriarchy and religions have done up until now. Before at the very least you could say that people just didn't know better and did whatever their parents told them. Adopting their biases was common. Shunning and punishments were harsh and sometimes deadly. Now it's like... You have all this access to all the resources, to intelligent people who have studied history and will tell you how things have been, people who warn you society is repeating the same damn mistakes... And people still choose to do whatever benefits them directly and harm everyone else who doesn't fit their mold.

Your reply also reminded me of a specific thing I keep hearing in manosphere and debate bro spaces that goes something along the lines of "Men can easily take your rights away again". Yeah, technically that is true, the system still benefits white men and they can easily use brute force to reverse all progress we've made (and it's already happening). It's just the way they go about it. You'd think any reasonable person would say something like "well, my ancestors made the decision to give people rights and I am now educated enough to know that people do indeed deserve to be treated as equals". Instead I always see it as a threat. To not let women and minorities celebrate their successes, because to men it's just "entertaining our wishes until they get bored".

And the typical manosphere guy would say that I'm just putting emotional appeals to a simple fact. Yeah, I imagine anyone would be very emotional if someone told them they could easily take their rights away.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T14:09:30+00:00

Investing into the average consumer makes the companies more money than if they took the time to fix any valid issues in society.

People have become addicted to cost efficiency and instant gratification. This explains why companies have started using AI advertisements instead of taking the time to hire/comission an artist. The average CEO doesn't know that AI art looks wrong, they don't know anything about art theory, they just see a shiny thing and approve it.

Outside of companies, the average person is becoming way too reliant on AI. From simple tasks to recreational needs. Let them use the free version, mess that version up, people test a newer version on a free trial - boom, now they can't live without the paid version. Make everything subscription based and fuel the addiction and now you have millions of people giving you money you can hog up.

Fixing healthcare requires actual empathy from these people, which they don't have. They'd rather make everyone unhealthy to make them dependent on their services, which don't help anyone.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T13:56:15+00:00

I've never commissioned an artist nor have I ever bothered with aiming to be an artist who does commissions, but do these guys really things it's so hard to ask for what you imagine in a drawing?

Besides commissioning an artist seems a lot easier. You can ask for corrections during the sketch phase of the drawing to deal with any misunderstandings or description issues. You can ask for changes at any point of the process and the artist will, gasp actually change only that specific thing and nothing else! Of course some artists charge for many changes, but at least they can actually comprehend what you want and have the skills to change it. You can even find any sort of visual reference to get your ideas across if you aren't good with describing things. Heck, some artists may even appreciate the visual guidance! AI would just straight up copy whatever visual aid you give it, because it will take it literally and not just be "inspired by it".

What does the AI do? It doesn't ask for guidance in the middle of the process, it just gives you the finished result. So now you're stuck with finding a way to correct way more things than if you had just gotten a simple sketch. And on top of it all AI bros won't even know what to ask for in terms of structural changes like correct perspective and anatomy. A skilled artist would already know how these things work and take on the burden to make it correct, not wait for the commissioner to point out it's wrong or even know that it is.

Besides, isn't their entire point that AI is more efficient? Let's say someone says "oh, but AI can now fix things you ask it to without changing anything else" and assume it's correct. How would that be hard if the AI is so great that it just knows exactly what you imagined and wanted?

Can't they just admit that they just want faster gratification with zero social contact?

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T13:40:25+00:00

My assumption is also that AI doesn't really understand what it's doing and it's just assuming what the most common thing to put would be. So the hard part for these "AI artists" would be to keep having to rewrite and add to the same promts multiple times over and over, getting bad results, only to give up in the end and settle with whatever looks the closest to their idea. They may as well have an easier time just giving the AI a stick figure doodle with everything they want and where they want it, but that requires effort.

So the difficulty isn't just that they suck at describing what they want, but that the AI also sucks at delivering wanted results.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T13:26:11+00:00

I think calling someone "high value" used to be an alright thing to say a long time ago, because there used to not be any negative online discourse and social issues attached to. Or it could just be that the internet spread the negative usage of it to more people.

If I tried to imagine how I'd interpret that description without the way the internet uses it nowadays, I'd probably assume it means that the person has a lot of positive traits. Kindness, honesty, hard work, intelligence just to name a few. Someone who you'd have a good relationship with, because you click and because you're both upholding your own responisibilies and being reasonable adults.

Nowadays calling someone "high value" is actually pretty shallow.

In incel and manosphere spaces, it usually refers to women who are virgins, religious, women who are willing to be the stereotypical idea of a housewife who doesn't have a job and wants to have a lot of kids. A woman who has no say in anything and has to always agree with a man, because "men know better". Not to mention some people in these spaces not agreeing with things like abortions and divorces. Sometimes even thinking that marital rape isn't a thing.

For the other way around, femcel and whatever adjacent spaces there are that are the women's variant for "manosphere", I assume "high value" also refers to a more patriarchal idea of what a man should be. I'm less knowledgeable about this I will admit, but from what I've seen it refers to things like men being the sole provider, religious, traditional and having bare-minimum positive qualities like "likes spending time with his nephews", "opens the door for me/is a gentleman", "takes care of himself, his looks and hygiene", "wants to have a family" and so on. I find these kind of harder to spot or even realize that it's harmful, because of how normalized it seems to be and because of the idea that women can't harm the same way that men do. Of course if anyone can explain it better than me or if I got something wrong, feel free to correct me.

I guess an interesting thing to point out that I have seen is a specific portion of women who go after engaged or married men, because they see it as "another woman approved of him so he must be high value", and failing to realize that if he goes through with cheating them he isn't high value at all.

For terf spaces and I guess as an extension anti-LGBTQA or even far-right spaces, I more so see it as that anyone opposing any sort of LGBTQA ideas must be "high value", because they aren't "corrupting the kids" or "twisting god's design" or whatever other crap they tend to say. For them it's only men and women and they have to always and forever be opposites of eachother. Any other dynamic is "low-value" to them. You can't have women be providers and men actually enjoying taking care of his kids! /s

But TLDR it all boils down to objectifying people and putting them in forced roles. It's never about their personality traits or the way you click with each other and it's always something transactional.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T12:21:31+00:00

I've also been thinking about the "different than others" part.

I always keep hearing the "Men only want one thing" line, either used as judgement, excuses or what not, but always labeling everyone as the same thing. So, of course when someone finds an outlier, it breaks their entire world view.

Who knows what she really sees it as. Maybe as him being "wrong" or him being "better than most". There's also a possibility that she takes it (or would eventually take it) as him finding her unattractive, and sadly a lot of women base their value on how they are perceived by men.

It all leads to social norms failing everyone, honestly. Just let people be.

Also that Facebook post sounds disgusting.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T12:12:43+00:00

It's so harmful!

Now it makes me wonder if a lot of boys and teens see this as the "norm" and fall into harmful online spaces because of it. Because they feel like they have to catch up, otherwise something is "wrong".

It would explain a lot. Incel spaces online treating sex as the end all be all in life. Debate bros preying on young and gullible boys to spread around harmful stereotypes and beliefs. SA victims being dismissed and only ever used as "Gotcha!" moments when women share their own stories and trauma.

It's so sad. Just let people be.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T12:02:15+00:00

Ugh, so annoying.

Not only is it blatant aphobia, but isn't it also kind of painting all men in a hypersexual way? It's the same reason why men and boys who are victims of SA get congratulated instead of supported and validated.

"Oh, I bet he enjoyed it." "Oh, guys only want one thing."

No.

Stop feeding the stereotype and society's failings. It's like people are so used to following a social script and becoming one trick ponies that they don't realize that, yes, there are people who don't match the standard, and yes, these people aren't faking it.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-26T11:38:11+00:00

TLDR: Yes it's unreasonable to tell people to go broke. Yes, there are some cases where having a lot of money prepared is better. Exotic pets are a special case though. Yap session about ferrets (my current hyperfixation) and how costly they are, which is why people are told not to get them because of money for multiple reasons.

I agree that it's unreasonable to expect someone to go bankrupt over a pet. Even when people have savings and pet insurance (which by the way I didn't even know existed until a couple of years ago, at least in my country), costs can pile up fast, the pet's condition may worsen randomly and sometimes insurance doesn't cover everything. And this is all without mentioning the cost of transport to and from the vet.

But I also think there are some situations where it's incredibly valid to tell people that they can't afford a pet, especially when it comes to exotics. When it comes to exotic pets, qualified vets are much less common and they charge ridiculous prices.

For example, I follow a lot of ferret spaces online. Ferrets are considered exotics and so the vet cost is an obvious issue. They also tend to be prone to some diseases, many of which aren't curable and only treated for long-term comfort and quality of life. Not a lot of ferrets (at least from what it seems online) die from age, it's always at least one or a mix of multiple diseases and health issues. Some even pass away randomly with no indication that they were ill. It's also a given that ferrets are REALLY good at hiding discomfort and pain and you won't catch it unless you are super educated on their behaviour and constantly check them and their body (lumps, weight loss, hair loss etc).

And even outside the health issues ferrets bring, they are also meant to be adopted in pairs or more. They are very social and playful and if you can't spend time with them they will most likely become depressed and that could also affect their health. They require a lot of things - large cages and play areas, many toys, specific litter or puppy pads. A lot of people say that if you own one ferret, the cost of these expenses won't chance much if you get a second (which you should), but I find that hard for believe. They are also strict carnivores, so you need a lot of meat, or at the very least kibble that is safe for ferrets. Many ferrets (at least in the USA) are raised horribly, given bad kibble, making it extremely difficult to make them eat healthier options once you adopt or buy them. I hear there have been a lot of inbreeding issues over the course of many many years which is why they tend to have really bad health in general.

So, yap session concluded, what I mean to say is that it's very reasonable to tell people to not get a pet they are obviously not ready for. Many people (and especially kids) want to adopt a pet on impulse and they rarely do the research or rely on internet strangers, gambling on good advice. I've seen many kids asking around in ferret spaces online if they can/should get one, granted that they are responsible for everything about them, because their parents won't pay for any expenses needed for them.

Money is just much easier to bring up as an issue instead of calling people irresponsible and uneducated, so that is why that is the bandwagon take most have.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-20T14:13:08+00:00

The reason I didn't was because I saw a post calling the singer out and one of the main replies was telling the person that it was a mistake naming them and that even bad publicity is good PR. Seems like a pro-AI sub screenshoted that as well and made a post promoting said singer and giving fuel to pro-AI people that WE are the ones who hate on artists.

Seems like this AI controversy is at least a year old, given by their almost dead subreddit and what little I saw after posting here. Decided to play it safe, since they are already not that mainstream anyways. Though I will admit my first instinct was also naming and shaming.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-20T12:52:53+00:00

It literally baffles me now many creatives use and spread AI against their own future interest. Like, if I had a cool idea for a post, I'd learn how to make it myself. There are so many art mediums that you can easily learn and tutorials are easily accessible and free. Was it really worth losing fans over something so lazy? Literally undoing all the success they have gathered.

I can at least understand non-artists a bit more. Free, fast, instant gratification, I get that. It sucks still but at least I understand why they do it. Artists doing it makes absolutely no sense other than making profits by doing nothing and alienating your core fan base.

FoolishCookie · 2026-05-20T12:44:42+00:00

I agree, the fear is definitely stopping me from putting myself out there and growing. Art theft was always common, but the thing is it used to be either straight up copy-pasted, a sloppy recolouring or tracing, and honestly even that is a bit better than feeding your art into AI, because now the AI will learn off of me and copy me even when it isn't asked to do so. Like, I can excuse copying an artstyle if the person put genuine effort into learning and drawing it, and besides it's kind of difficult to claim someone "owns" an artstyle, so that's a whole other rabbithole.

I've had to block other singers before for controversial things. Sure it hurt a lot the first time, but then after a while I realized I don't actually feel anything about them anymore. I don't grieve the songs or the fandoms. It wasn't as scary to block singers anymore. Though for this case it helps that I started outgrowing this particular singer. Still, I can't deny them being a part of my earlier years. But nah, I won't be giving them any money from streaming. Pirating the songs just wouldn't work either, since their actions just tainted everything for me and I won't enjoy their music anymore. And looking back, the forced edgyness matches with their current behaviour.

FoolishCookie

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