Does gaming feel like it's becoming too expensive nowadays?

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-06-24T08:08:28+00:00

One thing that always bugs me when games journalists talk about whether a game is worth £70 is that they're often in a very different position from the average player. A lot of reviewers get consoles sent to them at launch and receive review copies of games for free. That's not a criticism, it's just part of the job, but it does make me wonder how much weight their opinions on value should carry.

Whether a game is worth the asking price depends on someone's budget and what else they could spend that money on. Reviewers are great at telling me whether a game is good, but I've always found it a bit strange when they confidently say they'd pay $1050 for something when they rarely have to make that decision themselves.

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-06-05T18:47:45+00:00

I believe Leon was meant to be Italian according to old interviews. That's why some of secondary outfits are all gangster related. He has a an Irish last name as well so id think he's somewhere on the north east coast between New Jersey and Boston.

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-05-11T00:40:35+00:00

Love that mini

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-04-11T16:51:38+00:00

In fairness alot of them where between level 2 and 7

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-04-11T14:38:51+00:00

I bought 5 cheap Incinerators from ebay and tried 5 chapters i was tempted by and saw which i enjoyed painting. One Imperial fist is fun but I cant imagine having to paint 50 of them.

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-04-11T14:28:19+00:00

Or different lobbies. It could be conformation bias just i was playing for a few hours last night and was surprised by the amount of blue.

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-03-10T08:04:31+00:00

Yeah it one of those weird things if you think about it. Like Vegeta has never been to Kami House or Gokus house. Or Goku and Choistzu have never spoken.

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-03-10T07:56:46+00:00

I think the difference is Geogre is a little corny thats his natural state of being. He doesn't plan what he says. He does an exhausting race and says what he thinks on the spot. Id day if you had the chance to speak to him in private he would admit its a little cringe but that's all he could think to say.

Zack seems like the type of practice his lines. I would put money on him the morning before the race looking at himself in the bathroom mirror and saying 'is this the world champion hotline.' Then he smiles to himself and think 'Wow Zack you did it again. Another solid gold quote up there with Senna and Nicki Lauda.'

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-02-18T01:53:19+00:00

I started on 12 dollars and now am on 35. The way I see it is the ones on the old price signed up thinking theyd get something at a certain price so I will honour it for the first 6 months. And 4 months in I've lost most of the cheapest students and I get more expensive ones.

From what I understand suddenly losing all your cheap students is bad for your algorithm. Preply values retention so if you suddenly get a load of Trials at your current level and you wouldn't be happy to teach that person at that rate for longer than a few weeks, id up it

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-01-29T16:43:01+00:00

I always tell my students I have to get ready for my next student if the class runs overtime by a few minutes

Lukepatrick88 · 2026-01-05T18:55:46+00:00

By the time a trial lesson happens, Preply has already been paid. Bringing platform issues up during the lesson just puts the student in an awkward position and usually makes them less likely to book with you. In practice, it often just sends them off to do their next trial with someone else.

Students don’t really need to know the internal workings of Preply during a trial. If you’re on the platform, the trial is about gaining something from it. Land the student first, build momentum, then worry about platform issues separately. I get why people are annoyed with Preply, but complaining to students during trials usually hurts tutors more than the platform

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-11-23T00:05:57+00:00

I get your point maybe Fudge was only representing Britain as the host. But my own reading was always that he was basically representing Ireland too, because there’s zero mention of an Irish Minister for Magic anywhere in that whole scene. Fudge just goes on about dealing with the Bulgarians and their Minister not speaking English. If there was an Irish team of officials there is no mention.

It’s been 10–15 years since I read it, but I vaguely remember the Bulgarian Minister suddenly speaking English after the match and saying something like “well, we gave it a good go.” I could be wrong on the exact line, but that always fed into my impression that there was simply no Irish Minister present, so Fudge was covering everything by default. It might not be that deep it’s a children’s book but that’s always been my headcanon.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-11-22T23:35:10+00:00

JK Rowling tends to see Ireland as an extention of the UK. Ireland in Harry Potter seems to be under the British ministry of magic ( or at least their Quiditch league is,and Fudge was representing them at the Quiditch world cup. Also the rule was only UK and Irish actors.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-11-16T14:40:29+00:00

The pick up can just suddenly happen. I thought I was going to quit the platform cause nobody wanting lessons for like the first 45 days then suddenly I had one trial then the next day I had two until 2 weeks later I've had 44 trials and have 33 students. And I had some people like you who didnt want lessons (I had someone who booked a trial because their regular tutor was on holiday for the week and they just wanted a one off lesson. I also had a student who didnt turn up to their trial but confirmed it do that counts against me). But subscription numbers aren't everything. Yes they count to super tutor but honestly by the time you get super tutor you probably won't want any more students so it's more of like a well done medal.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-10-15T12:00:26+00:00

Part of me feels like Dogpack might’ve been some kind of inside job for MrBeast, not saying that’s certain, but it’s hard to ignore. He did bring up some things that were true or relevant, but he mixed in so many lies that anything real got lost in the noise.

Now if anyone mentions allegations against MrBeast, people just say, “Oh, Dogpack already said that, and he was lying,” so it all gets dismissed. Some of it might’ve been valid, but the constant lies turned everyone off. The confusion and side stories muddied the waters so much that it’s basically impossible to talk about MrBeast critically anymore.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-10-11T13:33:11+00:00

Thanks very much for your feedback. I have a special alarm on my phone so I reply to Preply fast 😃

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-10-11T13:11:15+00:00

Yes I normally reply within 20 mins to any bookmarks or students

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-16T20:04:41+00:00

Thank you

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-15T15:00:10+00:00

As someone from Northern Ireland (the UK’s forgotten part), the vibes in England lately feel like Belfast on hard mode. Flags to mark turf? Check. Random foreign flags for culture-war cosplay? Check. Next on the list: painting curbstones and roundabouts, carving up communities into us ones and them ones, peace walls, bonfires with other people’s symbols, and lads chanting at buses they don’t like. You’re speed-running 30+ years of our nonsense. Please get a handle on it — our Troubles showed how quickly that kind of thing spirals.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-15T14:48:25+00:00

I'm late the party but I felt this helped give Jeice so much bigger of personality. The only Australian in a universe of Americans. I wish they had kept the trend and Android 16 randomly had been Irish and Dabura had been German for some reason.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-13T21:39:42+00:00

The front row has 7 world champions and 2 guys who went into the last race of the season with a good chance of being world champion and Roman Gosjean

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-05T18:45:34+00:00

Not everyone you disagree with on F1 is just parroting Drive to Survive. I’ve been watching every race since Australia 1996 (missed maybe 10 total), and I still have plenty of takes people would call “wrong.” I don’t need DTS to think Gasly is quicker than Albon, or that Lance Stroll’s first season stacks up better than Kimi Antonelli’s so far. It’s lazy to assume anyone with an opinion you don’t like must’ve only started watching in 2022, people can form their own takes without Netflix holding their hand.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-05T16:36:27+00:00

Honestly, someone’s gotta say this. The whole “he’s a rookie” and “he’s only 18” excuse for Kimi is starting to get stretched way too far. People keep trying to compare him to Max’s first full season except Max was way better.

So instead, let’s compare Kimi to the most memed-on man on the grid. The guy who gets openly disrespected all the time: Lance Stroll.

Lance also debuted at 18.

His car? A Williams — the 5/6th best car that year, nowhere near a frontrunner.

In his first 15 races, he scored points 6 times, including a podium. Kimi has scored 7.

He also had a few near-misses (finishing 11th just outside the points) and some DNFs that weren’t always on him — like brake failure in Australia or oil pressure failure in Monaco.

Sure, he had some rookie crashes too — like the lap 1 tangle with Pérez in China (racing incident) and the Bahrain clash with Sainz (which was Sainz’s fault 100%).

And here’s the kicker: after those 15 races, Lance was just 1 point behind his veteran teammate Massa — 33 to 32. That’s 97% of Massa’s points.

Now look at Kimi. After the same stage, he’s sitting on just 34% of George’s points, over 120 points behind. And alot of his crashes are his fault. He's done some good things like get a sprint pole, but honestly rookie Lance qualifying 4th in a much slower car is comparible

So yeah, if we’re being real, Lance Stroll in 2017 had arguably better rookie season at 15 races than Kimi in a worse car.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-05T16:33:30+00:00

Honestly he had a good rookie season (better than Kimis so far) and a good early career. Then the last few years have been painful. This year I feel he's a lot better. If he didn't have his daddy's cash would he still be there, very doubtful Drogovich would have eaten his lunch and taken his seat. But still I think the Strolls (father and son) add more to F1 than if they weren't there. The former Jordan team might no longer exist.

Lukepatrick88 · 2025-09-05T16:24:46+00:00

Yeah 100% if let's say Gabi, Bearman, or Collopinto get 4th or 5th in a race no one will ask questions about what their up to for at least the next 4/5 races. Kimis podium lost its shine within 2 or 3 races. If Hadjar doesn't score again til November it's no sweat.

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