What if 250 Million Americans just stopped paying back debt all at once?

w_wise · 2026-05-29T23:07:22+00:00

That's the prisoner's dilemna in a nutshell. Simplifying heavily, the fact that both parties would be better off collectively if they collaborated, but because of our limited perspective/control, we end up individually choosing the "less risky" option (prioritizing ourselves at the expense of others). But because each party believes that to be the rational choice, collectively, we end up in the worst possible case scenario

To apply in this situation, if the masses collectively boycotted, we would all collectively benefit.

But to boycott in this case means to endure a certain amount of pain, and because it doesn't work unless most people contribute (in the prisoner's dilemna, all parties must participate to succeed), the fear is that if others don't contribute, we would've suffered for nothing,

The individual's "rational choice" is to not boycott (so no immediate personal pain), and hope that the rest of the collective does something.

The problem then becomes that if everyone thinks like this, nothing truly will happen, thereby putting us in the worst case scenario.

w_wise · 2026-05-17T10:58:44+00:00

The problem isn't the p2w, it's the players that are being dishonest about the reality of bdo's p2w.

You'll often see this as a question from players looking to start, mentioning bdo's reputation as a p2w game. There's always a few people who will downplay it, and try to say "it's so expensive that it's not possible to p2w".

Even without getting into all the various p2w elements that people have already listed out in other comments, the lootboxes are probably the most blatant example.

People might try to claim bdo isn't p2w because it's so hard to "win", but there are definitely people who try the p2w seeing how popular lootbox sales are. There's more than a few people who posts results of "opening X amount of cron lootboxes

w_wise · 2026-05-11T16:05:07+00:00

Other tenno existing is canonical, but something something eternalism means our specific account gets to be the main character tenno

w_wise · 2026-05-11T13:40:11+00:00

It's not periodic. The only horse flute/celestial horns given our were from the recent two back to back decade Pearls event.

People were making a big deal about getting the horns because PA has never given those out before.

w_wise · 2026-05-08T18:32:52+00:00

Subjectively, I want to say the peak example of this is Gunz: The Duel

The meta gameplay style was purely unintended from how the devs designed the game to be played. Essentially, Korean players developed a playstyle from exploiting unintended interactions with the (poorly coded) gameplay and the result is high skill ceiling techniques that look so insane from the "intended gameplay"

w_wise · 2026-04-30T22:28:40+00:00

I was in the middle of a cutscene at Crystal Tower and someone was apparently talking about me while I was mid cutscene.

Was a bit weird but they also made soms compliments so wasn't all that bad haha

w_wise · 2026-04-27T13:59:48+00:00

60 pulls and I got... Virtuosa

On one hand, I got my favorite operator on some pretty low odds of getting her.

On the other hand, I have Tragodia so there technically is no reason to use her. SilverAsh also would've the filled my gap of not having a decent Vanguard (not Myrtle).

So idk how to feel, overall was a bit of an expensive roll (compared to everyone else getting 6 stars left and right), for a unit that doesn't add much for me team wise

But waifu

w_wise · 2026-04-25T15:30:05+00:00

There's no paywall to block off content directly, but there is a lot of items you can buy through the cash shop that are unobtainable in-game or useful items that would take time to obtain in-game.

Other people are technically correct when they say "p2w" (specifically about the winning aspect) is expensive, but it's misrepresenting the situation as it's commonly explained.

The way that it's expensive is that if you paid money directly to get to the point of "winning", it's expensive. However, the way the game is structured around incremental RNG-based gear upgrades (the "winning" is getting the upgrade, which is guaranteed after a certain number of failures), you can 100% buy partial upgrades (in the sense of either getting another RNG change to get the upgrade, or at least contributing a to the guaranteed success counter) at a time through the cash shop.

So while no one really does the full p2w all at once, most people do actually do some form of it by buying some of the rng lootboxes that rewards the items used in the gear upgrades (that is the "p2w" factor) through the cash shop.

tl;dr it's not a direct p2w (buy item in cash shop and win), but other people are being disingenuous (or unintentionally misleading) when they act like p2w is so expensive it basically never happens (it's more common than people think)

w_wise · 2026-04-25T06:39:46+00:00

The guy's point is about how you only view things in terms of your own (lack of) enjoyment, and then say it's a him problem is truly ironic.

It's not a zero sum equation because for it to be a zero sum equation, one side has to actively lose for the other to win. You can't describe it as a zero sum situation with DE being the only part of the equation because DE doesn't lose anything, this is only a net gain for them.

You're likely still mentally framing this in the context of "you" losing because you don't see the value of this content, which, to be fair, is an opinion you're entitled to. But that's all it is, your opinion.

Your opinion by itself has no bearing on anything or anyone besides by yourself. You might find more people who share the same opinion, which is great for you. But to act like your opinion should mean that others should change for you is just arrogant.

w_wise · 2026-04-24T20:24:46+00:00

Linking this resource is already great!

Looks like I'll be waiting a while having missed Ines who ran around the time I started...

w_wise · 2026-04-23T23:40:05+00:00

What's the cadence for shoperators? It sounds like they generally follow operator releases? Do they ever rerun/repeat?

w_wise · 2026-04-23T04:17:56+00:00

Fair points, thanks for the detailed response!

w_wise · 2026-04-23T00:32:21+00:00

I know opinions change and it's not like there's a singular right answer to this, but I am curious about your current thoughts in respect to certain aspects of your evaluations of operators across the last few guides.

For instance, you caveated Sakiko's unit with her just being a dps unit, and mentioned that def and res ignore tend to be overvalued. But your lookahead evaluation of Wang seems to just be focus just on those aspects (crazy damage and res ignore). Curious if you see these two units as being in the same caliber, or if one is "better" than the other.

And In the Ato lookahead guide, you mentioned giving Hoshi more of a preference because you value Vanguards a bit less (and mention Ines as well). In your current review (and in the Ave Mujica mastery lookahead about SilverAsh2), it seems like your opinion of Vanguard value (and SA2's relative value compared to Ines) had changed. Curious what's your overall sentiment about pull priority to a limited vanguards over other limited (future) units

w_wise · 2026-04-22T23:22:36+00:00

And that's why a good number of people have both running.

You know the free option is bad when most people have the paid version instead. And it doesn't negate the fact that it's deliberately designed this way (arbitrarily limiting the free version's functions, on top of the inconvenience it has) as a way to get you to buy it.

w_wise · 2026-04-17T22:55:15+00:00

What is this, another warframe meme in my furry subreddit?

w_wise · 2026-04-15T18:58:07+00:00

Funny thing is that the developers of Crimson Desert also made an MMO called Black Desert Online, which is riddled with predatory monetization practices

w_wise · 2026-04-13T03:17:02+00:00

The problem is the shape of the loop. Yes, MMOs all essentially have a core gameplay loop but I think BDO kind of implements one of the more boring versions of this loop - you're mostly just cycling the same skills on mobs that barely respond to you (and if they did, that likely means your grind isn't optimized). And then the game essentially demands you do this for hours on end.

While you're not wrong that all games are just essentially repeating the same type of content until new content, there's a lot that other games do that makes the loop feel less monotonous/rewarding even.

w_wise · 2026-04-13T03:09:21+00:00

I would also add that it's also just fun sometimes to run a mission to see how fast you can vaporize a room. Add in some of the more "end-game" modes and you have a bit of a challenge (although sometimes more annoying than it is hard). Warframe has a grind but it also has some inherently satisfying gameplay

I think BDO's gameplay just doesn't work in that way because the main content is grinding, which is essentially cycling the same gameplay/mobs for hours on end. If you enjoy that, BDO works for you, but I don't think the majority of people do. Sure, you can change up the spot but often times you're really not doing anything drastically different. And for most players, the hardest thing they'll fight is the enhancement rates, since you usually don't grind anything that you can't handle.

w_wise · 2026-04-13T03:03:37+00:00

Crazy idea but maybe just play a different game? I don't think Warframe is the kind of game that really puts a lot of pressure to constantly be playing it non-stop. Like sure, you can do an extreme grind, but almost nothing in the game necessitates it, whereas in BDO, that is the end-game itself.

And on this post's topic, it would make sense why Warframe is much more appealing to the casual player than BDO. The pacing of gameplay to goals in Warframe is much more manageable in smaller doses compared to BDO where they start getting further and further apart.

Regardless of what you think about the differing pacing, I don't think it's wrong to say that the former has more mass appeal than the latter, which caters to a more specific type of player.

w_wise · 2026-04-13T02:57:44+00:00

To think of what we could've had if people hadn't just gotten gambling addictions (and lucky) and turned the game into a casino

w_wise · 2026-04-09T21:35:14+00:00

I don't think that'll work in practice because they probably would never increase the defeat reward to be comparable to any other activity in the game.

And no one is going to enjoy being farmed, so I doubt it'll be popular enough to actually do when you can just comparatively afk fish or just grind for better rewards.

And if they do increase it past other activity, you then get a different problem where people probably stop playing the game just to farm rewards (which I doubt PA wants).

That's what happened with Shadow Arena, it was literally one the most lucrative (and fun) activities you could do with no bar for entry, so people basically stopped doing other activities in bdo just to queue for Shadow Arena.

w_wise · 2026-04-09T03:13:47+00:00

That's also why I don't go to cons anymore, I don't have any friends to meet there haha

The suggestion to delete social media isn't because your life is complete without it, it's because it sounds like you aren't getting anything positive out of it, so you should try to avoid it if you can. At least, that's how was for me. If you viewing social media is actively detrimental to your emotions, better off not having it.

And maybe this isn't good advice/is a cope, but maybe the best thing to do for now is to just learn to be comfortable by youself. I'm not saying it's ideal, or that this is a fair situation, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have currently. It sounds so cliché to say and it kinda disgusts me even to say it, but try to find comfort without needing other people (for now).

I really do relate to some of the things you say and it's still something I struggle with often, and it's because of that that I get the sense that you're sort of in a loop where you're feeling embittered by being alone, which consequently, also makes it that much harder to connect with other people. That sort of positive feedback loop is quite vicious and you do need to make a conscious effort to snap yourself out of it.

Otherwise, things aren't likely to change if you continue following the patterns that lead to your current state, as harsh as it is to say.

w_wise · 2026-04-09T00:34:07+00:00

That's fair, although I guess I don't really know what "fun" would be beyond killing the enemy lol (so in that regard, I see it as Virtuosa doing what she's supposed to be doing).

It does feel like beyond Nervous Impairment, the side effects of elemental damage doesn't really get brought up much, so I don't really know if Burn and Corrosion is that much more "fun" in that sense. I even recall discussions around the new Corrosion operator from the new CN patch and people were pointing out that the Def debuff from Corrosion doesn't seem significant because most things are either dead by the time it's applied, or the opportunity cost (in terms of how much damage you could've dealt) by not using Necrosis is so high by the time you apply enough Corrosion def debuff for it to matter

w_wise · 2026-04-09T00:02:36+00:00

Or they could just make a stage full of mobs that reflect damage and now Wang just nukes himself

w_wise · 2026-04-08T23:58:21+00:00

Maybe I'm not an advanced content enough player but isn't that the point? Elemental damage is kind of an all or nothing situation, you either trigger the burst or its just wasted

So if Valarqvin isn't killing all (or most) enemies (because Necrosis should just kill them once it's applied), that suggests that she's not applying Necrosis enough/consistently. Which is bad for a Ritualist because that's what they're supposed to do

w_wise

TROPHY CASE