I used to work with a guy who had thrown away upwards of $10,000 at this game. The last time it came up, he told me he had spent over $8,000, and that was several years ago and he didn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. When I asked him what he got for that money, he showed me the one ship he has. He had one ship. The rest were still in development and wouldn't even be released for years.

He spent more than some cars cost, for a handful of digital space ships, 90% of which aren't even finished. I have no idea how to reason with people who do this sort of thing.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

People like this get to piss away money while millions go homeless without a meal today.

I don't understand some people.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

These people have a mental illness. They’re being taken advantage of by unscrupulous companies. They’re in exactly the same boat as people with gambling addictions. We should feel bad for them, but not (always*) as bad as homeless folks, who are still worse off.

*One of my elementary school teachers was married to a gambling addict. The guy was secretly hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of heavy construction equipment to pay off some of his loans. The guy ended up in a police chase and took his own life before he could be arrested. His wife, the teacher, was left massively in debt (he had secretly remortgaged the family house to pay for gambling debts) and grieving the loss of her husband but also in shock at discovering the extent of his crimes and debts. Really awful situation and nothing but profits for the casinos!

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know.

Some people are defending things tooth and nail when trying to reason. Not only things like this either, might be something purchased or some ideology.

I have a really hard time emphasizing.

[–] kellyaster@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Did you mean "empathizing"? I'm having difficulty empathizing with cases like that too. I mean, ugh, it's mind-boggling, $10k is a life-changing amount of money for most people and this guy threw it away on a video game that's not even out yet. Still, people like him are being exploited for personal gain, and that is also wrong.

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes, I meant that, sorry and thanks (if nobody says anything it has the tendency to stick) . Typo and not native.

[–] kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

I mean it's not like any person has ever to decide between "should I buy something fun" (whatever the definition of "fun" is), or rather "should I just go and donate 100$ to a random homeless dude"

[–] ThermonuclearCactus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago

Bloody hell, I spent a little over two dollars buying Elite: Dangerous (a similar space game) when it was on sale about five years ago and haven't spent any more money on it since. I can't even comprehend spending 10,000 dollars on an incomplete game.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

And even if the game released and was great, what would you do if you already had everything in the game?

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

that should be just the start, there should be something else to do beyond gathering everything you can. I hope they will add something like that.

[–] Evrala@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I have a bunch of ships in the game. The most fun I've ever had in the game was after a reset I ignored all of the other ships I had and just focused on starting with the cheapest ship in the game and earning my way up. I had a blast.

I haven't touched the game in probably 3 years, basically just waiting for more things to get finished before jumping back in. But it is hard to get excited for the game with how long it has been and how... not good things have been in the company.