[Lucid:]

**hugs Chiwi** :c
I'm sorry things aren't going well for you. School is mean and your sister and brother-in-law sound terrible. If you ever want me to distract you, I am willing. I don't know if you're into the sorts of games like Civilization or League of Legends, but you can't really get to the end of the story in those so maybe that helps. I'd love to play a game online with you if you'd like.

[Chi]

@Nex: I haven't tried knitting in a long time. I learned to knit when I was 17 but I've long since forgotten. The instruction sheet I had might still be around somewhere...

Is childish as it is, it is something that effects me. I know my parents have to handle it but it's hard to be effected by it and there's nothing I can do. He's actually detrimental to our family. Especially my sister, but that was her choice.

I've been trying to ignore them for the most part. At least, recently I have. I wish I could be close with my sister but I really feel that she's changed so much. That her husband changed her. There's nothing I can say though or I'll just upset her...

Thanks.

@Lucid: -Hugs Lucid- I would really appreciate that. I'm not sure what we would play honestly. I don't really remember much about Civilization and as for League of Legends I'm not so sure, I don't really have great memories linked to that game. I might be willing to try it though. I'm trying to think of possible Free to Play games that don't suck... It kind of depends on the company.

[Lucid:]

Yeah, people on LoL can be pretty nasty. :c I mostly like to play with friends. It's hard to find a free to play game that is really good. My husband got into the beta for Elder Scrolls online and it looks really awesome, but it's not gonna be out for a while still and I have no idea if it'll be free to play or subscription. I really hope it's free though.

[Chi]

It's subscription. They're doing 14.95 a month or something. I don't understand why all these companies want to go the "World of Warcraft route". My friend and I were talking about this. That so many games are coming out this year and 2014 that are pay to play. But it's ridiculous imo because they almost never succeed. I mean Square Enix launched Final Fantasy 11, that flopped and then they tried AGAIN and now they're doing the same with Final Fantasy 14. TERA was a pay to play, surprise they're free to play now, lol. If ESO is good, I may be willing to buy it. Only if it's good though. I may just wait until I get a better computer too.

Ugh, I feel so bummed now... Like I'm not good enough...

[Taiki]

I'm personally afraid of starting a free to play game like LoL. I'm afraid that micro transactions will take all the fun out of it. I don't know if LoL has them or not as I've never played it but I know a lot games like that have them.

Even though The Sims 3 isn't a subscription based game, you can buy extra items for real money and at some point they integrated it into the store on the game. They're always the most prominent advertised items and it's infuriating. I paid the $40 for the expansion pack, probably over $400 in total on that game with ALL the expansion packs but they're still pushing that crap on me and I can't turn it off. D8

Normally I don't play MMOs in general because I don't have the time.

[Lucid:]

LoL actually has a surprising few microtransactions. The only things that are real money only are are cosmetic, essentially costume changes to the champion you play. You can purchase champions for both money and in-game currency. I've never bought a champion with real money, and most players haven't. In my opinion, money isn't even a problem with LoL. The biggest problem is that, as a game where you play on a team with complete strangers, people with big egos are going to get mad and start blaming if the team is losing.

[Taiki]

Yeeeeah, my friend got me to play WoW with her for a month. I hated it because when I would go into dungeons everyone yelled at me for doing things wrong. It was my first time ever playing and instead of teaching me what to do, they'd just all freak out so I stopped playing. It's stupid that they hate on "noobs" so much. If they scare them away like they did with me, how do they expect to get new users so that the game can get more money to improve? They're technically killing the game in the end.

[Lucid:]

Yeah, I don't understand why people do that. :/ Is it so hard to just be a decent person? I wish people would have a little more respect for the human being on the other side of the computer.
LoL tries its best to match you with people of your own skill level, but there's always going to be people who think they're better than they are and can do no wrong. >.<

[Lucid:]

Yeah, I don't understand why people do that. :/ Is it so hard to just be a decent person? I wish people would have a little more respect for the human being on the other side of the computer.
LoL tries its best to match you with people of your own skill level, but there's always going to be people who think they're better than they are and can do no wrong. >.<

[Chi]

A good friend of mine started playing LoL and she plays support. I think someone started giving her crap and another team member stepped in and helped. Saying things like, "If you think she's doing the job wrong then teach her." And just kept repeating that every time their one teammate complained. Sometimes you meet nice people and sometimes you meet mean people, it all depends.

I remember watching another friend play WoW, she was a hunter with a pet and her pet kept aggro-ing everything and pissing off her team. She tried a bunch of options to get her pet to stop until someone told her.

I think that's one thing most people miss. They get so wrapped up in playing the game and trying to be the best that they just flip out when someone messes up. If they just sat down and tried to help them or were at least encouraging, people would not be so afraid to try new MMOs.

And as far as microtransactions go, I feel it's a gray area. Some places do it very well and some do it very very wrong. For example, Guild Wars 2, you pay for the game and then they offer microtransactions. I don't believe it covers anything too outrageous I only looked at it briefly but they also offer the chance to convert in-game currency into cash bought currency and vice versa. I'm pretty sure that's correct. Or when games offer an item for money and game currency but it's just "faster" to buy with money. But then you also have games that charge outrageous amounts for purely cosmetic items that add no stats. Or they sell you cosmetic items at decent prices but they're temporary. Again, I think it's a gray area, it can go very right or very wrong.

[Lucid:]

Yeah, I wish more people would teach instead of getting angry. :( If I'm doing something wrong, I probably don't know what the right thing is and would appreciate being told nicely. I think what your friend said is a good thing to say, I might use that in my games in the future!

Micro transactions are pretty much the best way to get somebody to pay for a game, but you're right that it has to be done right. I once saw a youtube video of an iPhone game that not only ripped off Pokemon, but charged people for each basic attack. The only character who was free was Charmander, and he had 10 free fireballs he could spit. After that you had to pay for a pack of 20, and it cost ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. New characters also cost $50-$100 each. It was the most hilarious and sad thing I had ever seen.

[Chi]

I can also understand in some cases from the past that you might be ashamed to ask for help. ): Especially if you get in with a bad community, people can be just harsh when asking them for help versus needing help. You could just fall in with a bad crowd. You never know what you'll get because life is a box of chocolates. P:

Couldn't Nintendo or Pokemon technically sue them? If it's an exact copy that is. And wow, that is ridiculous. A lot of free to play games have to depend on micro transactions to survive especially when they're trying to launch a new game. However, I feel some companies have business sense what so ever.

[Lucid:]

They were obvious rip offs but not exact sprite copies. Definitely copyright infringement though. I found the video of it, it's also a rip off of Mario.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHgTOjSyWE
It's pretty crazy. o.o;;

Complete scam games like that give the microtransaction industry a bad name.

[Chi]

Yeah, that is some grade A garbage. Wow. I hope they got sued.

Oh god, well an incident just happened that I don't really want to talk about. xD But lets say it was pretty bad as far as micro transactions go.

[Lucid:]

Why can't people who price out microtransactions be reasonable about the prices? ;o; They're "micro" for a reason. I think Trisphee and other avi sites do great with a couple bucks a piece, and anything much more than that has to be a really premium item for me to want to buy it. The key that most businesses don't seem to remember is that it's got to be inexpensive and rewarding enough for people to want to buy in over and over.

[Chi]

I think another thing wrong with some companies is they see a few people buying the highest amount and they instantly assume that's the norm. It could be 50 people buy a 5 dollar item and then 5 people buy a 50 dollar item and they think , "CLEARLY 50 IS THE NEW MINIMUM VALUE." Then they beg people for feedback then accuse the users of being invalid or wrong because they disagree. Do they price on a curve or something? xD It's like when you have finals and everyone's begging for the curve so they'll do well and three or four guys do really well and raise the curve. P: A few people does not make an average, that makes a minimum or a minority if you will.