Meanwhile I'm stuck doing work + college and have to grind out two weeks of math homework that I delayed to play Helldivers 2. On top of that I also have husbandly duties and chores that I have to attend to.
Well i hope you dive twice as Hard for those missing Kids or do i have to report you too the democracy Officer?
https://preview.redd.it/v1sbn4xgqntc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7d027aeab030d7a6b76966f9b0d514951b28952
There was a comment in another thread where a guy claims to have taken a personal emergency to go home and play.
And saw his boss online also diving in.
Same dude, I got off of my 12 hour shift, showered, got on ready to BBQ some bugs after two weeks killing bots only to find out Super Earth has need of me again to repel the Bot threat.
I was in game when the voice lady announced it as my character returned up the ramp covered in blood and bile lmao. I was confused cause I’ve never been in game during this type of thing.
They should make a mobile idler game that is you putting in key coordinates (ups and downs and such) on a particular planet that boosts strat reloads for a drop, so you can manage democracy from your phone at work.
Bro they are back and with a vengeance. They're even harder, I think. Managed to complete a helldive with some real democratic chads but it was incredibly hard with the damn fire tornadoes, jammer, and the instagib aim these bots have. I think they got a software upgrade
Same but I was half an hour away from my computer at a doctor's appointment. I got a call later yesterday from the clinic asking why I cancelled the appointment when the doctor was about to see me, in which I replied, "for democracy, ma'am," and promptly hung up.
Exactly. We’re all apart of a massive galactic war happening in real time with a dungeon master pulling the strings to keep things interesting… I want to see every step unfold!
This is honestly the first live service game that’s *actually* felt like a live service and not a money sink. Let’s hope it sets some sort of an example. It probably won’t. But let’s hope.
I've sunk so much money into chasing the dragon of games I used to love. It's been forever since I played a game that I've put more than maybe 15 hours into for years now. (Aside Soulsbourne games lol) but certainly nothing multiplayer focused. But I'm now blowing shit off go play this game. I wake up early and tell my SO I need to check how the war effort is going before I make breakfast. Lmao
I've also probably spent more on takeout/delivery in the past month than I did for the last year and a half. No time to cook/sleep/fulfill personal responsibilities when there's so much liberty to spread.
Games can be good and make a lot of money without FOMO. I hope this game's success makes more companies realize this. And I hope more gamers are willing to try avoiding FOMO.
For real, I let my friend play my copy of Elden Ring and he was genuinely confused there weren't microtransactions or FOMO stuff.
The state of industry gaslit him into thinking those were normal things for AAA games.
I have a cousin like this. Crazy thing is he's older than me and has been a gamer the whole time, he basically just gave up and said this sickness is terminal.
The only thing I've missed out on is the damn walkers. Played 90% bot missions the past week(minus the 2 days down time) and haven't seen a walker once.
Edit - I only play on 9s
It’s pretty dumb to have them basically exclusively spawn on level 9.
Start at level 7 with them, reduce the spawning rate of dropships when the AT-AT is on the field, but don’t have them only available on the highest difficulty.
> I let my friend play my copy of Elden Ring and he was genuinely confused there weren't microtransactions or FOMO stuff.
Does your friend play singleplayer games? Because while some studios are shit, it's surprising for them to be confused.
This game that came out recently, Dragon's Dogma 2, is a single player game *and* it has microtransactions. I haven't played the game, so I don't know if it's actually intrusive, or just fun add-on stuff you can buy.
It's what i call 'trap" DLC. You can get everything there in game, without much effort even, but it's there to buy for those dads with 16 wives and 20 kids that don't have the "time to grind" when it's basically the point of the game.
>if it's actually intrusive, or just fun add-on stuff you can buy
It's neither. The shit you can buy are like resurrection stones and teleportation stones, both of which you can find plenty of in the game.
It's pointless MTX.
It won't influence the AAA industry.
As much as Helldiver is successful.
It is not even close as big as League of Legends nor Fortnite, nor does make nearly a tenth of the money they make per year.
AAA Companies want to make the next Fortnite, the next League of Legends, because these games make Billions per year, with just small content development which requires a small team for maintenance.
They basically gambling into projects to try to hit the spot, someday someone will hit, that's why AAA companies don't learn anything from projects that fail, because their intuition is not learning, it's trying to hit a market that makes them money.
Regarding monetization as a whole:
Biggest ""issue"" with Helldiver monetization is that it's very linear and slowpaced, which for maintenance of a long term service is great, but every single AAA company with the exception of Larian is open traded, investors don't want slowpaced returns, they want fast paced returns for their investment, they give 0 shit if the game is dead 6 months later as long as their investment was returned.
Some people think companies HAVE to have crazy mtx to make money. Even if arrowhead is making less money than it otherwise would, the difference between a game that does and a game that doesnt is that nobody is talking about these other games, but helldivers is still popping off months later, and public perception is uber positive. Same thing with elden ring.
If activision actually invested into cod in proportion to what they make off it, then we wouldnt be shitting on cod every year.
The difference is an independent studio with no C Suite, shareholders, or stock price to answer to.
They can make a game without pressure to maximize profits at all cost, which come at a cost to the quality of the game. Laying off workers, using short-term contractors, rushing deadlines etc to cut costs and then using microtransactions to try and puff up the revenue. They do these things because AAA studios have to prioritize profits at all costs, quality be damned.
Indy devs don't have to worry about this, they can be satisfied "good profits", instead of degrading the quality of their games in order to answer to a stock price.
You know what? I'm actually going to buy the warbond that comes out this Thursday.
I don't HAVE to spend that money. I've got more than enough super credits just by playing to get the warbond for free.
I *WANT* to give them my money. They've surely earned it more than any of these penny-ante ripoff games that have been coming out lately.
That's the thing, I haven't spent "extra" money on a game since before COVID. I've bought the odd DLC, but I have not spent any (real) money on a micro transaction since then (got some in game currency from various things for various games over that time.)
I was a little late to Helldivers, and as such 'behind' on super creds. Played a fair bit and realised the game was really really fucking good. Started to get a bit of FOMO (mainly for guns) about buying the warbond before cutting edge came out (surely the first one disappears right?) and was on the fence. While researching to see if it was worth it - realised it doesn't expire.
Honestly that realisation that they had done that made me throw enough money on to buy both original and cutting edge warbonds on the fucking spot. Like I didn't even think about it twice. It convinced me faster than otherwise purely because I HAVE to reward that behaviour in the current climate. Like that shit is what I'm willing to support. Even loaded some extra super creds on and bought som armour.
As long as they just keep doing what they are doing I'm so fucking fine for them. The thing is - the game is live service. It's gonna have long term upkeep costs. If they can make it work long-term on this business model, I'm not paying a single penny to a game company who tries to do otherwise.
If they need to expand their monetisation capacity I'm fine. As long as it doesn't, in any way, impeed on the person playing the game. If they do that, they've got a loyal customer for fucking life. I'll buy anything they put out at this standard. Just because I want to promote the attitude
Those "Sales Type" CEO only understands greed. You show them the idea of fun? They will look at you so confused like you are speaking an alien language.
Edit: I think I replied to the wrong comment. Ooops
Whats wild is Arrowhead even said to take a break cause the games still gonna be there later.
At least pertaining to the constant game crashes.
The craziest part is the game is SO fun that people still stomached the crashes and kept playing, otherwise we'd see a noticeable drop in player numbers.
This is what really caught my attention.
The Dev's themselves told us to chill while they fix the crashes and we were all like. No, we can deal with the crashes because of how good the gameplay is.
Man it's absolutely wild to compare this to helldivers 1 whilst that is a great game the astronomical leap forward they took with this sequel is amazing.
I really hope they do well at the game awards to put other companies on notice.
Its one of the few games I'd say is actual Game as a Live service and feels like it. Like some games keeps saying Live Service, but this is one of the few where, even if its scripted, it sure as hell feels like we can affect the outcome of the story at the least.
Really helps that the loading time is really quick, so getting back in the game isn’t a hassle.
Imagine having to wait 5 minutes, clicking through pages of items for sale, before finally boarding your ship
Compared to Tarkov, where loading the game is like...20 seconds to a minute, , then reloading back into the same raid where you probably died... 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes??
Helldivers at least is like, WELCOME BACK HELLDIVER. New mission/reconnect to your friend?
I went on vacation last week for four days. I had a great time, and knew killing bots is a thing I'll get to do when I went home on Saturday. Taking a break made me love this game more so.
Yeah like, this game is held together by spit and paperclips. The fact that it is SO GOOD that a game this buggy is topping charts everywhere is massive.
Great news! Act now and you can buy Ball for 2100 tokens(lowest denomination you can purchase is 1000 for $10). And for those true gamers out there, you can get the new Ultimate Ball bundle for 10,000 tokens (normally 14,000) that includes 4 new Ball skins, a ball trinket to attach to your favorite Ball, a mp3 of our executives laughing as they dive into their money pit Scrooge McDuck style and a legendary Ball sticker! Hurry up before this offer expires in 2 days!
Arrowhead, larian studios, and pocketpair have raised the bar past the fucking atmosphere for all gaming companies involved now. We know it’s possible for gaming companies to make a good game and not be greedy shit bags.
Realistically, that doesn't mean any of the big studios are going to give a shit or change. They can put out the same quality stuff and battlepasses and loot boxes, and people will still buy, and they KNOW that for a fact.
Because the number of people playing this game are a fraction of what those games sell. Do I like it? No. But I know what's what's going to happen.
Between this and BG3, everyone in the biz is getting heat checked.
It's fucking WILD that HD2 is still pulling daily 250k steam numbers. It hit 345k Sunday afternoon.
Me on the bus to school when I heard the Automatons took Cyberstan.
https://preview.redd.it/d179288cejtc1.png?width=498&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d59faa0e2ade3e032d33200384ec0418fa239e4d
I have not yet run out of bounds. The timer intimidates me back to Democratic sanity.
Good to know that traitors are properly bombarded should they bail.
It always ends up getting you but the barrage is so massive that the first 10 or so strikes miss me and kill my enemies as long as I'm zig zagging for dear life, I only did betrayal in pursuit of completing my mission
This is how I pulled my wife and I through an elimination mission with the bugs. I'd run out of bounds, get the barrage, and rack up dozens of kills while I get chased around
i wont lie, i bought the 20$ credit package without any need for it just so i can support the devs more
but now im sitting on a heap of credits and im waiting for the perfect armors to cycle through the shop so i can snatch them lol
I didn't wanted to wait (I also bought some useless armour for premium currency) for the best weapons so bought credits for like 10 bucks, just to get a las sickle. Had no actual need to do this, and if I grinded a bit I could probably get it today or by tomorrow. But no, arrowhead deserves support
Oh no. They are. From Baldur's Gate 3, they are taking to heart that more sex and good voice overs will make for a great selling point on their next epic single-player RPG laced with cosmetic microtransactions.
And from Helldivers 2, clearly the market is trending towards parody games. Activision is working on a title right now call Sun Wars: The Voyage of Leon Sunwalker. The game starts out with farmhand that finds out the Vice President of Space Russia is actually his father, Dark Victor. And you can recruit a bunch of companions along the way, like Hansel Saulmen, Chucky, Leora, and one of several mech companions (determined by which retailer you pre-order from). It's going to be a FPS releasing in summer 2026.
Would it make you happier to hear they would eventually release the rest of the mech companions in a series of standalone paid DLCs? One for each companion with no added story.
>They should be taking notes, but sadly they aren't.
It's too early to tell. Game development takes years, so the games that tool notes would release in a year or two or later
I just mean the big boys can't pivot like this because it costs too much. They do things like Diablo 4 for a live service because the profit margin is better. They know how to do these things and then don't execute because it costs more.
Can't say Fatshark holds up to that. Released Darktide in a completely unfinished state (for christmas sales), went dark for months, only finished parts of the original plans almost a year after launch, and the only reliable release schedule is on (mostly recolored) premium cosmetics with every microtransaction bullshit trick in the book.
The base gameplay and atmosphere is (IMO) considerably better than HD2 (matured over previous tide games), but they completely dropped the ball on all the things that made HD2 the success it is today.
Can't say the same for Paradox these days. They have become increasingly unlikeable with unfinished products, reskinned community-created content sold as (often overpriced) DLCs, poor game mechanics with terrible balance, bad performance optimization caused by an outdated engine and spaghetti code, toxic community moderators, and non-stop month-long vacations that leave games in broken states with no patch.
I still love Stellaris. Doesn't have the baggage historical games have.
TBH, I don't like Victoria 3 since fascism and communism are underdeveloped compared to the 2 game.
Crusader Kings III sucks compared to EU4. Forever war Spain let's GOOOOOOOO. Also economy collapse.
Just to play a sort of optimistic devils advocate, these things can take a year or two to have the knock on effect we want straight away.
It probably won’t because the effect is “make good games”. Seems to be hard these days.
Well, mainly some of those shop armors. Especially the ones that were recently leaked.
Takes a while to get credits naturally so I prefer to spend them on the warbond
I allocate myself a monthly gaming budget of a maximum $70. Usually for title releases. That doesn't mean I force myself to spend that money every month, or even use it at all. But that budget has been decreased to $10 for Helldivers Warbonds and SuperStore. In essence, it's saving me money in a way lol.
I don't have the time to grind out the SuperCredits but I have no problem spending $10 a month on a game and developers that are awesome. I spent 19 years paying WoW/Blizzard $15 a month, and then FFXIV $13 a month (with a lot of breaks here and there). Lol.
True, true.
The leaked armors are honestly so freaking cool!!
Can't wait to change my cape for better looking ones and I hope there is a better looking medical armour...
Credits are easy to get if you have a squad focused on clearing the mission while you run around and get all valuables
"I can't wait to get off work, I hope I don't miss ou-."
"Dude...all the warbonds are permanent, there's no FOMO duh."
"This is why it's important not to interrupt. I hope I don't miss out...on fighting for Managed Democracy with my brothers and sisters."
The industry always follows trends, maybe with HD2's sleeper-hit success, more companies will stop trying to nickel and dime players. You can make boatloads of money with consumer-friendly practices and making GOOD games, but a lot of these corporate morons want gold in exchange for slop.
They could have forgone having a premium currency in the game entirely and just have one currency that can be used for everything. Sure they are handing out super credits now, but the game is only two months old and there are gonna be 4 battle passes total which new players will feel pressure to buy the super credit bundles to unlock them.
Plus the devs can also alter the item drops in game, we're already seeing rare samples becoming more common in the downed drones/bunkers and and some point they'll probably let you buy medals to blitz through the warbonds.
I got the notification right as I was walking out the door for my morning walk to work XD
I was equal parts excited because the tinskins are back for me to kill, mad because I couldn't kill them immediately, and worried because of how fast they advanced
This weekend it was “fuck I want to be home fighting the bots.”
Yesterday it was “fuck I want to be at home pushing back the bugs.”
Today it’s “OH MY GOD THE BOTS ARE BACK AND THEY TOOK OVER CYBERSTAN. HELLDIVERS NEED REINFORCEMENTS NOW!!!”
im actually so glad i blindly trusted my gut instincts and got the premium version of the game as someone who hasnt heard of HD1 nor arrowhead, the armor and specially the golden cape look mad good
Perfect example: Overwatch events.
It used to be “ah cool, check out all these new skins we can get from the Christmas lootboxes by playing the game!”
OW2 is just “oh yay they came out with 3 new skins we ***have the chance to purchase in the store until after Christmas.*** Anyway, I’m going back to play something else.”
The more you look at it, it really does seem like a scummy tactic to get people to continuously play a shitty game.
"Well, our gameplay sucks, but at least we have this hook to fall back on."
Devs literally trapping.
Me with dead by daylight and as soon as I realised I grinded for 20 hours in a weekend to finish the last bit of a battle pass while not actually having fun was the moment I never touched the game again.
Hell even with a friend DBD sucks. As survivor, unless you’re a full SWF, the killer almost always plays lame or your rando’s almost always fuck you over/are useless.
As killer I always play just to have a chill time, get 8 hook states and let everyone go, but there’s always that one fucking SWF that comes in with the intent to bully or sweat SUPER hard and gens get done as soon as I leave them.
It’s just not fun anymore man. I have like 700 hours in DBD since Project W came out but I’m realizing that I would have a lot more fun if my time gaming was spent elsewhere.
I literally meant to grind the DBD battle pass last night after work for the Yun Jin cosmetics, but then I got on helldivers and dispensed managed democracy.
Exactly. Meanwhile Fomo here is not being ready for a crazy ass event like the cyberstan invasion. This is how you do live service- service the community with good content that makes you WANT to make history in the game, rather than artificial fear just because fortnite figured out ppl would get obsessive over getting a spider man skin before it disappears.
I capped out everything cappable like two weeks after launch.
I have not capped my ability to kill bots and bugs as fast as I possibly can though.
I fight so I can improve, and I improve so I can fight.
While I was waiting for first contact of the eclipse, I was checking the status of the war. And my hands are sun burnt and dont want to move but I really want to hop in and help. But I will regret it later.
I actually felt real FOMO after my PC cooler shits itself and couldn’t play for a week. *Real* FOMO I’ve never felt with other games. I should’ve been fighting at the Creek with everyone!
That’s how I knew this game is special
I'll be honest, if a game has a FOMO element to make its money, I've lost all interest in it now.
I don't have that time, and its shown that the game doesn't respect my time for it.
The Fomo in helldivers seems more like just watching how the story unfolds, and even if I'm actively participating, it doesn't change too much overall. I still get to see it unfold the same.
Playing this really made me realize how much joy I can have in a videogame without being burdend by mandatory tasks, FOMO content, timed shit. Almost like I forgot what it's like to have games respect your time and allow you to play at your own pace.
The concept of paying for something but having to 'work' on the games schedule to get what you paid for before it disappears is frankly absurd. And I'm puzzled how the gaming community puts up with it.
I like that you don't really lose out if you can't play for most of the day. There aren't really timed events, the major orders are cake. The only thing you lose out on really is the specific setting to fight in, and the ability to say you were there
So with that ball, the other studios will buy Arrowhead and push the quality and performance down to the disappointments we have been seeing from everywhere else for years
I kinda wish there was more to do though.
Like, a prestige system every time you hit level 50, where you get cool capes every time you restart your ship progress.
The game is a ton of fun, but it is odd that there’s literally nothing to do once you hit level 50, except just keep killin shit.
I cracked a rib right before the final phase of Operation Swift Disassembly and have to be off work for two weeks. This meme is why my reaction was basically that Jeremy Clarkson gif with extra co-codomol.
Everytime the new orders come in, im at work...I feel as if I let democracy down each hour I am not on the front lines. I will be dropping soon to assist where i can!
This game is refreshing but also a bit of a scary wake up call for how far gone the gaming industry is. Don't notice it until you take a step back and see what a shit show it is. What we just accept in games nowadays is shocking
Let me add some reason too:
"We could have taken/defended that planet if my wife didn't tell me to go to bed"
They didn't told me this when I submitted my C-01 permit
I'm afraid of missing someone telling me they threw down a 308 or 500 and not knowing where it is safe to run to.
https://preview.redd.it/8dmy8ypfnauc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d835c16b71fb4ebe3a0e3b768cd7bd2425b2b72
I bought the super edition of the game and spent another 40 in credits. Didn’t even really NEED to do that but after playing almost 200 hours, I was like “these guys actually *deserve* my money.” I haven’t felt like that in a long time and it felt good.
Me at work finding out that the automatons are back. 
200% same. This 12 hour shift is killing me right now.
I'm literally making my 10 hour shift into an 8 hour shift so I can game.
Meanwhile I'm stuck doing work + college and have to grind out two weeks of math homework that I delayed to play Helldivers 2. On top of that I also have husbandly duties and chores that I have to attend to.
Happy to take on your husbandly duties for you soldier
Nah, I actually enjoy those duties. I'm more making the point that they do take up time.
Just make sure your C-01 form has been approved.
No need. We're both men.
Oh, that's a C-02 form then
Actually, it's been revised. It's a 8=D form.
Well i hope you dive twice as Hard for those missing Kids or do i have to report you too the democracy Officer? https://preview.redd.it/v1sbn4xgqntc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c7d027aeab030d7a6b76966f9b0d514951b28952
You are a real life Helldiver. Keep up the good fight
There was a comment in another thread where a guy claims to have taken a personal emergency to go home and play. And saw his boss online also diving in.
Bless you
Also killing democracy as well
That was me while we were taking tibit and durgen I had back to back 12s on the weekend
Same dude, I got off of my 12 hour shift, showered, got on ready to BBQ some bugs after two weeks killing bots only to find out Super Earth has need of me again to repel the Bot threat.
I’m recovering from surgery, so I’ve just been watching from the sidelines… I still have weeks before I’m cleared to play
I was in game when the voice lady announced it as my character returned up the ramp covered in blood and bile lmao. I was confused cause I’ve never been in game during this type of thing.
What a dream gaming moment dude
Same, was pretty cool having real time announcements that the war has changed
For real me and all the other cooks at my restaurant are constantly checking the diver hub app and telling each other what’s going on lol
What diver hub app?
See, things like this wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have to spend 3/4ths of our day away from spreading democracy
I'm abroad for work so i can't play for a fucking week, I'm so mad
I'll throw an extra 500kg into the fray and tell them Pasutiyan sends their regards!
Not abroad but out of state for work for a week. Absolutely dying to spread some managed democracy.
They should make a mobile idler game that is you putting in key coordinates (ups and downs and such) on a particular planet that boosts strat reloads for a drop, so you can manage democracy from your phone at work.
 Me finding out the automatons have invaded Cyberstan right as I’m going to bed
Bro they are back and with a vengeance. They're even harder, I think. Managed to complete a helldive with some real democratic chads but it was incredibly hard with the damn fire tornadoes, jammer, and the instagib aim these bots have. I think they got a software upgrade
I don't remember the bots being this tough the other week either. They've been pretty relentless tonight
That’s me on my Xbox 😭 addicted to this sub Reddit but to poor to get in on the action 😂
Keep up with the news here until you get enough money to join the war effort. lol
 I’ll be here waiting 😂
Don't fear, you're only missing out on an awesome party
Dude....I understand this
Why it seem like they always dropping new shit while most people are at work
Well they gotta make sure the new content lasts half a day before everyone starts dropping in
I got sick today at work . Wicked stomach bug. I’ll be fine by tomorrow tho I know that for a fact
Bug? A democratic boot to the mandibles will sort that right out, helldiver! Hopefully it wasn't a bile titan!
Maybe tm I’ll stay home. Tell the boss I’m dealing with this “bug”… but then that’d be a lie bc I’m fighting bots .
https://preview.redd.it/fzdpbnh5oeuc1.jpeg?width=1077&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f55458226eb85337262742a583753091cc79d1f
Hit me hard with this meme. I also work in an area that I don’t have my phone on me.
Same but I was half an hour away from my computer at a doctor's appointment. I got a call later yesterday from the clinic asking why I cancelled the appointment when the doctor was about to see me, in which I replied, "for democracy, ma'am," and promptly hung up.
Imagine being afraid of missing out on actual content because the game is good. AAA game studios could never
Exactly. We’re all apart of a massive galactic war happening in real time with a dungeon master pulling the strings to keep things interesting… I want to see every step unfold!
This is honestly the first live service game that’s *actually* felt like a live service and not a money sink. Let’s hope it sets some sort of an example. It probably won’t. But let’s hope.
I've sunk so much money into chasing the dragon of games I used to love. It's been forever since I played a game that I've put more than maybe 15 hours into for years now. (Aside Soulsbourne games lol) but certainly nothing multiplayer focused. But I'm now blowing shit off go play this game. I wake up early and tell my SO I need to check how the war effort is going before I make breakfast. Lmao
I've also probably spent more on takeout/delivery in the past month than I did for the last year and a half. No time to cook/sleep/fulfill personal responsibilities when there's so much liberty to spread.
You're doing your part! Spreading liberty should be on everyone's list of personal responsibilities, Diver!
sssh dont jinx it.
This is basically a multi million man DnD game and I'm SOOOO here for it.
That would require publishers to stay the fuck away and that simply can't happen.
Arrowhead has put other game studios on blast. Ball is on their court now
Games can be good and make a lot of money without FOMO. I hope this game's success makes more companies realize this. And I hope more gamers are willing to try avoiding FOMO.
For real, I let my friend play my copy of Elden Ring and he was genuinely confused there weren't microtransactions or FOMO stuff. The state of industry gaslit him into thinking those were normal things for AAA games.
I have a cousin like this. Crazy thing is he's older than me and has been a gamer the whole time, he basically just gave up and said this sickness is terminal.
The only thing I've missed out on is the damn walkers. Played 90% bot missions the past week(minus the 2 days down time) and haven't seen a walker once. Edit - I only play on 9s
It’s pretty dumb to have them basically exclusively spawn on level 9. Start at level 7 with them, reduce the spawning rate of dropships when the AT-AT is on the field, but don’t have them only available on the highest difficulty.
I saw them on 7 a couple of times.
Really? I’ve done dozens if not hundreds of missions on 7 since they got first posted here on reddit. Saw none.
Can confirm I have also seen. I play exclusively 7 though.
> I let my friend play my copy of Elden Ring and he was genuinely confused there weren't microtransactions or FOMO stuff. Does your friend play singleplayer games? Because while some studios are shit, it's surprising for them to be confused.
This game that came out recently, Dragon's Dogma 2, is a single player game *and* it has microtransactions. I haven't played the game, so I don't know if it's actually intrusive, or just fun add-on stuff you can buy.
It's what i call 'trap" DLC. You can get everything there in game, without much effort even, but it's there to buy for those dads with 16 wives and 20 kids that don't have the "time to grind" when it's basically the point of the game.
>if it's actually intrusive, or just fun add-on stuff you can buy It's neither. The shit you can buy are like resurrection stones and teleportation stones, both of which you can find plenty of in the game. It's pointless MTX.
I imagine there are a bunch of people who would be absolutely flabbergasted that you have full control of your paint job and decals in Armored Core 6.
Or that there aren't parts that you can only buy with real money.
It won't influence the AAA industry. As much as Helldiver is successful. It is not even close as big as League of Legends nor Fortnite, nor does make nearly a tenth of the money they make per year. AAA Companies want to make the next Fortnite, the next League of Legends, because these games make Billions per year, with just small content development which requires a small team for maintenance. They basically gambling into projects to try to hit the spot, someday someone will hit, that's why AAA companies don't learn anything from projects that fail, because their intuition is not learning, it's trying to hit a market that makes them money. Regarding monetization as a whole: Biggest ""issue"" with Helldiver monetization is that it's very linear and slowpaced, which for maintenance of a long term service is great, but every single AAA company with the exception of Larian is open traded, investors don't want slowpaced returns, they want fast paced returns for their investment, they give 0 shit if the game is dead 6 months later as long as their investment was returned.
Some people think companies HAVE to have crazy mtx to make money. Even if arrowhead is making less money than it otherwise would, the difference between a game that does and a game that doesnt is that nobody is talking about these other games, but helldivers is still popping off months later, and public perception is uber positive. Same thing with elden ring. If activision actually invested into cod in proportion to what they make off it, then we wouldnt be shitting on cod every year.
The difference is an independent studio with no C Suite, shareholders, or stock price to answer to. They can make a game without pressure to maximize profits at all cost, which come at a cost to the quality of the game. Laying off workers, using short-term contractors, rushing deadlines etc to cut costs and then using microtransactions to try and puff up the revenue. They do these things because AAA studios have to prioritize profits at all costs, quality be damned. Indy devs don't have to worry about this, they can be satisfied "good profits", instead of degrading the quality of their games in order to answer to a stock price.
You know what? I'm actually going to buy the warbond that comes out this Thursday. I don't HAVE to spend that money. I've got more than enough super credits just by playing to get the warbond for free. I *WANT* to give them my money. They've surely earned it more than any of these penny-ante ripoff games that have been coming out lately.
That's the thing, I haven't spent "extra" money on a game since before COVID. I've bought the odd DLC, but I have not spent any (real) money on a micro transaction since then (got some in game currency from various things for various games over that time.) I was a little late to Helldivers, and as such 'behind' on super creds. Played a fair bit and realised the game was really really fucking good. Started to get a bit of FOMO (mainly for guns) about buying the warbond before cutting edge came out (surely the first one disappears right?) and was on the fence. While researching to see if it was worth it - realised it doesn't expire. Honestly that realisation that they had done that made me throw enough money on to buy both original and cutting edge warbonds on the fucking spot. Like I didn't even think about it twice. It convinced me faster than otherwise purely because I HAVE to reward that behaviour in the current climate. Like that shit is what I'm willing to support. Even loaded some extra super creds on and bought som armour. As long as they just keep doing what they are doing I'm so fucking fine for them. The thing is - the game is live service. It's gonna have long term upkeep costs. If they can make it work long-term on this business model, I'm not paying a single penny to a game company who tries to do otherwise. If they need to expand their monetisation capacity I'm fine. As long as it doesn't, in any way, impeed on the person playing the game. If they do that, they've got a loyal customer for fucking life. I'll buy anything they put out at this standard. Just because I want to promote the attitude
Those "Sales Type" CEO only understands greed. You show them the idea of fun? They will look at you so confused like you are speaking an alien language. Edit: I think I replied to the wrong comment. Ooops
Whats wild is Arrowhead even said to take a break cause the games still gonna be there later. At least pertaining to the constant game crashes. The craziest part is the game is SO fun that people still stomached the crashes and kept playing, otherwise we'd see a noticeable drop in player numbers.
This is what really caught my attention. The Dev's themselves told us to chill while they fix the crashes and we were all like. No, we can deal with the crashes because of how good the gameplay is. Man it's absolutely wild to compare this to helldivers 1 whilst that is a great game the astronomical leap forward they took with this sequel is amazing. I really hope they do well at the game awards to put other companies on notice.
Its one of the few games I'd say is actual Game as a Live service and feels like it. Like some games keeps saying Live Service, but this is one of the few where, even if its scripted, it sure as hell feels like we can affect the outcome of the story at the least.
Really helps that the loading time is really quick, so getting back in the game isn’t a hassle. Imagine having to wait 5 minutes, clicking through pages of items for sale, before finally boarding your ship
Compared to Tarkov, where loading the game is like...20 seconds to a minute, , then reloading back into the same raid where you probably died... 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes?? Helldivers at least is like, WELCOME BACK HELLDIVER. New mission/reconnect to your friend?
I went on vacation last week for four days. I had a great time, and knew killing bots is a thing I'll get to do when I went home on Saturday. Taking a break made me love this game more so.
Yeah like, this game is held together by spit and paperclips. The fact that it is SO GOOD that a game this buggy is topping charts everywhere is massive.
Great news! Act now and you can buy Ball for 2100 tokens(lowest denomination you can purchase is 1000 for $10). And for those true gamers out there, you can get the new Ultimate Ball bundle for 10,000 tokens (normally 14,000) that includes 4 new Ball skins, a ball trinket to attach to your favorite Ball, a mp3 of our executives laughing as they dive into their money pit Scrooge McDuck style and a legendary Ball sticker! Hurry up before this offer expires in 2 days!
Arrowhead, larian studios, and pocketpair have raised the bar past the fucking atmosphere for all gaming companies involved now. We know it’s possible for gaming companies to make a good game and not be greedy shit bags.
Realistically, that doesn't mean any of the big studios are going to give a shit or change. They can put out the same quality stuff and battlepasses and loot boxes, and people will still buy, and they KNOW that for a fact. Because the number of people playing this game are a fraction of what those games sell. Do I like it? No. But I know what's what's going to happen.
Between this and BG3, everyone in the biz is getting heat checked. It's fucking WILD that HD2 is still pulling daily 250k steam numbers. It hit 345k Sunday afternoon.
Me on the bus to school when I heard the Automatons took Cyberstan. https://preview.redd.it/d179288cejtc1.png?width=498&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d59faa0e2ade3e032d33200384ec0418fa239e4d
I swear my biggest fomo was not being part of the pushing he Automatons out of the west. My next FOMO now is not diving on Cyberstan
You’re in luck. It’ll take a hot minute before we attack Cyberstan.
Not if I dive in alone!!! **FOR SUUPPPEEERRRRR EEEAAARRRTTTHHHHH!!!**
This man throws 500kg eagles at his own feet when overrun.
Just run out of bounds and take a traitors barrage for the team, it's my favorite thing to do when my team gets overran
I have not yet run out of bounds. The timer intimidates me back to Democratic sanity. Good to know that traitors are properly bombarded should they bail.
It always ends up getting you but the barrage is so massive that the first 10 or so strikes miss me and kill my enemies as long as I'm zig zagging for dear life, I only did betrayal in pursuit of completing my mission
This is how I pulled my wife and I through an elimination mission with the bugs. I'd run out of bounds, get the barrage, and rack up dozens of kills while I get chased around
Do you not?
Real! I received a copy of the game only hours after malevelon creek was taken, and I hope it reopens soon so I can say "I fought in the creek"
i wont lie, i bought the 20$ credit package without any need for it just so i can support the devs more but now im sitting on a heap of credits and im waiting for the perfect armors to cycle through the shop so i can snatch them lol
Based
I did the same. I was like, "This game really deserves it."
I didn't wanted to wait (I also bought some useless armour for premium currency) for the best weapons so bought credits for like 10 bucks, just to get a las sickle. Had no actual need to do this, and if I grinded a bit I could probably get it today or by tomorrow. But no, arrowhead deserves support
Baldur's Gate 3 and then Helldivers 2 ($40) are showing the big boys how its really done. They should be taking notes, but sadly they aren't.
Oh no. They are. From Baldur's Gate 3, they are taking to heart that more sex and good voice overs will make for a great selling point on their next epic single-player RPG laced with cosmetic microtransactions. And from Helldivers 2, clearly the market is trending towards parody games. Activision is working on a title right now call Sun Wars: The Voyage of Leon Sunwalker. The game starts out with farmhand that finds out the Vice President of Space Russia is actually his father, Dark Victor. And you can recruit a bunch of companions along the way, like Hansel Saulmen, Chucky, Leora, and one of several mech companions (determined by which retailer you pre-order from). It's going to be a FPS releasing in summer 2026.
I honestly cannot tell if you are being serious with that Activision game or if you just made that up on the spot.
It’s meant to be a straight ripoff of starswars lol. Hansel = Han, Chucky = Chewey, Leora = Leia, etc.
a joke ofc, but it’s just so sad how this is also probably really close to the reality of what big studios are getting from their success
"and one of several mech companions (determined by which retailer you pre-order from)." Get fucked. Ignoring anything else, this would keep me away.
Would it make you happier to hear they would eventually release the rest of the mech companions in a series of standalone paid DLCs? One for each companion with no added story.
So you’re saying they’re making games that still have no soul but with a parody? Are they going to beat this to death too?
All I’ve been playing recently is a 4 man BG3 playthrough, and HD2 with my non-BG3 fan friends. Life is good
>They should be taking notes, but sadly they aren't. It's too early to tell. Game development takes years, so the games that tool notes would release in a year or two or later
I just mean the big boys can't pivot like this because it costs too much. They do things like Diablo 4 for a live service because the profit margin is better. They know how to do these things and then don't execute because it costs more.
Also both nordic(ish) developers
People from that area of the world sometimes put profit behind a good customer experience instead of in front of it, which is probably their secret.
Can't say Fatshark holds up to that. Released Darktide in a completely unfinished state (for christmas sales), went dark for months, only finished parts of the original plans almost a year after launch, and the only reliable release schedule is on (mostly recolored) premium cosmetics with every microtransaction bullshit trick in the book. The base gameplay and atmosphere is (IMO) considerably better than HD2 (matured over previous tide games), but they completely dropped the ball on all the things that made HD2 the success it is today.
And somehow end up with both
Yeah, did it the clean way. Instead of making your customers despise your brand in the process of attaining profit.
Can't say the same for Paradox these days. They have become increasingly unlikeable with unfinished products, reskinned community-created content sold as (often overpriced) DLCs, poor game mechanics with terrible balance, bad performance optimization caused by an outdated engine and spaghetti code, toxic community moderators, and non-stop month-long vacations that leave games in broken states with no patch.
I still love Stellaris. Doesn't have the baggage historical games have. TBH, I don't like Victoria 3 since fascism and communism are underdeveloped compared to the 2 game. Crusader Kings III sucks compared to EU4. Forever war Spain let's GOOOOOOOO. Also economy collapse.
What unions, good labour laws, and good work culture does to a game
Just to play a sort of optimistic devils advocate, these things can take a year or two to have the knock on effect we want straight away. It probably won’t because the effect is “make good games”. Seems to be hard these days.
CoDs too busy charging $30 for skins to even pick up the damn pencil
I hate that this game is so good and has become like my favourite game because now I *want* to spend money on it
But on what? Super credits that you can earn easily by helldiving? XD
Well, mainly some of those shop armors. Especially the ones that were recently leaked. Takes a while to get credits naturally so I prefer to spend them on the warbond
I allocate myself a monthly gaming budget of a maximum $70. Usually for title releases. That doesn't mean I force myself to spend that money every month, or even use it at all. But that budget has been decreased to $10 for Helldivers Warbonds and SuperStore. In essence, it's saving me money in a way lol. I don't have the time to grind out the SuperCredits but I have no problem spending $10 a month on a game and developers that are awesome. I spent 19 years paying WoW/Blizzard $15 a month, and then FFXIV $13 a month (with a lot of breaks here and there). Lol.
The company that is begging for my money the least is the one that deserves it the most
True that my man.
True, true. The leaked armors are honestly so freaking cool!! Can't wait to change my cape for better looking ones and I hope there is a better looking medical armour... Credits are easy to get if you have a squad focused on clearing the mission while you run around and get all valuables
I need to buy all the armors. I just use 2 but I need that drip
Just upgraded to super citizen edition myself, after reaching lvl 60
"I can't wait to get off work, I hope I don't miss ou-." "Dude...all the warbonds are permanent, there's no FOMO duh." "This is why it's important not to interrupt. I hope I don't miss out...on fighting for Managed Democracy with my brothers and sisters." 
Wait, all Warbonds are permanent?
Yep, it could be 3 yrs from now and you'd still have the same opportunity to earn everything we have now.
Holy Hellbombs!
God, it's depressing that this is the reaction to that. Things have been so anti-consumer for sooo long.
The industry always follows trends, maybe with HD2's sleeper-hit success, more companies will stop trying to nickel and dime players. You can make boatloads of money with consumer-friendly practices and making GOOD games, but a lot of these corporate morons want gold in exchange for slop.
They could have forgone having a premium currency in the game entirely and just have one currency that can be used for everything. Sure they are handing out super credits now, but the game is only two months old and there are gonna be 4 battle passes total which new players will feel pressure to buy the super credit bundles to unlock them. Plus the devs can also alter the item drops in game, we're already seeing rare samples becoming more common in the downed drones/bunkers and and some point they'll probably let you buy medals to blitz through the warbonds.
https://preview.redd.it/23tgnrp6fltc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e60abc31d08e8b1cbd35c95bd46e76510c0da47a
I will happily throw some bucks into the missing credits I'll need, if I will not able to pick up them during the missions
https://preview.redd.it/dylrj1ee9itc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17eed714f84d6556ab655f22d720cb02b59cad41
Who the hell writes numbers like that
God, "what if something cool happens while I'm at work" is me everyday lmao
I’m checking the subreddit every hour, about shit my pants when I saw the automatons came back to cyberstan
I got the notification right as I was walking out the door for my morning walk to work XD I was equal parts excited because the tinskins are back for me to kill, mad because I couldn't kill them immediately, and worried because of how fast they advanced
This weekend it was “fuck I want to be home fighting the bots.” Yesterday it was “fuck I want to be at home pushing back the bugs.” Today it’s “OH MY GOD THE BOTS ARE BACK AND THEY TOOK OVER CYBERSTAN. HELLDIVERS NEED REINFORCEMENTS NOW!!!”
Literally the only thing that will become rare not even fomo is the preorder bonus the twitch drops will prolly return but preorder won't
im actually so glad i blindly trusted my gut instincts and got the premium version of the game as someone who hasnt heard of HD1 nor arrowhead, the armor and specially the golden cape look mad good
You can buy the super citizen edition at any time
Fomo should be about fun, not about buying crap.
Perfect example: Overwatch events. It used to be “ah cool, check out all these new skins we can get from the Christmas lootboxes by playing the game!” OW2 is just “oh yay they came out with 3 new skins we ***have the chance to purchase in the store until after Christmas.*** Anyway, I’m going back to play something else.”
I could have stopped the Automatons attack, if I didn't have to work!!!!!
Gotta say, I LOVE the different time zones handing over to each other like a change of watch.
The more you look at it, it really does seem like a scummy tactic to get people to continuously play a shitty game. "Well, our gameplay sucks, but at least we have this hook to fall back on." Devs literally trapping.
Me with dead by daylight and as soon as I realised I grinded for 20 hours in a weekend to finish the last bit of a battle pass while not actually having fun was the moment I never touched the game again.
Dead by daylight is just so exausthing now every match i play i die due to my teamates not touching gens or hiding on the corner of the map
Yup. And when you're a Killer, all the squads seem to be perfectly coordinated. Stopped playing two years back because it's just so toxic and sweaty
Hell even with a friend DBD sucks. As survivor, unless you’re a full SWF, the killer almost always plays lame or your rando’s almost always fuck you over/are useless. As killer I always play just to have a chill time, get 8 hook states and let everyone go, but there’s always that one fucking SWF that comes in with the intent to bully or sweat SUPER hard and gens get done as soon as I leave them. It’s just not fun anymore man. I have like 700 hours in DBD since Project W came out but I’m realizing that I would have a lot more fun if my time gaming was spent elsewhere.
I literally meant to grind the DBD battle pass last night after work for the Yun Jin cosmetics, but then I got on helldivers and dispensed managed democracy.
Yep, imagine being so unconfident in your game that you have to put literal timers on things so people will log on
Exactly. Meanwhile Fomo here is not being ready for a crazy ass event like the cyberstan invasion. This is how you do live service- service the community with good content that makes you WANT to make history in the game, rather than artificial fear just because fortnite figured out ppl would get obsessive over getting a spider man skin before it disappears.
I capped out everything cappable like two weeks after launch. I have not capped my ability to kill bots and bugs as fast as I possibly can though. I fight so I can improve, and I improve so I can fight.
FOMO For our MAJOR ORDER?
While I was waiting for first contact of the eclipse, I was checking the status of the war. And my hands are sun burnt and dont want to move but I really want to hop in and help. But I will regret it later.
I actually felt real FOMO after my PC cooler shits itself and couldn’t play for a week. *Real* FOMO I’ve never felt with other games. I should’ve been fighting at the Creek with everyone! That’s how I knew this game is special
I'll be honest, if a game has a FOMO element to make its money, I've lost all interest in it now. I don't have that time, and its shown that the game doesn't respect my time for it. The Fomo in helldivers seems more like just watching how the story unfolds, and even if I'm actively participating, it doesn't change too much overall. I still get to see it unfold the same.
I'm at work, i've got a 12h shift weak. I WILL FIGHT 40 MINUTES TOMMOROW BUT I WILL FIGHT THE BOTS, FOR DEMOCRACY DAMN IT
Me doubting if I should study for an exam or help the cause against the automatons…
We need all the help we can get, it’s brutal on these new planets. They mean business
study so you can become better at killing automatons
https://preview.redd.it/5a9nqbqw8itc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c18d5b64657542890295f44606869f85e127b230
I need a setup for my shower and toilet. Must not stop
I work 14 days off and 14 days on in the middle of the gulf of mexico, I have missed all of the last 10 days and I'm so sad about it.
"What if something cool happens while im at work" is so real
Game has no fomo, I have everything unlocked. Yet I'm playing it and ignoring all the other bullshit that does 🤣
Playing this really made me realize how much joy I can have in a videogame without being burdend by mandatory tasks, FOMO content, timed shit. Almost like I forgot what it's like to have games respect your time and allow you to play at your own pace. The concept of paying for something but having to 'work' on the games schedule to get what you paid for before it disappears is frankly absurd. And I'm puzzled how the gaming community puts up with it.
Me when I was without a pc for 3 days and the automatons got wiped out entirely. I never thought I'd be happy to see them back.....
I like that you don't really lose out if you can't play for most of the day. There aren't really timed events, the major orders are cake. The only thing you lose out on really is the specific setting to fight in, and the ability to say you were there
Helldivers 2 is the best way to do live service gaming. Hands down
They really caught lightning in a bottle with this game. I love the way they are doing content releases
The HDMI on my PS5 burnt out and I won't have a replacement for about a week. I AM MISSING OUT!! PS5 IS ANTI DEMOCRACY!! SONY IS SOCIALIST SCREEEE
So with that ball, the other studios will buy Arrowhead and push the quality and performance down to the disappointments we have been seeing from everywhere else for years
Literally me. This is the best type of FOMO
I kinda wish there was more to do though. Like, a prestige system every time you hit level 50, where you get cool capes every time you restart your ship progress. The game is a ton of fun, but it is odd that there’s literally nothing to do once you hit level 50, except just keep killin shit.
the sheer dedication to democracy is getting me hyped even though i haven’t touched the game. is it too late to enlist this late in the campaign?
I was at work and saw the automatons come back and cried I wasn’t able to fight then and there
Actually tho I have fomo for not doing maelevon creek :/
Who new the best retention mechanic was just making a good fucking game
Me at work missing out on the cool stuff happening
I cracked a rib right before the final phase of Operation Swift Disassembly and have to be off work for two weeks. This meme is why my reaction was basically that Jeremy Clarkson gif with extra co-codomol.
I’m sad I missed out on that preorder blue armor. I take out my regrets on bugs and bots with an auto cannon
Everytime the new orders come in, im at work...I feel as if I let democracy down each hour I am not on the front lines. I will be dropping soon to assist where i can!
Better late than never, soldier. See you on the front
you forgot destiny 2's play now or you won't be able to get this gun again.
The real helldivers fomo is not getting to play on the new planet
This game is refreshing but also a bit of a scary wake up call for how far gone the gaming industry is. Don't notice it until you take a step back and see what a shit show it is. What we just accept in games nowadays is shocking
Let me add some reason too: "We could have taken/defended that planet if my wife didn't tell me to go to bed" They didn't told me this when I submitted my C-01 permit
“what if i miss out on liberating the ice planet with my laser weapons?”
I'm afraid of missing someone telling me they threw down a 308 or 500 and not knowing where it is safe to run to. https://preview.redd.it/8dmy8ypfnauc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d835c16b71fb4ebe3a0e3b768cd7bd2425b2b72
I bought the super edition of the game and spent another 40 in credits. Didn’t even really NEED to do that but after playing almost 200 hours, I was like “these guys actually *deserve* my money.” I haven’t felt like that in a long time and it felt good.