Defining my professional and personal focus

Like last year, I decided to take a self-vacation at the start of May to refocus and question my direction in life.

One key takeaway:

My platform must be focused on game experiences that do not sell premium currency bundles.

For a while, I wanted to focus on single-player games, as this seems more relatable for a broader audience.

But… that is missing the point.

I want to enjoy game experiences that offer transparent, capped monetization. There is no excuse not to have that. When game companies sell premium currency bundles, they obfuscate pricing and uncap spending, which puts them at odds with the customer. Customers are better served with transparent prices, capped at a rate that is reasonable when compared to “pay once and play” experiences like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”and “Baldur’s Gate III”.

I think the best comparison here is vegetarianism. Typically, the vegetarian does not choose only to eat vegetables because it’s their favorite kind of meal. It’s usually for a higher purpose… typically a concern with the exploitation and abuse of animals, but sometimes just for health reasons.

With vegetarianism, I’ve seen it presented in two different extremes:

1. Militant vegetarianism, which eagerly shows disgusting images and videos of animals being killed. I grant them the ethical high ground, but I don’t want to hear from them, and will happily continue to eat my burgers and fries.

2. Fine vegetarian dining establishments like “Greens”, which offers the best that vegetarian cooking has to offer, without picking any fights. I respond better to this, and I suspect others do, too.

I’d like to lean into the second direction. There’s little point in trying to convince publishers invested in dark patterns to change course. It’s too profitable. But by presenting a viable path to games that do not sell currency bundles, I can remain positive, and excitedly save what I love… not destroy what I hate (to paraphrase “The Last Jedi”). And I can show strength by saying out loud that it’s ok to go in a direction that is not favored by publishers.

Now, one key qualifier: I used the term “experiences”, not “games”. This is deliberate. Typically, a vegetarian will go to a restaurant that serves meat, provided they offer a vegetarian menu. If a game offers the equivalent of this, I’ll play it. I won’t play Red Dead Online, for instance, since that experience incorporates premium currency bundles that can be purchased. But I will play the campaign mode, which is hermetically sealed from the online mode, and does not incorporate premium currency. In like form, I’d be open to playing the campaign mode in “Call of Duty”, or even the season mode of a sports game, provided it didn’t let you use currency in that mode.

I haven’t seen any other site focus on games that don’t sell currency. I doubt I’m the only person who sees value in this. It’s such a simple thing to look out for and avoid. So that’s the focus on this blog moving forward. Occasionally, I might highlight critical things happening in the world of gaming regulation that might help kick dark patterns to the curb. That’s always a good thing. But for the most part, the focus will be on enjoying a modern gaming hobby that doesn’t include the intrusion of currency for sale .