My Freemium Life (SI-OC sort-of Gamer / ?)
Legend has it that there exists mobile games that are Free-To-Play but not Pay-To-Win.
I must have been looking in all the wrong places then. As far as I can see, there is no incentive to make such games, especially when massive profits can be raked out of micro-transactions.
Take, for example. one of the most successful mobile games, Fate/Grand Order. A game that made so much money that they could fund an entire 2-cour anime series entirely out of the salty tears of players attempting to whale for their waifus (and husbandos).
Thank you -fans with terrifying levels of financial prioritization- brave spenders for giving us Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia!
Ushiwakamaru became the Servant that I never used and didn't know I needed until now. *Sniff* What a cute, brave, valiant girl-!
I can't wait for more doujins.
In any case, even if the game wasn't pay-to-win, there would still be pay-to-reduce-grinding, pay-for-no-ads, subscription models, etc…
All in all, it's safe to say the Freemium games are taking over our lives.
Mine especially.
Like any other day for any other player of mobile F2P games, I checked my "in-game Stamina" after being woken up by my alarm (lately, I've set it to my Symphogear character song). Unlike other players, my stamina bar could not be seen on my phone screen.
Rather, it was out-of-focus right at the top of my field of vision.
The stamina bar of my life.
Full at a paltry number of 42 Stamina. A unit of Stamina recovers every 3 minutes. 3 minutes multiplied by 42 units equals 126 minutes.
The habitual calculations of a recovering "dolphin" mobile game player made me think, "That's around 4 hours of wasted stamina thanks to sleeping!"
Of course, it would be absurd to manage my time in a way that would be detrimental to my sleep cycle! Not that logic has stopped me before... but as there were no life threatening, time-sensitive "events" that require full optimization of my time nonetheless, there's no good reason for me to neglect sleep in favor of more grinding.
Even if the grinding took place in real life, rather than through a screen these days.
"I have got to stop reacting to that." I admonished myself over my own annoyance on the matter, considering it petty and beneath me, "Now then, if Sunday doesn't count as the start of the new week then… nope! Daily missions are still the same. Not sure if that's good or bad…"
It has been a week since my life turned into a Danmachi Memoria Freese rip-off game. Life had changed greatly, yet upon reflection, very little had changed in how others saw my life.
The notifications that rang in my head whenever my "Stamina" meter was full were a constant nuisance, tiny but noticeable improvements arose whenever I leveled up or increased my stats, I began travelling around town instead of staying at home to trigger "story" maps, and I have been religiously completing all my daily missions for the promised meager reward of (unpaid) premium "in-game" currency.
All of which had gone unnoticed by everyone I knew, save for it seeming as if I was more conversational lately.
I really wasn't. I only attempted to go beyond small talk as that was what it took to finish my daily mission stating [Talk to 3 People].
The things I do for [Iris]... I mean, [Shinies]!
I keep getting the in-game currency confused in my head damnit! Curse the shitty devs for ripping off Danmemo so much!
A quick check indicated that I had a few minutes to spare before I could get ready to tackle yet another Monday.
If I had a different type of Gamer ability, I bet that I would have gotten a debuff titled [Monday Blues], but alas, it's not that type of story. I would have gotten so OP to the point where I could rolfstomp the main cast in a week if this was that kind of Gamer story.
I drew my attention to the bottom right of my field of vision, the [Quest] button appearing as I did so. Pressing it with a bit of focus, I am greeted with a menu containing multiple tabs.
[Story] [Enrich] [Event] [Dispatch]
The two tabs on the right were greyed out, indicating that I hadn't met the [Story] mode requirements to unlock them. If completing my [Story] missions were as easy and convenient as it was in an ordinary mobile game, I would have unlocked most features through hours of grinding already. Unfortunately, these missions of mine require me to actually travel to designated areas, if I'm lucky, it would be a series of missions taking place in the same area but more often than not I have to schedule a time to complete them on a different day.
The [Enrich] tab is where I spent most of my Stamina on by default as it required no specific location triggers. It was the equivalent of Danmemo's [Boost] tab where in-game non-premium currency, EXP items, status upgrading items and other miscellaneous quests are categorized in.
Selecting the [Enrich] tab, I looked at the three [Status Essence] (the equivalent of Danmemo's Falna) dungeons for the day on the [Easy] setting, noting that I had the option of [Strength], [Endurance] and [Willpower].
Perhaps one of the key differences from the game that I sunk a regretful amount of money into was the fact that this "game" of mine had eight types of parameters, instead of five.
Strength, Endurance, Willpower, Agility, Dexterity, Perception, Magic and Intelligence.
And then there was the [Skill] status essence that acted as it's Danmemo falna namesake, in that it allowed me to [Rank Up] when I reached my current level cap and for me to learn new skills.
Altogether nine different upgrade items to grind, then there's the currency required to upgrade myself that was uncreatively called [Gold]. Such wow.
"Strength it is. Time to pray to RNGesus to get that "medium" essence." Like in many games, low level dungeons drop low level items, with a small change of dropping an item just a tier above it. My limitations as a solo unit in a "game" that has three empty active party slots meant that I wouldn't be able to challenge anything other than the lowest tier dungeon.
I knew that very well, considering that my first attempt resulted in my HP almost dropping to zero before I raged quit with the "click" of a button, forgoing my used stamina and the drop items I earned.
Clicking the chosen dungeon, I'm taken to the [Party] preparation dashboard, which displayed my shitty 1* unit that had recently ranked up to an underwhelming 3* unit. It was an image of myself in my normal work clothes, a long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of jeans, holding a knife in a reverse grip like a fucking wannabe slasher.
[F2P Player] Aaron
Level 32, shitty underwhelming stats, useless single target mixed stat skills that don't belong in any meta… I can't wait till I unlock the [Gacha] and roll a better version of me.
Getting out of my bed, I positioned myself at the edge of my room and started the mission.
The sound of my running air conditioner went silent as I entered into an alternate plane where the contents of my room, this house and the world beyond it seemed to be a replica of what it was in reality.
My sleeping clothes had been replaced with my unit outfit, I held my knife up and took a step forward. The instant I did, the world "flashed" around me as my enemies were "loaded" right in front of me!
Not wasting any time, I dashed forward and slashed low, cutting the throat of the first Goblin before throwing myself to my left, and unto my bed just in time to dodge the attacks of the other two Goblins.
"High ground gobbos!"
They leapt at me, snarling impotently in their attempts to stab me with their daggers.
My right hand was already completing the motion for a well-practiced knife throw, the projectile pierced right into one of the Goblin's eyes, forcing it to drop it's weapon with a scream of pain. I was already on the move with the rest of my body, dodging the attack of the other Goblin, grabbed it's outstretched arm, twisted and disarmed it of it's knife.
Stab to the throat, that's another one down. I kicked the other Goblin of the bed, dropped down and stomped on the knife handle, forcing the blade down through the monster's head.
Excellent. No damage on the first round.
Truly, I have mastered the art of killing goblins in my bedroom.
The monsters exploded into motes of light and the drop items were displayed for about three seconds on my left, signalling the death of all enemies.
Retrieving my weapon, I walked to the next "area", the part of my room partitioned by some sliding glass panes where I did most of my work and gaming.
I wasn't as well versed in killing Goblins in this "area" as they had more avenues of attack, I always got hit at least twice in this part, and while it didn't take off much HP from me I found my performance to be hardly satisfying.
This time I got it down to one hit. Progress. Yay.
The third and last area for a dungeon triggered in my room was the bathroom. I used up my limited MP pool to use each of my two skills once, [Extended Blade] and [Three-Point -Saber- Knife Combo]. A magic and physical status dependent skill respectively.
As a "balanced" unit (aka, general unit with no specialization… in other words, trash) there was no different in damage outputted, but I used my skills anyways so that I could get the hang of using them in a fight.
Having power is one thing, being able to use it was another thing altogether.
The battle resolution screen popped up in front of me, I spammed "clicked" until it was over, not bothering to see all my rewards totaled up as I counted the drop items in battle already.
I re-appeared back at my starting point and in my sleeping clothes. 72 seconds had passed, a few seconds off my previous record. Not much of an accomplishment but I will take whatever pleasure I can get from it.
Quickly going to my bathroom, I did my business, showered, brushed my teeth, shaved and styled my hair before putting on my work clothes. After that, I plugged my phone back into the charger before turning it off from the socket, ensuring that the voltage is all discharged. Rolling the wire up, I dropped my phone charger into my work bag, grabbed a pair of socks and went to head out for work.
Eventually, after making it to the building, I went around the back and accessed the stairs that were only used for fire drills.
I ran and jumped up the stairs in a single bound.
"Wheeeee! Touch-down. 10 out of 10, easiest jump of my life!" I laughed as I marveled at the little joys of having superhuman abilities in the mundane world.
After filling up two "sheets" of status nodes so that I could rank up and raise my level cap, my overall abilities had increased to minor superhuman levels. Jumping a handful of meters up was now doable, sprinting faster than a world record holder was no longer a dream, going through ungodly accounting numbers no longer damaged by brain!
Even if there was no end-goal, no greater purpose to why I was given this "game" ability, I could still be satisfied with these boons even if I had to hide them for the sake of continuing a peaceful life. (I have read and watched way too many stories where life becomes "troublesome" to say the least, if extraordinary abilities of a civilian had been uncovered)
Jumping up the stairs until I reached the 11th floor exit, entered a few dungeons to use up my Stamina then tagged my card in and made my way to my desk, ignoring the multilingual chatter from our sister company's call center agents. How unfortunate that the group heads want us to share office space… man, I can't wait till we get to move to a co-working space, especially the one with beer on tap!
Not that I drink beer, never liked it, but I wanted to see how wild my colleagues would get from unrestricted access to beer. I'm more of a Sake kind of guy.
There was only one person from my company already at their desk when I got there, work hours are pretty flexible here so long as you do the job and be in the office (or in the client's office) for (roughly) the required hours.
"Morning Lina."
"Morning Aaron."
I could count the number of actual sentences I said to her on two hands, she had recently joined the company and was placed under a different co-worker's team. Not touching that sort of work, at all! Tried that for a bit and I didn't quite get it, and even if I could do it well with my increased intelligence, I enjoyed my Advisory & Consulting role just fine.
More often than not, I had way less on my plate when the project isn't being rushed in comparison to everyone else.
My co-worker, and somewhat close acquaintance, Justin, popped in a few minutes after I replied to a few emails on my second screen and browsed r/freefolk to assess Bobby B Bot's sentience levels discreetly on a private window.
"Yo. Morning, 'bro."
"Morning Justin. Did you get to your family dinner on time?"
"Fuck man, the jam was damned bad. I was almost two hours late."
"Oh damn! Did they eat without you?"
"Everyone else was late too, so I guess in the end, everyone was on time."
"Seriously? I don't know whether that's lucky or unlucky."
"Kinda unlucky. Since I was stuck in traffic I didn't have much excuse to not reply Mike's message."
"Shame that you couldn't ignore him. What did he want this time?"
"Right he wanted… I was just going to speak with you about this, could you help me to-"
He's always been the "nice" one during the sales pitch, I tend to find his more polite ways of requesting help slipping into normal conversations. Honestly, he shouldn't need to ask if I could help him, when he knew damn well that I was free and that it was my bloody job to assist the team when I could.
The morning passed by swiftly and productively, nowadays, I procrastinate less these days if only so that I could get more work done and could safely (free of guilt) sneak away to use my stamina in status essence dungeons.
When lunch time came about, I left Justin to his homemade salad (literally the same salad every day of the week), sneaked away from my colleagues to have lunch by myself as usual.
Only this time, I had a better reason for doing so outside of wanting to be alone.
Making it to the shopping mall just about ten minutes walk away, I went to the parking lot while following my "map sense", all the way down to the [Story] mission area. Tapping through my menu, I entered the mission and allowed my body to follow along the "plot".
The world shifted once again to start the story cutscene. Sensing the "plot" wanting me to move forward, I did so, and was rewarded with words that I wasn't actively thinking about flowing out of my mouth.
"That unnatural sound came from here… damn, what the hell am I doing? I'm not some protagonist, why the hell am I following strange noises for! Damnit! Idiot!"
Of course, I was sort-of desensitized to strangeness now, but the "Story Mode" version of me hadn't gotten to the point of outright supernatural battles yet so there's a depressing amount of story and gameplay segregation right now.
The shitty devs must have gotten really lazy with my "game" power design.
'Even as I berated myself, questioned myself… I already knew the answer to those questions.' Oh gods, what the fuck, they are even writing my monologues! 'Past the tedium of life was a deep sense of yearning, of longing for something… beyond the ordinary.'
I'm not even thinking these lines!
'That's why I came here despite the cliches and tropes making it quite clear that something dangerous is about to happen-'
Oh you don't say!? Can someone get a different writer for my story! Hello?! Anyone!
After a couple more monologues that made me want to cringe, for both the bad writing and some rather accurate commentary of my personal feelings, I watched as a horde of goblins appeared from a crack in reality.
It was whole unimpressive.
"Egads! Where did all those Goblins come from? I'm too young to be Gob'ed! Thank God I don't have a pussy or this would go-"
AHHHHH! Someone, please, save me from these badly written thoughts that are not my own! Who the fuck wrote this shit! I would never say these lines!
Curse you underpaid scenario writers!
The scene shifted and I was free to move my body again.
"Time to die motherfuckers."
These mooks were even weaker than the ones I grinded on, seeing as I was only on the seventh [Story] mission that involved combat (even if there was no combat in the actual story they made me fight loaded monsters anyways for the sake of filler) and that this was a DanMemo ripoff, the monsters were only Level 7 at best.
By the power of higher numbers (bless you "my numbers are bigger than yours" Abridged Kirito) I had slain my foes with scarcely any damage!
The story mission ended.
I was in the slightly busy car park once again.
"Oh come on! This breaks the immersion so much!" Not that the story was very immersive to begin with, but the point still stands. Cutting the story off at the point was just a bad choice overall.
Seeing as the next mission in this prologue was still in the same place I went ahead and selected it.
This time, it was a fuck ugly giant fat hobgoblin that appeared.
Oh great, it's boss battle time. Good thing that I'm over-leveled for this.
I easily killed the hobgoblin.
Then the cut scene continued and the hobgoblin that I thought was dead punched me right across the empty (alternate plane) car park!
I skidded across a few car roofs before I found myself slamming right into a pillar, my "limp" body falling to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.
"Guh! Guhaa! Hiii I'm going to dieeee!" Said my mouth, who is in total disagreement with my brain. I barely felt a thing.
FUUUUUUUUUCK!
I hate it when I kill an enemy in the story and then the plot goes "nope you totally got trashed" on me!
"Is this the end?" Of course it isn't!
As if they would kill off the protagonist in the prologue… oh wait, didn't that sort of happen in quite a few stories?
"Stand up… please, you have to keep fighting…!"
"Wh- what? Who's there?"
For once, I am in total agreement with what "story me" is saying. Who is that? Is that my tutorial fairy or some first girl waifu?"
"Rrrraaaw!" Why is the Hobgoblin roaring, isn't that the battle cry of a different type of monster? Someone please pay the writers more money they must be fucking starving!
"Look deep within… the power you need… has always been…" The voice faded away.
That is utterly generic as a motivational line but at least it's straightforward.
"What… what do you mean?"
That's it. I officially hate "story me" so much. Why did they make me so dumb? Is this for self-insertion purposes? Fuck this.
The story cut off at this point. The next mission was yet another boss battle.
Well, at least I'm getting "Shinies" out of this. If I finish this mission then I will have enough for half a 10+1 pull.
Such is the life of a F2P player.
To be continued...
AN: While I had lots of plans for the next part, I fleshed out the beginning a lot more than I initially intended to. I decided to try out a different sort of Gamer power, where the character is in the normal world... but has your Freemium mobile game powers where he needs to roll the Gacha for decent units (salty tears), complete un-immersive story gameplay and grind for anything worthwhile. It's going to be entirely F2P for reasons that I will unveil later on and I have plans for some of that mindset ending up causing serious issues in certain scenarios like when he gets to the time-limited Gacha banners... Hope you guys enjoyed it, do share your thoughts and also your experience with these kind of games so I can hopefully make a decent parody of it for everyone!