How bad is the FOMO-mechanic (Expeditions)

[Nephi]

I've kept tabs on the game for a while now and I've found that NMS now has Expeditions, a feature with time-limited rewards to encourage FOMO, manipulating players just like the trend of live-service games out nowadays.

Though how bad is it? Is it the start of a trend that NMS is going to become a full live-service game and lock more content behind time-gates like Destiny 2, or is it just a forgettable update that can be ignored?

[Orion Invictus]

The current Expedition takes about 20 hours (if you know what you're doing), according to multiple people. 20 hours, over 2 months, that's 20 minutes of play time per day, on average. Do you really think that's encouraging FOMO, with that generous timetable?

[Nephi]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

The current Expedition takes about 20 hours (if you know what you're doing), according to multiple people. 20 hours, over 2 months, that's 20 minutes of play time per day, on average. Do you really think that's encouraging FOMO, with that generous timetable?

It imposes a schedule. Maybe you don't want to play a game that day but you've got to get your 20 minutes in and suddenly you're not playing the game for fun anymore. You're not even playing the game how you want; you're being told what and how to play. And 20 hours is a huge commitment for that, whether you split the cost of it over two months or not. That's longer than some entire games.

Oh and that's 20 minutes on top of everything else you're doing thanks to this insidious trend; maybe you're also farming daily wins in Magic: Arena or Legends of Runeterra, the first win of the day from League of Legends, doing weekly assignments in Deep Rock Galactic, or weekly missions for engrams in Destiny 2, or just farming battle pass XP in other various games...

You're basically arguing a time-based variant of the common strawman over justifying cost: 'It's just the price of a cup of coffee.' Maybe I want that coffee. Or you don't know me, I don't drink coffee.

[ChrisF0001]

Nowhere near as bad as the Twitch drops over the last few days. I wanted that day 1 ship, and only found out it was a thing 90 minutes too late to have any chance of getting it.

[Nephi]

Originally posted by davidb11:

Fear of Missing Out isn't really a thing.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=FOMO

Guess all these researchers are just making stuff up then? It's a legitimate psychological phenomenon. Social media weaponised it then games followed because it makes a ton of money.

[leandrombraz]

Unless you actually have a hard time dealing with the fact that you won't own every single piece of useless content they add to the game, expeditions is completely optional and easy to ignore. It's a different way to play the game, meant mainly for veterans who just want to do something different. The rewards look nice, but it's in no way something that will make you feel like you HAVE to unlock it.

As a relatively new player, I'm invested in my normal playthrough and, even though I'm curious to see the complete mess that having so many players starting in the same planet seems to be, I couldn't care less about the rewards, and I wouldn't spend even a second grinding it.

[Nephi]

Just because you personally haven't heard about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe you're one of the lucky 10,000.

It's not a riddle either. Social media is easily a timed event; people make posts and have comments and likes. You miss out on how new the news is with your friends. It's the latest social trend, or a new event in town, or... a time-limited mode in a game and you'll regret missing out on once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as you won't experience it again. That fear of regret if you don't do something is the fear of missing out.

[skananote]

Originally posted by leandrombraz:

Unless you actually have a hard time dealing with the fact that you won't own every single piece of useless content they add to the game, expeditions is completely optional and easy to ignore. It's a different way to play the game, meant mainly for veterans who just want to do something different. The rewards look nice, but it's in no way something that will make you feel like you HAVE to unlock it.

As a relatively new player, I'm invested in my normal playthrough and, even though I'm curious to see the complete mess that having so many players starting in the same planet seems to be, I couldn't care less about the rewards, and I wouldn't spend even a second grinding it.

Agreed. I call myself a veteran (2k+ hours on my main save). I couldn't care less about latest addition to NMS. I rather play my main game w/o FOMO on anything. Sooner or later the same content will be available via QS store - I have nearly a billion QS - that is how much I miss that special stuff that nobody needs to exist... I am not the only one with similar approach...

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Originally posted by Nephi:

Just because you personally haven't heard about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe you're one of the lucky 10,000.

It's not a riddle either. Social media is easily a timed event; people make posts and have comments and likes. You miss out on how new the news is with your friends. It's the latest social trend, or a new event in town, or... a time-limited mode in a game and you'll regret missing out on once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as you won't experience it again. That fear of regret if you don't do something is the fear of missing out.

We used to call it making choices back in the day. You make your very best choice and live with the consequences. It would be nice if there was a rewind in life, but it is not the case.