they open their (probably parents) wallets to try to pay to win.
A guy I know was in one of the top, elite-of-the-elite WoW raiding guilds - multiple world-first dungeon clears, always at the bleeding edge of the content, etc.
He (and just about everyone else in the guild) sold fully levelled, high geared accounts on ebay for around one to two thousand dollars. Most of his buyers used professional email addresses for the purchase - doctors, lawyers, business owners.
We used to think these were people who simply didn't have the time to play but wanted to keep up with their kids, or see the endgame content, or wreck shit in PvP. Oh how wrong we were. They are actually competitive narcissists who want to brag in front of their friends about how they have XYZ.
Imagine a dinner table full of millionaires all bragging about their WoW gear and pretending they got it legit, and they're doing this purely to dick wave at eachother and assert some ridiculous, illusory form of dominance.
Imagining something like wolf of wall street but instead of investment bankers getting blowjobs on yachts it's bunch of nerds talking about noobs they pwned and the uniques they looted - but it's all shit they bought. That or a scene from American Psycho. (change the business cards to digital content)
Imagine a dinner table full of millionaires all bragging about their WoW gear and pretending they got it legit, and they're doing this purely to dick wave at eachother and assert some ridiculous, illusory form of dominance.
One of the biggest streamers in the world is Asmonbald, and he is this for millions of people daily. An incredibly bad player who gets carried to extremely rare drops, and flexes how knowledgeable and decked out he is. Does he still show off his mounts? Its been a while and was always funny to those of us who also collected in the game and knew how much of it was "got handed it because famous."
As someone who used to be in those sell guilds (though we didn't sell accounts, just runs so they could gear their own stuff for more above the board business), it was always the same kinds of people. Either the family/professional who doesn't have time to play but wants to be able to get into runs when he does, or the streamer bro who wants to flex on people. And the second one was always the worst person but spending the most money.
Asmon is popular because he's charismatic and funny, not because anyone thinks he's a superstar WoW player.
He's also an example of a guy who makes a shitton of money and yet, if his stream talk is at all accurate to life, lives a very inexpensive / cheap / poor life.
Asmon is popular because he's charismatic and funny
That's what everybody who defends their favorite streamers say, even for the titty ones. It is interesting you took "guy who got carried to a high level and now talks like his opinions matter" and went for "superstar player." Because despite being a well known bad player, his rabid fanbase still treat his opinions with incredible worth and it has massive effects on the community.
if his stream talk is at all accurate to life, lives a very inexpensive / cheap / poor life.
You don't need to cite his stream talk. We can literally see his lifestyle. With the rotting teeth, cockroaches on the wall, and old food littered everywhere. He doesn't live that way out of principle, he does because he is lazy (his defense) white trash who just happened into money. The South is filled with guys like him, they just aren't on camera.
You referred to him in your first sentence as "An incredibly bad player". My point is that I don't think anyone watches him for his playing skills and to learn how to play WoW.
I have opinions about many parts of WoW and I haven't raided in years. I don't think that invalidates my opinions.
Lazy white trash. Yeah, maybe. As a guy who family was, not very long ago, poor white trash, I'm sympathetic. It can be hard to overcome your roots.
I'm skeptical of almost anything I see or hear on a stream.
I used to watch him, he had some interesting takes and I used his videos for mount collecting.
I do not agree with him on a lot of things but he had a grounded opinion in most things.
He is an ok dude.
All of that wasted time earning pretend points in a game for an account that doesn't even get used by the buyer. Our whole economy is a fucking joke full of shit like this.
Your previous assessment was probably more or less correct. It's not like they were getting gear better than the people who would put in the hours, so they could participate in end game content but wouldn't have advantage over players who earned their gear. This Diablo shit is something else. There's essentially no practical cap on power level based on how much you spend. And then while spending maybe 5K per year keeping up with gear is extreme it is something that someone who makes a quarter million per year could justify because their time is worth a lot. There's no one who should be able to justify spending 100K.
A guy I know was in one of the top, elite-of-the-elite WoW raiding guilds - multiple world-first dungeon clears, always at the bleeding edge of the content, etc.
He (and just about everyone else in the guild) sold fully levelled, high geared accounts on ebay for around one to two thousand dollars. Most of his buyers used professional email addresses for the purchase - doctors, lawyers, business owners.
We used to think these were people who simply didn't have the time to play but wanted to keep up with their kids, or see the endgame content, or wreck shit in PvP. Oh how wrong we were. They are actually competitive narcissists who want to brag in front of their friends about how they have XYZ.
Imagine a dinner table full of millionaires all bragging about their WoW gear and pretending they got it legit, and they're doing this purely to dick wave at eachother and assert some ridiculous, illusory form of dominance.
Most buyers barely ever logged in.
Imagining something like wolf of wall street but instead of investment bankers getting blowjobs on yachts it's bunch of nerds talking about noobs they pwned and the uniques they looted - but it's all shit they bought. That or a scene from American Psycho. (change the business cards to digital content)
NFTs.
Nice, I gotta go return some DVDs to redbox.
Oh my God, he it even has a unique modifier!
One of the biggest streamers in the world is Asmonbald, and he is this for millions of people daily. An incredibly bad player who gets carried to extremely rare drops, and flexes how knowledgeable and decked out he is. Does he still show off his mounts? Its been a while and was always funny to those of us who also collected in the game and knew how much of it was "got handed it because famous."
As someone who used to be in those sell guilds (though we didn't sell accounts, just runs so they could gear their own stuff for more above the board business), it was always the same kinds of people. Either the family/professional who doesn't have time to play but wants to be able to get into runs when he does, or the streamer bro who wants to flex on people. And the second one was always the worst person but spending the most money.
Asmon is popular because he's charismatic and funny, not because anyone thinks he's a superstar WoW player.
He's also an example of a guy who makes a shitton of money and yet, if his stream talk is at all accurate to life, lives a very inexpensive / cheap / poor life.
That's what everybody who defends their favorite streamers say, even for the titty ones. It is interesting you took "guy who got carried to a high level and now talks like his opinions matter" and went for "superstar player." Because despite being a well known bad player, his rabid fanbase still treat his opinions with incredible worth and it has massive effects on the community.
You don't need to cite his stream talk. We can literally see his lifestyle. With the rotting teeth, cockroaches on the wall, and old food littered everywhere. He doesn't live that way out of principle, he does because he is lazy (his defense) white trash who just happened into money. The South is filled with guys like him, they just aren't on camera.
You referred to him in your first sentence as "An incredibly bad player". My point is that I don't think anyone watches him for his playing skills and to learn how to play WoW.
I have opinions about many parts of WoW and I haven't raided in years. I don't think that invalidates my opinions.
Lazy white trash. Yeah, maybe. As a guy who family was, not very long ago, poor white trash, I'm sympathetic. It can be hard to overcome your roots.
I'm skeptical of almost anything I see or hear on a stream.
I used to watch him, he had some interesting takes and I used his videos for mount collecting. I do not agree with him on a lot of things but he had a grounded opinion in most things. He is an ok dude.
All of that wasted time earning pretend points in a game for an account that doesn't even get used by the buyer. Our whole economy is a fucking joke full of shit like this.
Your previous assessment was probably more or less correct. It's not like they were getting gear better than the people who would put in the hours, so they could participate in end game content but wouldn't have advantage over players who earned their gear. This Diablo shit is something else. There's essentially no practical cap on power level based on how much you spend. And then while spending maybe 5K per year keeping up with gear is extreme it is something that someone who makes a quarter million per year could justify because their time is worth a lot. There's no one who should be able to justify spending 100K.