I’d be down for something like this on a PVE realm where your own actions are typically what lead to your death. I’m less enthusiastic on a PvP realm with permadeath but I understand the current version isn’t for me and that’s okay too.

Pro-tip: this isn’t a queue because the game is wildly popular, it’s a queue because of under-provisioning and poorly designed services that can’t handle a normal load.

It isn’t early access if anyone can buy it and they’re charging money for it, it’s a released product.

They just released the minimum viable product even though the actual devs probably told them not to.

How much do you care about the actual combat?

There are an absolute ton of games on Steam that cover the exploring and doing quests vibe and the amount of combat in them varies from none to some but not the main focus of the game. Here’s a few I’ve tried:

• https://store.steampowered.com/app/1307550/Craftopia/
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/1401590/Disney_Dreamlight_Valley/
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/361420/ASTRONEER/
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/No_Mans_Sky/
• https://store.steampowered.com/app/648800/Raft/

Also practically anything in the survival and MMORPG genres are full of just chilling in the world content too.

The situation kind of reminds me of titty streamers on Twitch. Everybody seemingly “hates” them yet they make an absolute killing regardless, because the silent majority think it’s perfectly fine.

Yeah, I don’t understand who’s buying these at all at that price to be honest. I’m not sure if its the profit margin they want or production-related issues due to the low number runs they’re probably doing.

You can buy 2-3 cheap Chromebooks for that which will theoretically last 10-15 years though for your $1k. Basically no schools are going to turn that up vs a $1k Framework most of which will not last half that long with kids using them.

Sucks for the environment though as you say, I wish it were different.

Framework laptops are the exact opposite of what you’d want in a school environment. This is how you blow your schools IT budget out the window. Cheap, disposable, consistent configuration and manufacturer supported are the key concerns.

These are kids with various standards of computer literacy throwing them in their bags which they also kick around and treat pretty harshly all day long. A $4k Framework-style laptop is just silly.

This is exactly why right here, cost aside.

I would not hand out hundreds of Chromebooks to kids running some Linux distro I installed even if I could. It’s critical to have full manufacturer support in these types of environments.

I’m currently in the market for something like a Chromebook but I’m not buying one because of stuff like this.

Kinda.

A zombie building game like 7 Days to Die, but with the emphasis on building and not pogs per second on Twitch to drive sales.

Also No Man’s Sky but built from the ground up for PC with HOTAS support and far more varied and better procedural generation.

Probably one of the many things eventually on the chopping block.

I’m glad it’s this and not actually real tbh.

So too do far too many other games.

Usually because they want to sell you cosmetics and other junk and the only way to ensure you don’t just mod it in for free is to make the game phone home and verify itself constantly.

Goodbye Drop, nice knowing you.

Watch Corsair add maximum rainbow unicorn vomit while cutting every cost and quality aspect they can. Independent my arse.

That “play-to-earn” system ended up just being a means for people to exploit others in poorer counties to grind countless hours in the game for a pittance.

There’s no value in cross-game sharing of assets, nether for the developer nor the players.

When the game dies so does anything of value related to the assets themselves. The blockchain will probably die too. Someone one day resurrecting the game is a pretty flimsy reason at best to justify all of the negatives that come with blockchain in games, because 2 decades later it wouldn’t matter anyway.

It’s only purpose is to monetize your gameplay time with some kind of real world “value”.

Everything else is just the lies they tell you to get away with enshitifying the game.

I don’t have any games to recommend but I wanted to thank people here for some actually good suggestions. I feel like I’ve been taken for a bit of a ride at that other place by shills in similar threads compared to this.