Former PoE supporters: what have you been spending on?

Can we agree that supporting PoE had/has an element of addiction to it? If not, can we at least agree that it is in TenyuanGGG's best interests to make buying a voluntary support pack operate with the same dopamine kick as an addiction momentarily sated?

Maybe it was just me...

Anyway, I have saved significant cash since kicking the habit (not to mention lockdown forcing culinary frugality) and in the tradition of those "treat yoself" threads people make for when they stop spending on a habit, here are a few of the things I've bought in the past few years I otherwise might not have. Not that I couldn't afford to, but there was definitely less guilt. These are some of my "well it would just go into buying another set of titles for a game I don't really play anymore" purchases:

A giant fucking evil Jetfire ('Shattered Glass' aka Mirror Universe line). Transforms in 36 easy steps. Ages 8 and up...;

A giant pokemon Gengar plushie for one of my besties;

A giant Monster Hunter Zinogre plushie, same friend;

A giant Isabelle plushie for my Animal Crossing addicted wife;

A giant pile of Amiibo cards...for my Animal Crossing addicted wife;

A Babylon 5 box set having finally watched it pirated...days before the remake announcement;

A digital omnibus of Wheel of Time, since my first Aus ed book 1 is MIA and I only have 2 through 7 and then somehow 11 (?);

Two new Samsung stylus tablets so good they come with Clip Studio Paint; i might take up drawing again;

A ps5 (would have happened eventually but I would have been less eager if I were still glued to PoE/ the PC);

A No Man's Sky 'since 2016' tshirt: pretty expensive after shipping but I am such a proud day one owner who never gave up hope that Hello Games had a masterpiece on their hands, one that Sony had no idea how to handle. I have a LOT of gaming tshirts but that one is very special to me. The signed beta PoE ones are great but I can't wear them...and they have too many names who have since moved on...just thinking about them gives me very complicated feelings;


And, most importantly, games on sale that I actually get around to playing because it is no longer my habit to turn the pc on, load PoE, come up with another punny name for an original but shitty build that won't make it past yellow maps, and then alt tab for hours doing PoE-related inanities (notably, this, which right now is just me on the phone as the wife hunts bugs on the TV). I finally picked up Dragonball Kakarot from this Black Friday sale for like a quarter the usual price and have been really enjoying its weird mix of rpg and arena battler. As I mentioned on another thread, also picked up the rough launched but fun as hell demo Outriders for less than a single recoloured set of PoE armour, which despite the juvenile writing is still a really nice mix of Remnant, Borderlands and Gears of War. And so on.

As an aside, gamers are in a good place right now if we can show some patience: bad launches tend to lead to overcompensating a year or so down the track which means I actively keep tabs on games that don't stick the landing but have basic potential. Chances are they will be an underrated gem with a lot of free added content at some point as long as the devs actually try to make amends. Several crash and burn releases basically got full free expansions after enough time.

Anyway, One Deck Dungeon on Android is calling me...so have any of you other former supporters (I KNOW you are out there) found equally stupid (or better yet, genuinely meaningful) usage for the cash saved from no longer pumping it into the TenyuanGGG moneyeating machine?

:)

Mhm, first off I don't get satisfaction from byuing random stuff (or addicted to supporting PoE), so I can't relate to that :D

I actually intended to buy a Supporter Pack for Scourge, but I held off to decide if the League was worth it... well as it turned out it wasn't.

Since it's been years that I last bought a supporter pack its hard to specify what I wouldn't have bought if I supported PoE all the time, but some things regarding my lifestyle maybe...

- I changed my health/eating condition to more healthy non processed food
- bought some workout tools like weights and a pull-up tower
- bought Gauntlet merch (first merch I ever purchased)
- bought a VR Headset

I don't really buy games anymore... Xbox Game Pass is pretty good and my Steam backlog is too big anyway.
As I said not the most impressive stuff, but if I'd instead put hundreds of dollards into PoE, some of those things wouldn't have been purchased.

I started getting in to board gaming about a year ago. It's getting a bit addictive.



I worked quite a few extra hours lately as well so also decided to do some upgrading. I went from:

- a 256Gb SSD to a 1Tb Samsung 980 Pro
- 16Gb RAM to 32Gb
- Pixel 3XL to a Pixel 6 Pro.

The latter, if I'm very lucky, might get delivered today. I had to import it from the USA as all the ones selling here sold out in hours.

I was laid off for 6 months last year, so nothing in 2020.
Just switching jobs, waiting on a job offer letter, which is coming end of week.
The only thing I have bought in 2021 is a (cheapish) rowing machine, which was a good investment.

I've never been a Big Spender(TM) but really just saving that money towards a rainy day or a health emergency.

Most folks would want to upgrade to a better pc if they had the ones we are playing our games on. 12 years, still windows 7, everything stutters and chugs, fans rattling, etc.

But none of our important data is stored there, and if the pc dies, welp anyway. We enjoy games, but they are not the central facet of our lives. as it appears we may have more distanced holidays and lockdowns ahead, investing in ways to help each other stay in touch is important, though, so we're looking at phone upgrades and getting site licences for zoom for our tutoring service.

I forgot the other thing I upgraded - My car:

Chatting with my Dad last night as he is going through some chemo treatments.
He asked about Xmas presents for our kids.
Gave him the list and then he said "what about you"?
I mentioned that my near 6 year old PC could use a new video card/some kind of upgrade.
Today he sent me an order confirmation for a new PC.
So, ya, off topic a bit as I did not pay for it, just wanted to share props to my Dad (and Mum of course)

*awwws*

Yall make me look like the selfish hedonist I really am with these stories of buying necessary things and family helping out.

:)

Okay so here's some less than fun updates. Oven died. That's a grand. Massive tooth ache turned out to be dead nerves due to a deep old filling failing. Root canal time. 4 grand (but I get to keep the tooth and I'm not squeamish about needles or drills so that's okayish).

...and yeah thats my spending as we head into what looks like another very low key Christmas.

But hey free 3rd jab yesterday (they're literally throwing them away now) so that's good too.

I have no idea what to get the wife for xmas. I have this terrible habit of not making things into mandated gifts. Oh, you want this thing thats on sale? Get it! It'll take months to get here anyway...

Maybe more Animal Crossing stuff. Surely she will never outgrow that....

Almost a book written by a noble price winner in physics, given to another noble price winner in physics who signed it. I purchased the book but in the end the seller, some Danish shop, didn't have it anymore and refunded.
I am staying a little vague as there might be more to this story. That book might re-emerge somewhere, I hope.

Nowadays I am more of the person of less is more. This Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend I just bought most of the Christmas presents for family but nothing for myself. There was no temptation or anything. I consider most stuff being sold junk or somewhat nice/cool but not really needed.

What did I purchase during the covid period?

-> A collector's edition of Baldur's Gate 2. Not in optimal state though.
-> Bought a complete new pc, the old one could not run POE anymore. Now I'll be good for another 7 years I think.
-> Brand new racing bike. Made in China but excellent quality.
-> A small book on Sangaku's. The series highlights different topics and is fantastic in my eyes.
-> Fattest lego-box ever designed. Not for myself but as investment. Will keep it in pristine condition.

Hope its value doesn't sink.

Eh? Eeeeeh?

Eeeeeehhhh.

Signed books are a funny thing. I have my share but for me they are mementos of having to meet the author in order to get rhem signed. So it's less about the signature and more about everything it signifies I guess. But in this case you are talking about a historical treasure, which is something else entirely. My dad has some boxing gloves *apparently* signed by some famous pugilist but I honestly couldn't tell his signature from anyone else's. And they're not exactly hanging on any of his walls or on a display case so I have my doubts. What he does display are little figurines from his various trips home to China, from that time back when that didn't sound like such an unthinkable notion. Again, physical reminders of an experience I suppose. Of no value to anyone but ourselves.

What sucks is when that experience sours and the power of these mementos shifts from inducing fondness to conjuring unpleasant memories. In some cases it's just a matter of discarding the items, but typically the transition from treasure to trigger is a complex one. This is the downside of being someone who attributes experiences to relevant items. I always assumed everyone did it but apparently there are some folks who don't get sentimental about 'things'. I suppose they have a much better memory for their own life events than me. (My memory for trivia and various 'focus subjects' is a whole other room in an otherwise dilapidated library.)

I have cut myself off from personal Facebook usage lately so don't be surprised if my posts here wax a little more contemplative than usual. I may have been a little paranoid or just egotistical but certain updates I'd make on there were just not being seen by pretty close friends, and I know the site's Algorithm plays games with manipulating users' feeds to minimise sad content, maximise uplifting but also aggravating content. That or maybe I just pissed off a bunch of them and was mass snoozed. Anyway, I figure there's no real point struggling against what seems to be an AI-driven curation method so fuck it. At least here rhe censorship is for the most part visible and logical.

I could just start a blog but I'm neither Somebody nor a Nobody with something inherently interesting to say on the regular.

Or maybe we will just keep talking about what we have bought. :)

Groceries yesterday; I do love that we can mostly just reorder the same shit week to week, weird product unavailabilities notwithstanding. Almost prebooked Dune tickets but when I checked seating there were plenty available. Spiderman on the other hand looks booked out for a good three or four days after its release mid December. That beast is gonna make so much money...