Arlen

If you’re running out of resources, you might be tempted to rush through upgrading a Town Hall. You notice someone has a weak-looking base. Before he can stock up on more loot, you think: Attack! But how much do they realy have? What’s displayed above their storage buildings isn’t the whole total. It doesn’t count … Read more

Every run of a R.E.P.O. Exists to meet its quota. It’s about banking enough surplus before time runs out. If you can spend the night hunting for rare items but don’t have at least three grand surplus in your truck when the clock ticks down to zero, then you’ve failed this run. That kind of … Read more

When you begin the raid, you’re thinking about your prayer pots and Olm’s phase transitions. Three hours later, when the loot window pops up, all that math about how much gold per hour come to mind. Time is the true currency here so most players end up losing “money”. Which is to say, they waste … Read more

It’s satisfying to hear Telos break apart, until you remember that all you have in your chest is absolute garbage. That’s why we have drop rates, though; it isn’t because people are spreadsheet addicts, but rather because losing out on hundreds of hours to variance makes it feel personal. Once you put in your preferred … Read more

Maybe you’re trying to complete a prayer set; you’re missing the Dexterous scroll, and you might want to get into Chambers of Xeric. Or maybe you want more damage; you see that someone’s running around with a Twisted bow on their back and you think, “I’d love one of those.” You head in there with … Read more

If you’re like most gamers, there’s nothing more frustrating then farming mobs for six hours and never seeing the one thing you wanted to pick up. You got all the right buffs, you’re wearing the right gear, you’re patient enough, but still, no item drops. It’s so infuriating it feels personal, except then you remember: … Read more

There is psychological tension as you are three packs away from an heirloom drop. It’s a combination of statistical anxiety and a sense of gambling addiction, where you might’ve wasted two hundred credits on duplicate skins but this next click might be what fixes it all. When you get your mythic weapon skin, there’s a … Read more

Remember that moment when you’re facing a raid boss for the tenth time this month? Everyone’s tired, the loot table seem rigged, and yet you desperate want that legendary weapon everybody claims no one can ever get. It’s not that you suck at the game; it’s not that your gear sucks either. Pure math are … Read more

If you’ve played a game long enough, you’re likely familiar with noticing a friend getting a booster pack of cards from a game you owned. They start clicking around and making badges, then suddeny leave with inventory you never laid eyes on. Steam booster drops are an obscure piece of math that, at first glance, … Read more

The other is when you fight a boss for hours and nothing drop. That’s almost always due to not understanding how the game calculates things, though luck still plays a part. Raw percentage numbers is misleading in this inflation RPG with layered mechanics. For example, if there’s a two percent chance of something dropping, it … Read more

Farming in Path of Exile can feel like watching paint dry, hoping something will pop out from it while you repeat same fights over and over again for hours. You kill hundreds of monster. You clear map after map. And yet there is still nothing in your stash tab. Don’t worry; it wasn’t bad luck. … Read more

After hours of running around trying to get your hands on a certin weapon, you return to the bonfire one last time. For the hundredth time, you reset the route and hope this kill will finally yield the drop. This repetition of hope and waiting make up the Dark Souls 1 grind. Knowing what your … Read more