You may not be afflicted with a somewhat common vice known as jealousy.

As you said in your previous post. You had a responsible upbringing, know the value and worth of the money you’ve earned, and you spend it how you please.

Think about this for a moment. Deacon, Sigurd, and others are directly and indirectly attacking people who in their opinion have spent too much. They have called them irresponsible, possessing dysfunctional intellect, foolish, and various other insults to their purchasing choices.

I can only speak for the people I know personally. But the ones who have spent the industry standard of a whale (and despite what some have tried to claim, it is a hard number), they all have their mortgages paid (some have their home titles), their bills are paid, they have a full stock of food, and a comfortable lifestyle for themselves and their families.

Out of what they have left over they take a portion to spend on silly luxuries. These include collectables, vacations and cruises, fine dining, and cosmetics in a video game. Even after all they spend on a game they enjoy they have soo much more that simply goes into a saving account to accrue interest for funds they’ll never really use in their lifetime.

I fail to see how that is foolish behavior. And most reasonable people would agree.

The issue isn’t that the luxuries in question are worth this or that. They bits and bytes on a database. They are ultimately worthless in value. Paying a cent is logically paying more than they are worth. Argubly they aren’t even a service, as a service usually has some form of tangible benefit. Such as a server bringing you food, or a delivery bringing a good, a barber cutting your hair. You play a video game and dress up a fake character, and then when you turn off the game, all tangible benefits vanish in that moment. It gave you a rush of feel good hormones you could have gotten from jogging or exercising and actually had a tangible benefit for free.

They are worth what they are worth to an individual. As human beings with dominion over the world we live in, we do not live to the function of our needs. We live for the functions of what we want. What is valuable to an individual is unique to that individual.

I remember a disagreement my dad had with a friend of us. Both were retired from the military at 20+ years and then served at the same law enforcement center for over 15 years. My dad had a slightly higher pension having been a retired MGySgt, and his friend a retired SFC. But otherwise their incomes were in the same range. However my dad was a little better off financially having made some better choices over the years. The disagreement happened when my dad told his friend that he had satellite TV installed. His friend knew he also had premium cable and asked if he switched. My dad told him he had both. To which his friend who got visibly upset said that was ridiculous since you could only watch one at a time. This was right around the time right before streaming really took off.

This was a little surprising to see. Why was he upset about this? Well the pangs of envy and jealousy were creeping in. Eventually he did realize his mistake and apologized.

Because there is no other reason to attack someone for buying something. Because if there is enough of these well off individuals keeping the game afloat… then the product is apparently good enough to entice enough to pay for them. The issue is obvious, it has nothing to do with protesting with one’s wallet. It has everything to do with not wishing to see people with product they can’t or aren’t willing to purchase themselves. Seeing someone with something they can’t responsibly have is the real issue.

Everyone who has purchased something with Crom Coin in the bazaar has things I do not have. This doesn’t faze me. I’m glad those people can enjoy those things. I do think some of the things are a bit high on the price side, which is why I have not purchased anything. It is outside of my gaming budget (and I prefer to use that budget to buy games, rather than cosmetics).

But it makes no sense for me to insult someone for doing otherwise. I do not believe anyone who is capable of spending money on things that they want, and things that bring them joy, should be judged for doing so.