Asklemmy

I have spent far too long playing Magic Arena when it’s really just awful in pretty much every way you can imagine.

The economy is unbelievably broken because randomised packs are the only direct way you can use your gold to get cards, and they’ll almost never have the cards you need or in the quantities you need to have a halfway competitive deck.

Wildcards do allow you to choose to redeem them for specific cards, but they have to be of the same rarity as the wildcard and the mythic and especially rare wildcards you need so many of are always in short supply. Getting anything decent without spending real money requires a ton of grinding. I honestly wouldn’t even mind having to spend money if I could just buy the cards directly like in Magic Online, it’s much jankier but in my opinion better predecessor, but you can’t.

Probably the best part of the game is just the digital implementation of the game mechanics, but even there are some seriously annoying issues which come up not infrequently and can lose you games (like the autotapper for some reason valuing 1 life over keeping an extra colour of mana open for responses).

Overall it just feels like 95% of the time it’s just me grinding playing games with fast aggro decks I don’t even enjoy (I’m into control but it takes way longer to get your rewards that way). It’s just so so much worse than the paper game I love and I don’t think I would ever play it if it weren’t for the fact playing in paper is stupidly expensive for pretty much any 1v1 competitive format (commander is great and all and I have a couple decks, but it’s not my preferred format).

Clash Royale. I was in a clan that spanned multiple mobile games but I was the creator/leader for Clash Royale. The game has transitioned to P2W the last few years. I only keep it installed as a time waster and because of the clan.

Genshin Impact. Had like 400 hours in it before quitting.

I'm glad I'm out of that grind hell now.

NBA 2K games. Terrible loot system that never gives you good stuff until it enters endgame near the end of the year. Then they turn off the servers a few months later and force you to buy next year's game that has the same graphics and a slightly tweaked playing mechanics.

But I honestly personally spent quite literally hundreds of hours on that series. Mainly cause I'm a huge NBA fan and I love building out custom teams and there's not much competition in realistic basketball simulators at the moment.

I feel like all the games I've sunken more then 50 hours into have some merit tbh. I've never really been into those super grinding or janky games that seem to be the target of the comments haha.

This godawful matching mobile game called Hello Kitty Friends.

Seriously it's the worst. But also it's mindless and cute and when I had back pain that was keeping me up all night I used to pace back and forth across my living room playing it.

Temple run. I used to play it a lot back in high school, unlocked everything with gameplay only including seasonal things like Santa Claus. It was fun enough, but updates would regularily reset my game completely loosing everything I archieved and unlocked, and the developers never gave a shit about that issue. I eventually gave up on it because of that.

SWTOR

I’ve put at least 2000 hours into this game and completed all the endgame PvE content including an NA first/world second raid achievement and made a lot of friends in the game.

It’s still a shit game with barely any new content and now Bioware has pawned off the game to some company called Broadsword that looks like it specializes in taking over dead MMORPGs

Ultima Online is the only thing that I can really think of. Most things I think are garbage, were always garbage. But UO used to be so fucking awesome until EA started trying to make it more like EQ and later WoW.

Since I haven't seen it yet, Dead by Daylight is a pay-to-win disaster that is consistently making boneheaded decisions nearly every update.

Ah Eve Online... yeah... feels like something cool might happen but then you're 20 hours later and nothing cool has happened yet. I ran a little corp or two for a while and the main thing bringing me back was just interacting with those people. Though running a small corp sucks because nobody ever wants to help you run it or contribute, and then some cheeky fucker steals your, worthless but convenient, shared inventory and leaves.

I don't need a 2nd job and I definitely don't need to be an adult babysitter.

Dead by Daylight.

The community is absolutely toxic in a very weird way. I've played other games with famously toxic communities but in Dead by Daylight it has a strange spin. Some players heavily identify with the killer/survivor side and feel personally attacked by everything "the other side" or the developers do.

Imagine bringing Tumblr fandoms into an asynchronous and highly competitive Us VS Them game.

You will regret the day you cross ways with either an unhinged player of DbD who will stalk you throughout the internet. Or someone who streams this game and their unhinged fanbase.

Goat Simulator.

That is an extremely good description of the reality of Eve. For me this would be Arma 3. Such extraordinary potential but for every 15 hours you fiddle, you get 6 minutes of peak gaming. Absolutely not worth it.

Destiny 2.

I don't know if I can call it garbage but probably no one in their right mind should play Hearts of Iron IV. Somehow I managed to persist through hours of bewilderment and confusion, until it all clicked, and I soon found myself unhealthily obsessed and unable to rest peacefully until glorious France had swept across half of the globe

The Genesis Young Indiana Jones game. Played it a lot when I was a kid, because I owned very few games. Got so good at it I was able to beat the whole thing without dying. I loved that game.

Then a few days ago, James Rolfe played it in the latest AVGN episode and holy cow that game is absolute garbage. For the curious, you can check it out from 18:34: https://youtu.be/xPsN_rcEpu4

Wurm Online/Unlimited
Like...legit? I really enjoy it. Buuuuut I couldn't tell you why. The whole thing is literally a grindfest. Want to craft a cart so you can haul some logs? Better grind carpentry for two days. Want to grind carpentry? Gotta search every patch of gravel you can find for a few hours to get iron and flint so you can make the tools to be able to chop trees.

It's a slog, and yet I play it quite often.....

Guild Wars 2, although I don't know if people think it's garbage, just more obscure now

Elite Dangerous. I have thousands of hours in it, would not recommend. I got into it with high hopes, but the developers proved their incompetence time and time again. Doesn't stop me from playing it though, I still love the setting and the... I suppose low level gameplay? Like flying a ship and doing combat etc all feels great, but there's no higher level gameplay to make it interesting.

Stellaris. Extremely long games, a lot to learn.. ..and they change it. Mechanics that worked before stop working. The bad parts are added to same become a DLC, the good parts disappear or are algal paved in DLC. Overall, it just doesn't feel worth it.

i used to play clash royale, it is a massive credit card grab and a mental health nightmare

When I was about 13, I started playing this MMO called Nexus TK. I have spent what I'm sure is thousands of hours playing it. I kicked the habit for a whule, but recently re-registered to see what was going on. It's a slow responding 2D "action" MMO, and the decline in players turned it into a weird niche clique where newcomers are basically not welcome. But it's still up and running 25 years later.

You should go check it out. It's awful.

Apex Legends. Matchmaking is garbage, but when you win it’s a good high. I have way too many hours into that game. I would be well over level 1000 if it kept track

I had 2000+ hours in Sea of Thieves before I stopped playing. I enjoyed the multiplayer aspect - meeting new people and having long chats without big groups (max crew of 4). It also has decent pve content. But the devs did a terrible job at bug fixing and it felt like they cared more about the lore/story telling than the sandbox aspects and combat which is the core of the game.

I feel like most people will name salt inducing multiplayer games. So I will too. Overwatch