Here we are once again with a Thursday Edition of Mayday, Miss Marcy!, where I answer your questions and provide you with the guidance you need in order to go about your life with your head held high, knowing that you’ve received the best possible answer to your question* (*Disclaimer: Exceptions apply). As always, Mayday, Miss Marcy! is supported by viewers like you, which is to say, we need your questions! If you enjoy the column, please submit your questions so that we can continue to deliver you the answers you want!
And, how do you send us questions, you ask? Well, you can do so in a few ways!
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Marcy@goonhammer.com
With the subject “Miss Marcy: ”
You are also able to leave comments on the article, as well as use the Discord bot command if you happen to be a member, meaning you now have THREE ways to give me your questions to answer! And now, on to the questions!
Last week we discussed a few different versions of defeatism. This week, we’ve got three new questions for you to feast your eyes upon, so let’s get down to it!
Spending Wisely, Or Not at All
Dear Miss Marcy, I have been enjoying Umamusume, and have done so reliably enough that I am considering SPENDING MONEY. Not much, but a little; I am not deranged enough to spend $21 US on horse JPGs. However, the $7 “get some now and a bunch over the next month” would seem like a way to Support the Project and gain at a comfortable price. I have heard that those are your best “deal” in such games. Can you comment on how to approach such things while avoiding the perils of becoming a whale, sent to a pauper’s grave by the allure of digital slot machines?
— Natura Iucunda.
Dear Natura,
Great question! Gacha Games are something I play quite a lot of and enjoy immensely, and lately I’ve found that a predominant number of games that I spend most of my time are on are gacha games. I won’t say I’m some godlike figure that possesses the patience of a saint and the wallet of a miser; I spend money on games I like, because I want to support the game, and also get the things I want. While many will say they go ‘Free To Play’ only, I don’t, and so I always try to measure out exactly how much money I’m spending and what it actually gets me.
The pack you’re referring to in Umamusume: Pretty Derby specifically is the “Daily Carat Pack,” which in most other gacha games is synonymous with a daily log-in pack or similar Monthly Membership option. These are usually fairly inexpensive, running between 5 USD to 10 USD at the priciest, with Umamusume’s coming in on the fairly high side at 7.99 USD. What these packs do is provide a small amount of up front currency, and then over 30 days dole out a set amount every day you log in. In almost all cases, these are considered the best value items you can spend your money on in a gacha game, as the math generally works out to being worth a single 10 pull on a banner, with a little extra.
That being said, my answer might surprise you: It really depends on what you enjoy about Umamusume and how you want to go about banners. If you like the idea of saving up and doing a 10 pull when you earn enough, then this thing is absolutely great. If you’re trying to save up currency to help stockpile for big banners, however, this probably won’t help you do that, at least not the way you expect. UM’s Global launch is on an accelerated schedule, meaning banners are constantly rotating and swapping in almost every week or every other week; originally, these would last half a month or a bit more. I still think the daily pack is a great value and if you want to spend a little money on the game is the best and safest way to do that.
Otherwise, my tip for gacha game spending is always 1) never spend more than you can afford, and 2) budget out how much you want or will have to spend on it. This is true of any game, really, but just view it as buying a “new” game every month. If you have 50 dollars to spend, then allot yourself 50 dollars, and don’t exceed it. Don’t get greedy and go “well, if I spent 10 more,” stick to your budget. In UM’s case, nothing in the game is truly limited and banners will come and go, and units/cards are not that important that you must have them right now or the game is trash. I hope that helps, and good luck on the track!
Happy Spouse, Happy Spouse
Dear Miss Marcy,
I saw your answer recently about playing with a spouse that did not quite enjoy games the same way as the asker. do you have any tips about how to get your spouse to play/be interested in your hobby?
— Solo Hobby Spouse.
Dear Solo,
Sharing your hobby with your partner can be one of the most fulfilling experiences you can have, but it can also be extremely frustrating when their reaction doesn’t meet your expectation, because it may feel as though your spouse doesn’t care about what you do. Although that can certainly be the case (in which case, you may want to consider if you want to spend your life with that person), it often comes from a junction of viewing “sharing” as “We have to do this together.” If you and your spouse do not have fully overlapping hobbies, there’s always a chance that trying to introduce one to the other may result in a bad outcome and hurt feelings.
As an example, my wife does not enjoy or find interest in role playing, which is one of my bigger hobbies. Initially I had asked her if she would like to try it and offered ways in which I could entice her to give it a shot, but I could tell that her interest wasn’t there and that she would be, at best, humoring me. I decided to change my tack and instead of trying to get her to roleplay, I simply found ways to talk about the hobby with her when recounting what I’d been up to that day or things that had happened. I avoided long, technical or extremely detailed explanations, and instead focused on something extremely funny or amusing that happened and talked about people’s reactions to it. This worked far better, because it still allowed me to share my hobby with her, while not trying to force her to participate and both of us having a miserable time.
In a second case, we both enjoy board games, but we have different priorities and tastes in what types of games we like. In the original question, I tried to help the question’s author to consider how they were approaching games and if they had viewed if they wanted the same thing out of games as their wife, who seemed to view it as a way to spend time with their spouse over being competitive. For us, I used this to help tailor our game collection to include numerous games that play well at 2, and that also play in different ways, rotating games in and out of our collection after trying them out. We’d often talk about the games afterwards and what we liked or didn’t like, and then after a few plays either decide to keep it in the collection, or rotate it out for something new.
I’m not sure if you’re picking up on this thread or not, so let me help: the key to this is communication. Simply asking your partner to do something with you will often earn a “sure, okay” or a flat “no”, but neither of those answers really takes into account if the other person’s thoughts and feelings are being addressed. It can be easy to get caught up in how much we enjoy a hobby and want to share it with others who will OBVIOUSLY love it as much as we do, without having taken in a full scope of who that person is and what they want, like, enjoy, or do on their own. You can’t get or expect your partner to share your hobby, but you can find ways to share your hobby with them, which can be just as fulfilling.
If the idea of talking to your partner or spouse makes you want to pull out a list of “Take my wife, please” or “ol’ ball and chain” jokes, well, maybe instead of asking me questions, you should call a divorce lawyer.
Just saying.
Remember Long Distance Charges?
Dear Miss Marcy,
My friends and i often like to hang out in discord and talk or do activities together, like playing games, watching a movie or other video together, or similarly sharing an activity. i’m the only person in the group who paints miniatures, and my group sometimes asks me to show them what i’m doing.
I’m not against streaming for them, but i actually don’t really know how; do you have any suggestions on cameras or set-ups?
— Camera Shy.
Dear Camera Shy,
I love this question so I hope my answer can help you out enough; I think it’s great that your friends are interested in what you’re doing and want to see it, and that you seem interested in showing them, rather than feeling too shy to do so or unsure. I also understand the hesitancy because you are likely going to need to spend a little bit of money to do this in a way that is viewable and somewhat worth looking at, and wasting money even on a good endeavor is still wasted money.
My first suggestion is to try your phone! Depending on the phone model you use, you might find that your phone camera can serve as a great streaming camera for something like Discord, and there are a number of free and easy ways (like elgato streaming tools, for example) that you can use to try this out. This of course assumes you have a modern smartphone with a camera, but it could be the best way to at least try this without having to spend any extra money, or at least only a small amount of money on something to hold your phone up.
As far as an actual camera is concerned, something like a Logitech C920 is often serviceable enough for what you’re looking to do, which is to stream some basic video to people in a call and not as a professional endeavor. While you could always look into more expensive cameras, again, don’t spend more than you’re comfortable with, and try to keep the tool practical; a decent webcam like that is often a great investment anyway, so it shouldn’t sting so much (and maybe you already own one during the period of COVID Zoom calls and the like).
There’s always a big assumption that streaming video and audio requires expensive, high tech equipment. In most cases, that only applies if you’re trying to do that as a job, and even then it likely scales with how good of and how much of a job you’re making things. For yourself and your friends, just try your web camera. If I can make a suggestion, you should focus more on establishing a safe and easy to use location to paint in that you could then aim the camera at. A good hobby light and a neutral space to paint on will make what you’re doing visible. You may also want to set up some sort of small ‘backdrop’ so that your camera isn’t trying to focus on things beyond your desk or table, which should help keep the focus on your hands and the model being held.
I hope for the best for your painting calls, and think the idea is really cute!
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