Ah, fear of missing out. That feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ll miss out on something big. We’ve all felt it, and that sort of pressure made us go out of our way just to be somewhere or buy something. However, more often than not, we’ve regretted not resisting, as the whole ordeal wasn’t worth our time, money, or both. Well, the Marvel Rivals community is now teasing the devs for trying to induce FOMO.
The Timer Next to the Items in the Store Induces FOMO in Marvel Rivals Players
As you probably know, there is always a collection of Costumes and Bundles that are on sale in the Store. These items are on a discount for a while, and then there’s a Store rotation, and a new set of items ends up on sale. Sure, it isn’t the perfect system, but overall, it’s completely acceptable.
However, some particularly observant players noticed something that the majority wouldn’t (or rather hasn’t noticed). You’ve surely noticed there’s a timer next to the items, as it’s important for the player base to know how long the sale lasts. But, did you notice that the Store shows milliseconds? One player, BKF0308, captured the FOMO inducing timer.
That’s quite an interesting design choice. Let’s be honest, hardly anyone would wait until that very last millisecond to buy the Bundle they were eyeing for a while. Still, when someone looks at a timer and sees it ticking very fast, like it does when it’s counting down milliseconds, they start to feel that anxiety in their stomach.
Is FOMO Really That Bad?
Obviously, the Marvel Rivals community wasn’t all that happy about the artificial FOMO. Once the timer runs out, the sale is over, but the Bundles and Costumes are still available at full price in the Store. So, there really is no need to pressure the players into buying something in a rush. Of course, some players took offense.
El_Rocky_Raccoon noted: “They sneakily added a bunch of FOMO notifications in desperation for players to buy skins. Like how the play screen will have a pop-up on the left side featuring the limited-time skins”.
Another player, Typemessage1, agreed: “These developers are getting desperate as hell with their FOMO garbage. You want to support a game, but then they start biting your hand for more. That’s why sometimes you just don’t buy anything”.
So, while some insist this is NetEase being greedy, others think the outrage is funny. After all, since the game is F2P, it’s only fair that the devs would promote the cosmetics. One player, soonerfreak, stated: “It’s just a countdown timer to the end of a sale. You are looking for things to get mad over”.
What do you think, is this the devs’ sneaky tactic or just poorly-thought-out design? We think this is one of those things where everyone needs to decide for themself. Honestly, with Season 2.5 ending, and Season 3 just around the corner, and Blade finally waking up, we think we’ll save our Units for him. Also, as you know, the devs have a reputation for delivering on various players’ requests, so they might take the timer down. So, enjoy, and see you out there.
