I played it for a few days early on, but it was pretty apparent from the changes to strength and endurance that Nikita was (as usual) taking the game in a less fun direction by making the game even more unnecessarily difficult to sit through playing, and so I quit it. Uninstalled.
And not just a "rage Uninstall the game then come back a few days later" I haven't touched it the whole wipe. I feel like my mental health has genuinely improved. I've been playing other games like DayZ and Rust, and dark and darker since it's been in playtest this week, and those games, while brutal at times, always gave me a sense of fairness in a way tarkov never did. Playing tarkov, I never really felt like I really had any control over the outcome of a raid. When I play other games and I die and lose a bunch of shit, I (usually) know that it's my fault. If I play bad, I lose loot. If I play good, I gain loot. It never felt like that for me in tarkov, even when I ran the best loot in the game.
It might seem silly to say that switching the games I play would have any impact on my mental health, but when playing video games is your only form of recreation, when you're playing a game where the creator has LITERALLY GONE ON RECORD OF SAYING "this is not supposed to be a fun game" and that's all you play, 4-6 hours a day, day in and day out, it starts to wear on a person. I feel disrespected as a player when I think about the way that bsg has been developing tarkov, just CONSTANTLY making changes that basically nobody wants or even likes. Since quitting tarkov I genuinely feel like a happier person.
If you're playing a lot of tarkov, and you're not enjoying tarkov, I highly recommend you just quit. It's like a drug, or an emotionally abusive relationship. It's addictive, but it's bad for you. You will feel so much better if you get out.
I can't wait for next wipe so I can enjoy NOT playing it.
