Trust me, when you've watched your long time favorite game, be it Text-Based or graphic, turn from Play-to-Win to overwhelmingly Pay-to-Win in a matter of days or weeks, you find out that it turns a friendly "competitive" game into an extremely agressivd "casual" game.
With an overwhelming amount of financially irresponsible people appearing in less than half a decade, there is no difference between the two; it's become a societal expectation to drop a few hundred dead presidents and sink an overtime rate of 80 straight hours into a game these days. All of the answers are very relevant to all forms of gaming now, sadly.
I wouldn't have included it if I didn't feel I needed to use these ridiculous examples to show the sad state of MMOs now. Not all of us have that kind of money, time, nor priority to devote to to these games anymore, especially when you're expected to make around $2.5k just to pay rent alone.
What's worse is the people we want nothing more than to write off as dicks, these days that doesn't suffice to describe them. I'm pretty sure a lot of people agree that many of the manchildren we meet on these games just suck the life from what we used to enjoy in these games, my main problem is why everyone has become so apathetic yet competitive and loose with something that can buy you food that they mirror my level of Nihilism and apathy. Never wanted either in the first place anyway, but many times since I'm not as well-known and/or well-liked like someone like George Carlin, who did the same things, I'm the one made out to be a bad person, so I'm typically one of the ones people end up hating because I am brutally honest.
And people wonder why I have become surly about our great hobby, yet we've got plenty of reasons why to be angry when its right in front of our faces.
But bottom line, help me understand why here looks virtually no different from other MMORPGs. Why is the attitude "drop 3 Xan," sure, I may be new to torn, but I am in no way new to the concept of differences in what people expect of activity and power. These days, many games are made out to be the easiest thing to play, yet once one actually get into it, it has an overwhelming sense of "get everything immediately, become overpowered in the blink of an eye."
What happened to true casual gaming where two or more people only play because they truly enjoy the sport. The time and effort for a journey that required someone to actually consider what the different things actually mean in the game, but now it honestly feels like there is no casual.
To be frank, no I don't care anymore what people expect of me, but sadly in order to "work well with others" I have no choice but to care about expectations. If I wanted to play a single player game about crime, then I'd be playing GTA San Andreas. Plus it does become a chore to deal with people who act like these games truly matter in real life and that virtuality is all there is, it's a major chore to keep up with people who join a game and sink thousands into a game that utilize Pay-to-Win tactics, especially if you've grinded slowly to where you're at and you've been the most active in a group of daily active like minded competitors.
And to answer whether I am sure I played this actually: I have already established that I have played Torn-like games for decades, they have, virtually, no difference these days. This is not my first rodeo, it's just annoying to find a game that looks like the people are casual players when really it's primarily a bunch of extra boost flexing. Most other MMORPGs used to prioritize time and effort, now most games are about wasting as much time, money, and energy fighting over who has bragging rights.
Once upon a time, people actually enjoyed these games with an air of casual skill, now we all have to either force ourselves to "get gud" overnight or have to sink much of what we earned that we need to actually live IRL with. If you can't eat, sleep, drink, and pay your internet or phone bill, you can't play these games very well without those essential things.