Mercenary Gaming

The practice or industry of designing and producing mercenary games—games whose primary purpose is profit extraction, not player enjoyment. Mercenary Gaming is the dominant business model of the contemporary games industry, where games are designed by data scientists and psychologists to maximize engagement and spending. It's the reason your phone buzzes with notifications to return to your "free" game, the reason loot boxes feel so compelling, the reason "whales" (big spenders) are more important than players. Mercenary Gaming has transformed play from a leisure activity into a consumption activity, from fun into extraction.

Example: "He'd been a gamer his whole life, but something had changed. Mercenary Gaming had taken over: every game wanted his money, his time, his data. Play felt like work, fun felt like manipulation. He missed the days when games were made to be enjoyed, not to extract."

by Abzugal February 21, 2026

Greedy Gaming

The practice or culture of designing games with maximum profit as the sole objective, at the expense of player experience, artistic integrity, or fair play. Greedy Gaming is mercenary gaming's more honest name: it's gaming driven by greed, pure and simple. It's the reason $70 games still have microtransactions, the reason "ultimate editions" cost $100, the reason you can pay to win. Greedy Gaming has normalized extraction, made exploitation expected. Players have learned to accept that games will try to squeeze them, that "free" means "costs more," that fun is now a product to be purchased in installments.

Example: "He looked at his game library—dozens of games, hundreds of dollars, and still he felt like he owned nothing. Greedy Gaming had made every purchase a rental, every game a service. He wasn't a player; he was a subscriber. The fun was temporary; the extraction was permanent."

by Abzugal February 21, 2026

Backseat Gaming

The dude who actively breaks EVERY GAME HE TOUCHES.

"Dude, you're just like Backseat Gaming, you've found 20 glitches in an HOUR!"

by Blue Imposter March 18, 2026

Backseat Gaming

The guy who constantly breaks EVERY SINGLE GAME HE TOUCHES.

"Dude, you're like Backseat Gaming, you've found 20 DIFFERENT GLITCHES within an HOUR!"

by Blue Imposter March 18, 2026

Nikolai gaming

Nikolai gaming a nerd and friends with Scott and 9qbd

Nikolai gaming edgy larper and Church player

by Anonymous.sl March 19, 2025

smots gaming

A YouTube channel that posts videos every day of the eighth room of chapter Scattered Mirror of the Storm (smots for short) in Final Goodbye, a map made by Monika, but changed in some funny way.

Grub: "smots gaming got nominated for best Celeste Content Creator at the Celeste Awards!"
smots gaming: "Thank you all. :smotsheart:"

by EvilMC10 April 15, 2025

smots gaming

smots gaming (stylised as all lowercase) is a YouTube channel which posts daily content about the room smots-8 from Monika's Final Goodbye (9D), which is a custom mod in the indie game Celeste. The channel was created by an unknown person on April 26th, 2024.

smots gaming

by mb6fbhsphdrcb April 20, 2025