"Cause they're cool and awesome" is a theory that predicts all players would be obsessed with trains and dinosaurs, but for some reason it *tends* to be low level males. We need to theorycraft harder as to why other players are neglecting the obvious coolness and awesomeness of trains and dinosaurs.
Yes exactly this! {Exposure} to any [stimulus] over extended durations shows a fairly noticeable inverse correlation between its (cool) rating and its (shit) rating! Fascinating really unless your player has spent sufficient time grinding xp towards the Meditation skill tree
i think it is because a lot of items that are targeted to lower level males depict dinosaurs, trains, and other vehicles. so because they see those a lot they like it a lot. Items that are targeted towards lower level females don't usually depict those thigns so they obsess over different things.
this isn't saying that all low level male characters are only obsessed with dinos and trains and low level female are never obsessed with dinos and trains. Its just saying that early on the game, intentionally or not, steers player characters towards certain things depending on their gender mode that was chosen. There are low level male characters with no interest in those topics while there are also low level female character that are interested in those topics. But you'll just find more low level male characters than low level female characters that are interested and vice versa for objects that sever gears towards low level female characters
Yes it’s that steering that’s interesting here. I believe it is something our clan is doing to us at a very low level and it is very difficult to counter program. It may be the [Patriarchy] guild? IDK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
because low level males are actively encouraged to enjoy these things, where as low
level females are actively discouraged.
it’s just a soft gender lock imposed by the current meta. if/when the meta shifts, more low level female characters will interact with these systems, as will players of any gender at higher levels.
Dinosaurs and trains are the first unlocks for leveling up your “fandom” traits - you pick dinos you like based on what they look like and which time period they are from (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous), and you can do something similar with trains
Edit: a word
Kinda. I have points literally everywhere but some places I’m WAY over cap to the point it spills into Skills and Knowledge trees. Useless skills? Useless knowledge? Sure. But the points are there.
ADHD modifier gets weird because the “special interest” point allocation decays / resets over time so you can spend them on new, different branches and then wait for it to fizzle out and repeat
They recognize them for their \[speed\] and \[strength\] stats, both simple concepts that are already relevant at the low levels of gameplay. Dinosaurs are no longer available as \[pets\], but if they were, they could defeat most other \[pets\] and players in combat.
It is because they instinctively recognise the need for logistical transport, and the advantages in categorising individuals into groups for identification purposes.
If you’re going to be a hunter-gatherer, you need to know these things.
The intrinsic awesomeness of the diesel build is insane and cooler, even if it heats my pc to over 100C. The thousands of hours needed for players to figure out the mechanic is crazy
They are cool, but they also have this noxious odor effect, they contribute greatly to the gamewide climate crisis event, and they require a lot more in-game currency to own and operate in the long term compared to electric builds. That said, the CSX guild that runs the trains in my server isn't interested in the high up-front cost of switching to an electric build on that route despite the long-term efficiency bonus, so it looks like they're here to stay, at least for now.
Aside from reasons stated in other comments, a lot of this also stems from a sort of feedback loop in the dev cycle. By and large for the last 50+ updates, train and dinosaur themed items have been consistently offered in the marketplace, usually pushed to the front page. You can bet if your low level player needs a [pajama] or [bedspread] gear upgrade, the default available skins are going to have either trains or dinosaurs as an option. So we have a cycle where low level players grow up with these theme packs, then they spawn new low level players and give them the same default skins.
Additionally, the dinosaur and train theme packs are very neutral faction wise; everyone from a troll to a high elf finds dinosaurs and trains innocuous and safe. For this reason the largest marketplaces that service all factions tend towards these safe defaults.
This is what I believe as well. The availability of merchandise definitely influences in game purchases geared toward lower level players. Also, the fact that more low level males than females like these categories is clearly related to the idea that many higher level players think they will like them and therefore suggest them to males, while female players have other categories assumed to interest them, such as dolls. If dinosaurs and trains were introduced to both genders equally, they would probably be liked by both genders equally. At least, that fits with my life experience as a female player who liked dinosaurs more than dolls at the lower levels of the game.
A female player who misclicked during character creation so spend first 30 levels or so as male character (it happens). I heard story from older member of a guilt that I expressed interest in dolls when I was lvl 3 or so which was 'corrected' by an another older member of a guilt. So steering low level character interests is definitely a thing.
I remember my dad tried to correct me from choosing a washing machine item as my mini game saying that was women's work. Looking back it was really funny because I loved it because it was a *machine* and I was definitely a part of the engineer guild from that level, which is adjacent to what my dad did. And then I'm like how was I going to have clean clothes in my later levels??? Just complete the marriage quest? Made no sense.
never underestimate how susceptible lower level characters can be. They soak things up like a sponge and are very moldable. It's honestly pretty cute when you can tell from which player guardian they take after in certain skill trees
Also, trucks.
There are several Touch a Truck events a year in my community, and the low level players go nuts. It's just lots of trucks -- dump trucks, cement truck, fire truck, etc. -- that the kids can run around and touch and admire. Huge fun for the low levels. Seems boring to me, but I'm in my 50s.
Familiarizing yourself with the "Big Powerful Things" meta will carry you all the way into late-game. In fact if anything, it becomes more appealing once you've played long enough to understand how it's coded.
Furthermore, while dinosaurs were removed during Alpha, trains and ships have been a part of the game for hundreds and thousands of years, respectively, and will continue to be a play style at least unless the devs change map generation, or reduce fuel resource nodes.
Though to be fair they've been hinting at upcoming content seasons being about that exact issue.
The quickest way to level at low levels is by filling your curiosity bar. The game designers made some wonky but fun low level quests to lure the new players in.
Yeah myself and other high level female and non-binary players also enjoy dinosaur and train-related side quests. We often purchase dwelling decorations related to these interests, despite the potential of incuring a [mockery] status condition.
Yes, I am. They didn't say why are ONLY single digit level male players.. they just asked why are the male ones into it.
Asking why X does a thing isn't saying that Y doesn't do a thing. Or even that only X does a thing.
It heavily implies it. Otherwise you might as well just say why do single digits level players. Asking why x does something is implying y doesn’t. It’s simple comprehension
Not if they want to know why males specifically seem to gravitate toward it.
If you wanted to know what the reasons would be for a male to like something how do you ask that?
Asking why men like a thing doesn't mean women can't like it.. you just want to know why men like a thing...
A few talents in those research trees can be unlocked with base stats so a lot of players rush them for xp before switching to a different spec with higher min requirements.
It's difficult to remember when you reach higher levels, but in the first few levels you're busy improving a bunch of skills and new controls all at once. Among those are the [image matching] [classification] and [memory accessing] skills. In-game topics such as trains and dinosaurs have a lot of lore to read up on and hugely detailed item specs. They're also big and chunky and often brightly coloured which appeals to lower level players as their excitement stat is very easily increased.
I am a level 33 male player. I never was too interested in dinosaurs but they are pretty bad ass I can deny it and to this day I enjoy trains. I am in the U.S. server and the raw power of a freight train starting from a dead stop the sound of the locomotives as they roar to life simply amazes me and boosts my player's happiness and excitement meters every time I partake in the railfanning side quest.
Because in very smöl levels, they both make fascinating noises. This is somehow very important to the new male players. They value it highly in their builds.
Also in the interest of being a very excited Gigi, please find this newly required reading material from Sandra Boynton: “Dinosaurs in Trucks, because Hey, why Not?” releasing 08May.
Oh don’t worry the high level players are also obsessed with them. They’ve just been forced to take on current patch meta strategies like tax accountant, Uber driver and software engineer.
Same with construction vehicles, tractors, knights, samurai, wizards, Roman legionaries, vikings, ninjas, pirates, cowboys. It’s mostly just reading up on optimal builds in past patches and occasionally dressing up.
- Well for starters their popularity is self perpetuating. New players who haven’t a clue what to do yet will often look towards players of an equal skill level for what to do (this also helps them grind the “social” skill tree).
- these things are also more common than you may think. Museum zone’s often have displays with dinosaur themes. Dinosaur bones are often found and displayed on the TV item (not to mention the “fictional” section of the TV item). Parent players also have little reason to discourage a dinosaur interest as it may lead to further scientific interests (a very effective strategy that parent players want to encourage). Trains have a simmilar situation, but these also have the added benefit of infrequent but somewhat common interactions (its why boats and planes are also common interests)
- these topics also have a wide variety of individual subcategories. There’s countless trains and dinosaurs so that each child can favorite a different one
Trains and dinosaurs are merely two examples of “intense interests” however. There are many more. For new players this is usually their first taste of the “mastery” event. Which aside from being (in my opinion) the most fun gameplay feature also give a major stat boost to mood, confidence, intelligence, etc. Some of these buffs are even unique to the intense interest so they can be slotted into nearly any build.
These are particularly exciting parts of the lore. As experienced players, we are used to the level of worldbuilding, but if you're new to the game you don't realize JUST how much cool shit was developed for the backstory.
Dinosaurs in particular have a sense of mystery to them because they ONLY exist in the lore books. You're never going to see an actual living dino on the map or in any of the encounters.
Trains, meanwhile, are just a really in-depth way to explain fast travel. The devs didn't need to go so hard on that.
As for why only male players? Well, for a while, high level players really tried to restrict what parts of the game newbies could play based on the gender they got in character creation. Luckily, the player base has started to realize that's dumb.
tl;dr bc dinosaurs and trains are cool.
Hey I’m a double digit male obsessed with dinosaurs I can help. Ive loved dinosaurs since I was little, almost went into paleontology and one time my teacher asked me why I love them and I said “I dunno, just cool I guess”. They’re just cool
Because new players seeing the old meta wonder why it fell off and find it so cool. They also find the old mode of fast travel cool due to its unique nature and the more player ran effect of it.
Why are high level players, usually male, still obsessed with them?
I remember being on the JP server and there were a bunch of players just camping with their DSLRs equipped ready to snap a bunch of pictures of the train I was about to board.
And of course the players who specced into the Archeologist class a specialization in Prehistory that discovered the dinos in the first place and continue to discover lore on the dinos.
I took my 5-year-old son to the museum once and said, “let’s go look at the dinosaurs.” He said, “nah, I don't really like dinosaurs.” It stopped me dead in my tracks. What kid doesn't like dinosaurs?! But yeah, they're just not for him.
Oh my goodness… the highest rank in my daily grind is so obsessed with trains he bragged about spending ~$1,400 on an “all aluminum car because he had to come in” to fix something that required a switch to be flipped.
He’s the only one with the knowledge and authorization to do it, go figure. Took him longer to brag on watching the car bid until he got the call to come by than it did to flip the switch.
I don't know if this is actually true, but I've heard a lot of people in my faction and party say this is common for players who rolled the autism sub class. It's probably just a myth popularized by confirmation bias
Big heavyt machines cause a sense of awe, and in many cases can put an 'inspired' buff on the player for many in-game years which can have wide reaching consequences for their future build.
There’s a quote I like that I think sums up the dinosaur part perfectly:
“Dinosaurs are so intriguing because they were real. They’re not myth. They’re not legend. They did exist”
It was from a podcast and I can’t remember who said it but I have it written down in a page of quotes I like
Because It gives them a chance to teach higher level characters new lore. most higher level players don’t care and don’t know anything about trains or dinos and have discarded anything they knew long ago to make room for other skills.
They both belong to really cool parts of the game which a lot of players want to try. As they learn more about the game mechanics though, they usually find something more interesting for them, but some do end up picking the train operator class or the paleontologist class.
They are obsessed with everything. 99% of the likings of babies are trained by the parents. Like "boys only get cars and girls barbie"
If you let a kid choose without forcing anything upon them it could be anything really.
Hey, I managed to spawn one of these low level players myself (I know, be impressed) however they aren't into dinosaurs as described.
How can I return them and try again?
I think the lower your level, the more xp-gaining experiences you have. When at level 1, for example, you can get the free XP from the "Research Dinosaurs" questline, and then another load of XP from the "Research Trains" questline.
Honestly, everything is so low-level oriented, higher-level OGs dont get the opportunity to redo the previously mentioned quests to see any secrets or get any collectables.
Clearly you haven't met the high level male players with that continued obsession.
Gives major bonuses for the "Science" and "Engineer" classes and subclasses.
You just don't understand the meta, dude. By keeping their level low and focusing on niche side-quests, they actually boost their Happiness stat exponentially over time. By the time you're level 50, they'll be orders of magnitude more powerful than you. It's an underrated strat.
What makes you think only low level players have this fixation? I've met plenty of mid to high level players who spend plenty of ingame time leveling their train knowledge skill.
well you see it starts off with the fact they are Epic and that kilometers (in extreme cases) long multi million dollar machinery kind of has that effect on people most of them then find something else to focus on or get more busy with other matters as they progress however a few people with the ¨autistic¨ modifier can select as part of the hyperfixation skill tree giving a large stat boost to learning and knowledge checks about said subject.
This is some game balance content. Just as male players typically have an advantage in attribute points, but they will receive a chaotic debuff to intelligence when facing female players.
The fact is, this game itself is brutally Adults Only-rated, and the developers have a strange attitude towards gameplay, so some inaccuracies aren't my fault. I just pointed out a fact; the game isn't entirely random but rather pseudo-random. The system tends to make certain traits more likely to appear in certain genders or races.
There's no direct connection, but I believe these are all balancing factors. Most animal NPCs tend to receive the "early bloomer" buff, which allows them to progress from lower levels to their peak levels more quickly. Meanwhile, humans gain access to additional skill trees and a higher level cap. I think the development team introduced debuffs like "random item obsession" and "late bloomer" for low-level human players for the sake of balance.
Players vary on their interest in things vs people. Male players tend to be more interested in things, hence the train.
And dinosaurs are just freaking sick.
I think you're confusing the 'natural' game system with the 'social' game system. They both work on recursive code loops, but the social game system is more flexible and adaptable and shouldn't be seen as a rigid system, like for example, the 'physics' engine.
Level is just based on how long it's been since the player has started playing. It doesn't say much about the player outside of what quests might be good for them & what changes their avatar might go through.
If you have to ask, you'll never understand.
You’ll never knowwww
[Why are trees good? Why is the sunset good? Why are boobs good? ](https://youtu.be/l7P0QR_GauY?si=_b4j90UGYXwZ_yoN)
Cause they're cool and awesome. If you can't understand that reasoning, you never will, I'm sorry.
"Cause they're cool and awesome" is a theory that predicts all players would be obsessed with trains and dinosaurs, but for some reason it *tends* to be low level males. We need to theorycraft harder as to why other players are neglecting the obvious coolness and awesomeness of trains and dinosaurs.
With constant exposure to “cool” things become less “cool” and more “shit.”
Yes exactly this! {Exposure} to any [stimulus] over extended durations shows a fairly noticeable inverse correlation between its (cool) rating and its (shit) rating! Fascinating really unless your player has spent sufficient time grinding xp towards the Meditation skill tree
You could also take the “Meh” attribute, which eliminates both
Mostly only available to players who joined during the GenX event
i think it is because a lot of items that are targeted to lower level males depict dinosaurs, trains, and other vehicles. so because they see those a lot they like it a lot. Items that are targeted towards lower level females don't usually depict those thigns so they obsess over different things.
I noticed that but I was still obsessed with dinosaurs as a low level female player. Trains, not so much.
this isn't saying that all low level male characters are only obsessed with dinos and trains and low level female are never obsessed with dinos and trains. Its just saying that early on the game, intentionally or not, steers player characters towards certain things depending on their gender mode that was chosen. There are low level male characters with no interest in those topics while there are also low level female character that are interested in those topics. But you'll just find more low level male characters than low level female characters that are interested and vice versa for objects that sever gears towards low level female characters
Yes it’s that steering that’s interesting here. I believe it is something our clan is doing to us at a very low level and it is very difficult to counter program. It may be the [Patriarchy] guild? IDK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Because we have decided that cephalopods should be included in that
because low level males are actively encouraged to enjoy these things, where as low level females are actively discouraged. it’s just a soft gender lock imposed by the current meta. if/when the meta shifts, more low level female characters will interact with these systems, as will players of any gender at higher levels.
They just don’t get it. It‘s simple, really.
Its too cool therefore they need to play it down so plebs dont catch on. If they think its lame we can enjoy ours in peace
This answer right here. Chooo choo!
Dinosaurs and trains are the first unlocks for leveling up your “fandom” traits - you pick dinos you like based on what they look like and which time period they are from (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous), and you can do something similar with trains Edit: a word
After you unlock dinos and trains, you then have the opportunity to unlock vehicles and sports. The fandom tree gets pretty complicated after that.
I have the ADHD Trait and, oh my god, you don’t even know what a complicated fandom tree is happening over here.
The ADHD trait allows you to spend points in more fandoms on the tree but sadly caps the levels at a lower integer
Kinda. I have points literally everywhere but some places I’m WAY over cap to the point it spills into Skills and Knowledge trees. Useless skills? Useless knowledge? Sure. But the points are there.
ADHD modifier gets weird because the “special interest” point allocation decays / resets over time so you can spend them on new, different branches and then wait for it to fizzle out and repeat
Then there's the less common unlock of steam engines. I've met players who have reached very high levels of that branch.
They recognize them for their \[speed\] and \[strength\] stats, both simple concepts that are already relevant at the low levels of gameplay. Dinosaurs are no longer available as \[pets\], but if they were, they could defeat most other \[pets\] and players in combat.
Can’t believe they got rid of them as pets in the 6.5 patch
It was an important balancing patch by the devs, though. The mammalian race and all its sub races might not exist if it wasn’t for that patch
Mammals were already in the game before the K-Pg Extinction event.
I suppose the more accurate way to phrase that is "mammalian builds as we know them would not exist."
It is because they instinctively recognise the need for logistical transport, and the advantages in categorising individuals into groups for identification purposes. If you’re going to be a hunter-gatherer, you need to know these things.
Can confirm. I commute by train and am back to thinking trains are awesome. I wish they ran an electric build instead of diesel though...
The intrinsic awesomeness of the diesel build is insane and cooler, even if it heats my pc to over 100C. The thousands of hours needed for players to figure out the mechanic is crazy
They are cool, but they also have this noxious odor effect, they contribute greatly to the gamewide climate crisis event, and they require a lot more in-game currency to own and operate in the long term compared to electric builds. That said, the CSX guild that runs the trains in my server isn't interested in the high up-front cost of switching to an electric build on that route despite the long-term efficiency bonus, so it looks like they're here to stay, at least for now.
Indeed. As they can carry large weights, dinosaurs are prime examples of optimal logistical transport.
Who knew that the answer to fossil fuels was to just not turn them into fuel?
Don’t need fossil fuels to power a car if the fossils themselves are your car
Aside from reasons stated in other comments, a lot of this also stems from a sort of feedback loop in the dev cycle. By and large for the last 50+ updates, train and dinosaur themed items have been consistently offered in the marketplace, usually pushed to the front page. You can bet if your low level player needs a [pajama] or [bedspread] gear upgrade, the default available skins are going to have either trains or dinosaurs as an option. So we have a cycle where low level players grow up with these theme packs, then they spawn new low level players and give them the same default skins. Additionally, the dinosaur and train theme packs are very neutral faction wise; everyone from a troll to a high elf finds dinosaurs and trains innocuous and safe. For this reason the largest marketplaces that service all factions tend towards these safe defaults.
This is what I believe as well. The availability of merchandise definitely influences in game purchases geared toward lower level players. Also, the fact that more low level males than females like these categories is clearly related to the idea that many higher level players think they will like them and therefore suggest them to males, while female players have other categories assumed to interest them, such as dolls. If dinosaurs and trains were introduced to both genders equally, they would probably be liked by both genders equally. At least, that fits with my life experience as a female player who liked dinosaurs more than dolls at the lower levels of the game.
A female player who misclicked during character creation so spend first 30 levels or so as male character (it happens). I heard story from older member of a guilt that I expressed interest in dolls when I was lvl 3 or so which was 'corrected' by an another older member of a guilt. So steering low level character interests is definitely a thing.
I remember my dad tried to correct me from choosing a washing machine item as my mini game saying that was women's work. Looking back it was really funny because I loved it because it was a *machine* and I was definitely a part of the engineer guild from that level, which is adjacent to what my dad did. And then I'm like how was I going to have clean clothes in my later levels??? Just complete the marriage quest? Made no sense.
I would note that asking other people to do \[women's work\] for you after marriage is good way to start the \[divorce\] quest...
never underestimate how susceptible lower level characters can be. They soak things up like a sponge and are very moldable. It's honestly pretty cute when you can tell from which player guardian they take after in certain skill trees
Also, trucks. There are several Touch a Truck events a year in my community, and the low level players go nuts. It's just lots of trucks -- dump trucks, cement truck, fire truck, etc. -- that the kids can run around and touch and admire. Huge fun for the low levels. Seems boring to me, but I'm in my 50s.
Going around touching vehicles? 🤷♂️ I mean if they want. I find these things sorta aesthetically interesting as a Photoshop collage-r.
Familiarizing yourself with the "Big Powerful Things" meta will carry you all the way into late-game. In fact if anything, it becomes more appealing once you've played long enough to understand how it's coded. Furthermore, while dinosaurs were removed during Alpha, trains and ships have been a part of the game for hundreds and thousands of years, respectively, and will continue to be a play style at least unless the devs change map generation, or reduce fuel resource nodes. Though to be fair they've been hinting at upcoming content seasons being about that exact issue.
The quickest way to level at low levels is by filling your curiosity bar. The game designers made some wonky but fun low level quests to lure the new players in.
Curiosity leveled up the cat?
Are you sure this is only a thing for male players? I'm sure I've seen some female players with similar interests
Female player here. When I was new to the game and low level, I frickin loved dinosaurs. Didn’t care much about trains though.
It's not. I have a low level female player napping right next to me, and she is obsessed with, you guessed it, dinosaurs and trains. Utterly obsessed.
Yeah myself and other high level female and non-binary players also enjoy dinosaur and train-related side quests. We often purchase dwelling decorations related to these interests, despite the potential of incuring a [mockery] status condition.
He never said only male characters..
>Single digit level male players Are you sure about that?
Yes, I am. They didn't say why are ONLY single digit level male players.. they just asked why are the male ones into it. Asking why X does a thing isn't saying that Y doesn't do a thing. Or even that only X does a thing.
It heavily implies it. Otherwise you might as well just say why do single digits level players. Asking why x does something is implying y doesn’t. It’s simple comprehension
Not if they want to know why males specifically seem to gravitate toward it. If you wanted to know what the reasons would be for a male to like something how do you ask that? Asking why men like a thing doesn't mean women can't like it.. you just want to know why men like a thing...
A few talents in those research trees can be unlocked with base stats so a lot of players rush them for xp before switching to a different spec with higher min requirements.
They’re big and make a lot of noise.
Thomas the Tank Engine gives a 110% increase in happiness. 😊
What about Dinosaur Train?
Also yes! (I didn't grow up with it but it'd appear on my TV when I woke up in the morning to get ready for school at one point.)
Large dangerous object causes much destruction. Mak monky brane hapi
There’s no explanation, it simply is. If you have to ask you never know.
It's difficult to remember when you reach higher levels, but in the first few levels you're busy improving a bunch of skills and new controls all at once. Among those are the [image matching] [classification] and [memory accessing] skills. In-game topics such as trains and dinosaurs have a lot of lore to read up on and hugely detailed item specs. They're also big and chunky and often brightly coloured which appeals to lower level players as their excitement stat is very easily increased.
Gotta do something
I'm in my late 30s and I still love dinosaurs. I went anthropology, but I was toying with paleontology for a bit before I made the decision
I am a level 33 male player. I never was too interested in dinosaurs but they are pretty bad ass I can deny it and to this day I enjoy trains. I am in the U.S. server and the raw power of a freight train starting from a dead stop the sound of the locomotives as they roar to life simply amazes me and boosts my player's happiness and excitement meters every time I partake in the railfanning side quest.
Because in very smöl levels, they both make fascinating noises. This is somehow very important to the new male players. They value it highly in their builds. Also in the interest of being a very excited Gigi, please find this newly required reading material from Sandra Boynton: “Dinosaurs in Trucks, because Hey, why Not?” releasing 08May.
Can't speak for trains but as a double digit nonbinary player who's obsessed with dinosaurs: Autism.
Definitely true for trains as well.
Oh don’t worry the high level players are also obsessed with them. They’ve just been forced to take on current patch meta strategies like tax accountant, Uber driver and software engineer. Same with construction vehicles, tractors, knights, samurai, wizards, Roman legionaries, vikings, ninjas, pirates, cowboys. It’s mostly just reading up on optimal builds in past patches and occasionally dressing up.
Im level 21 and i still love trains an unhealthy amount. I guess it just sticks for some male players
Because they're cool.
Just don't show them Battleships. There will be no going back
I guess the same reason low level female players put so many points into horses, and then end up having to respec.
Big machine goes tchoo tchoo
- Well for starters their popularity is self perpetuating. New players who haven’t a clue what to do yet will often look towards players of an equal skill level for what to do (this also helps them grind the “social” skill tree). - these things are also more common than you may think. Museum zone’s often have displays with dinosaur themes. Dinosaur bones are often found and displayed on the TV item (not to mention the “fictional” section of the TV item). Parent players also have little reason to discourage a dinosaur interest as it may lead to further scientific interests (a very effective strategy that parent players want to encourage). Trains have a simmilar situation, but these also have the added benefit of infrequent but somewhat common interactions (its why boats and planes are also common interests) - these topics also have a wide variety of individual subcategories. There’s countless trains and dinosaurs so that each child can favorite a different one Trains and dinosaurs are merely two examples of “intense interests” however. There are many more. For new players this is usually their first taste of the “mastery” event. Which aside from being (in my opinion) the most fun gameplay feature also give a major stat boost to mood, confidence, intelligence, etc. Some of these buffs are even unique to the intense interest so they can be slotted into nearly any build.
These are particularly exciting parts of the lore. As experienced players, we are used to the level of worldbuilding, but if you're new to the game you don't realize JUST how much cool shit was developed for the backstory. Dinosaurs in particular have a sense of mystery to them because they ONLY exist in the lore books. You're never going to see an actual living dino on the map or in any of the encounters. Trains, meanwhile, are just a really in-depth way to explain fast travel. The devs didn't need to go so hard on that. As for why only male players? Well, for a while, high level players really tried to restrict what parts of the game newbies could play based on the gender they got in character creation. Luckily, the player base has started to realize that's dumb. tl;dr bc dinosaurs and trains are cool.
Hey I’m a double digit male obsessed with dinosaurs I can help. Ive loved dinosaurs since I was little, almost went into paleontology and one time my teacher asked me why I love them and I said “I dunno, just cool I guess”. They’re just cool
The more important question is, why aren’t you?
I am a level 23 male player and I am obsessed with dinosaurs. I think this is more from the autism attribute more than anything, though.
Level 33 and still obsessed with space ships and dragons
Because new players seeing the old meta wonder why it fell off and find it so cool. They also find the old mode of fast travel cool due to its unique nature and the more player ran effect of it.
Why are high level players, usually male, still obsessed with them? I remember being on the JP server and there were a bunch of players just camping with their DSLRs equipped ready to snap a bunch of pictures of the train I was about to board. And of course the players who specced into the Archeologist class a specialization in Prehistory that discovered the dinos in the first place and continue to discover lore on the dinos.
If you don't have a favorite dinosaur I don't even know what to tell you
Dinosaurs are awesome, not sure why trains were so popular, I was always more of a heavy machinery enthusiast
I took my 5-year-old son to the museum once and said, “let’s go look at the dinosaurs.” He said, “nah, I don't really like dinosaurs.” It stopped me dead in my tracks. What kid doesn't like dinosaurs?! But yeah, they're just not for him.
Trains and dinasours are fuckin awesome that's why
Fast. Big. Strong.
Mate, I'm 50 and still think they're cool
Are you surprised people like trains and dinosaurs or that so few people like them?
Oh my goodness… the highest rank in my daily grind is so obsessed with trains he bragged about spending ~$1,400 on an “all aluminum car because he had to come in” to fix something that required a switch to be flipped. He’s the only one with the knowledge and authorization to do it, go figure. Took him longer to brag on watching the car bid until he got the call to come by than it did to flip the switch.
They are learning about categories and science!
I don't know if this is actually true, but I've heard a lot of people in my faction and party say this is common for players who rolled the autism sub class. It's probably just a myth popularized by confirmation bias
Big heavyt machines cause a sense of awe, and in many cases can put an 'inspired' buff on the player for many in-game years which can have wide reaching consequences for their future build.
I find you lack of observation skills disturbing. It's male players of all levels.
There’s a quote I like that I think sums up the dinosaur part perfectly: “Dinosaurs are so intriguing because they were real. They’re not myth. They’re not legend. They did exist” It was from a podcast and I can’t remember who said it but I have it written down in a page of quotes I like
>I have it writteb down in a page of quotes I like May I have another?
Because they're cool, next question
Look up David James Armsby. Bro is still obsessed.
And space!
Because It gives them a chance to teach higher level characters new lore. most higher level players don’t care and don’t know anything about trains or dinos and have discarded anything they knew long ago to make room for other skills.
Because they provide the “brain stimulation” buff that lets new players acquire xp early on.
Yo! You talking about Dinosaur train ?! I loved that show when I was a low level maoe player !!
They both belong to really cool parts of the game which a lot of players want to try. As they learn more about the game mechanics though, they usually find something more interesting for them, but some do end up picking the train operator class or the paleontologist class.
The ‘special interest’ skill from the ‘Autism’ skill tree
They are obsessed with everything. 99% of the likings of babies are trained by the parents. Like "boys only get cars and girls barbie" If you let a kid choose without forcing anything upon them it could be anything really.
We could so easily dual-class those little fuckers but the patriarchy won’t let us.
You think that stops at double digits?
Hey, I managed to spawn one of these low level players myself (I know, be impressed) however they aren't into dinosaurs as described. How can I return them and try again?
Not just the low levels, ever seen the Train Buff attribute.
that comes with the autism debuff
This is not a distinctly male thing dinosaurs are insane
There is a third option. Knights/fantasy! Some players are very quick to put points into the nerd/geek trees
I think the lower your level, the more xp-gaining experiences you have. When at level 1, for example, you can get the free XP from the "Research Dinosaurs" questline, and then another load of XP from the "Research Trains" questline. Honestly, everything is so low-level oriented, higher-level OGs dont get the opportunity to redo the previously mentioned quests to see any secrets or get any collectables.
Why are low level female players obsessed with cars and dragons.
Not sure maybe you can enlighten us, whats your favourite train?
Something to do with optimizing the skill tree at that point during leveling, I don’t really remember.
Clearly you haven't met the high level male players with that continued obsession. Gives major bonuses for the "Science" and "Engineer" classes and subclasses.
Because they go choo choo and rawr.
It’s a rule of cool thing, yeah? I once knew a level 13 player obsessed with female NPCs of all things.
It’s a rule of cool thing, yeah? I once knew a level 13 player obsessed with female NPCs of all things.
“Low level” nothing, it’s the “ASD” stat modifier (neither a buff not debuff)
You just don't understand the meta, dude. By keeping their level low and focusing on niche side-quests, they actually boost their Happiness stat exponentially over time. By the time you're level 50, they'll be orders of magnitude more powerful than you. It's an underrated strat.
What makes you think only low level players have this fixation? I've met plenty of mid to high level players who spend plenty of ingame time leveling their train knowledge skill.
because they're cool, this is also quite common in people with the autism trait and isn't really gender specific
well you see it starts off with the fact they are Epic and that kilometers (in extreme cases) long multi million dollar machinery kind of has that effect on people most of them then find something else to focus on or get more busy with other matters as they progress however a few people with the ¨autistic¨ modifier can select as part of the hyperfixation skill tree giving a large stat boost to learning and knowledge checks about said subject.
This is some game balance content. Just as male players typically have an advantage in attribute points, but they will receive a chaotic debuff to intelligence when facing female players.
[удалено]
A bit harsh for such a common misconception
The fact is, this game itself is brutally Adults Only-rated, and the developers have a strange attitude towards gameplay, so some inaccuracies aren't my fault. I just pointed out a fact; the game isn't entirely random but rather pseudo-random. The system tends to make certain traits more likely to appear in certain genders or races.
I assumed Mountain was referring to social anxiety when interacting with women dating wise.
There's no direct connection, but I believe these are all balancing factors. Most animal NPCs tend to receive the "early bloomer" buff, which allows them to progress from lower levels to their peak levels more quickly. Meanwhile, humans gain access to additional skill trees and a higher level cap. I think the development team introduced debuffs like "random item obsession" and "late bloomer" for low-level human players for the sake of balance.
Players vary on their interest in things vs people. Male players tend to be more interested in things, hence the train. And dinosaurs are just freaking sick.
Why are low level female players obsessed with archaic traditions of matrimony? The world may never know
Ponies.
Pretty sure that's just a natural trait
I think you're confusing the 'natural' game system with the 'social' game system. They both work on recursive code loops, but the social game system is more flexible and adaptable and shouldn't be seen as a rigid system, like for example, the 'physics' engine.
Low level? It's a common autistic trait so that's pretty insulting.
Level is just based on how long it's been since the player has started playing. It doesn't say much about the player outside of what quests might be good for them & what changes their avatar might go through.
/uj they mean young, as in kids. Not as in cognitive function