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Upgrade anxiety.

Well, I was going to order ye olde iPhone 11 from my wireless provider this week, and then I saw a MacRumors post reporting on the latest iPhone 12 rumors.1

I know I should be able to look past something that’s not going to be on the market for another nine months, but sakes alive, I’ve forgotten what it means to be in the tick-tock product cycle that Apple has been in for the longest time.

For context, I have an iPhone 7 Plus with a battery that should be replaced. I would have already done this, but my screen has a nice-sized crack in it, running from slightly left of the center bottom edge to the volume rocker on the upper left edge of the unit. It otherwise functions normally, aside from the odd barcode being a pain to scan from time to time thanks to an abnormal crack running through any given representation of the binary language.

Sadly, the damage excludes my device from being serviced officially, unless I replace the glass front of my screen.

And so, after holding out for as long as I could bear with the battery, I decided that I was going to take advantage of my carrier’s interest-free financing of a new iPhone 11. I haven’t been a fan of being beholden under contract to a carrier for awhile, but I can’t really see anything wrong with this payment plan–especially when I can pay the whole balance off at any time without a penalty.

Of course, Apple offers a similar plan, but I feel even more like I’m leasing a device in that case, instead of owning a device.

Maybe I’ll just get over it and commit to getting a new device.

Here’s to hoping I remember to buy a case for it.

  1. MacRumors: iPhone 12 Lineup Expected to Feature Up to 6GB of RAM ↩

This is not Destiny 2 FOMO, I swear.

Destiny 2’s development has been rather infuriating to watch form the sidelines. I played a fair amount of the game in its first year, but became disenchanted with it as the weekly grind grew in scope to require a full-time commitment.

I noticed a sad not about the descent into microtransaction madness on Kotaku that cited some insane numbers. 30 hours to grind for one set? Being paywalled out of the others?

So much of the new content seems locked behind the microtransaction marketplace. Or locked behind player decisions (which isn’t completely horrible, but it’s still a drag to earn all three rewards for an event which is otherwise insignificant to the game world).

Meanwhile, The Division 2’s sets are part of seasonal events that can be (relatively) easily grinded out over a period of a couple of weeks—because these goals are designed to be achievable.

I wish more people played Divvo 2.

Esports has changed.

Esports has changed.

It’s no longer about teams, games, or communities. It’s an endless series of marketing schemes funded by investors and publishers. Esports—and its consumption of hype—has become a well-oiled machine.

Esports has changed.

Sponsored players play sponsored games, use sponsored gear. Partnerships inside their brands enhance and regular their content. Content control. Audience control. League control. Hype control. Everything is measured and kept under control.

Esports has changed.

The age of grassroots has become the age of control. All in the name of generating profit from franchise-exclusive leagues. And he who controls the leagues, controls history.

Esports has changed.

When the leagues are under total control, esports becomes routine.