Two years ago I wasn’t a gamer, I had zero interest in gaming, Surprising, perhaps, considering my IT career started in 1982 – the last time I seriously played anything was the original Doom, back in the early 90’s when the height of gaming excellence was pixelated corridors, MIDI soundtracks and shotgun diplomacy..!
Then, around 5 months post bump (see other posts here), plenty of time on my hands and not a lot I could do physically – along came The First Descendant. And, somewhat unexpectedly, I went all in.
From “What’s a Looter-Shooter?” to Mastery Rank 31
When I first installed it, I had no idea what I was getting into. Builds? Modules? Reactors? External components? Farming rotations? Min-maxing cooldown reduction? I barely knew what a Descendant or a MMOG was. Fast forward two years:
- Every Ultimate Descendant unlocked (including Dia)
- Every weapon collected
- Campaign complete
- Side quests and most seasonal content cleared
Optimised, maxed-out builds across the board (Mobbing, Bossing, Farming and weapons), Mastery Rank 31 achieved. At some point, it stopped being ‘a game I was trying’ and became life-style choice. The number of hours invested is slightly uncomfortable to admit publicly, if it had been billable consultancy time I’d have a collection of trikes and bikes in a dedicated, environmentally controlled workshop.
What It Gave Me
For someone who hadn’t touched a game since Doom, this was a proper rabbit hole. It wasn’t just the gunplay (which is superb), or the sci-fi aesthetic, or the dopamine hit perfecting new skill sets and gameplay. It was:
- The optimisation mindset
- The fascinating environments
- The incremental gains
- The theory-crafting
- The build experimentation
- The endless pursuit of ‘just one more improvement’
It scratched the same part of my brain that enjoys tuning infrastructure, refining SQL queries, or shaving milliseconds off a process. Except with explosions.
Why Stop Now?
Because I’ve effectively completed it. Although the goalposts do keep moving, I mean I’ve completed everything I wanted to complete and now it’s getting silly. Like when the first 3 seasons of a show are awesome, but then they really start scraping the barrel for story-lines (thinking Sons of Anarchy). I’m done. There is nothing meaningful left for me to chase.
I’m not progressing anymore, I’m orbiting, and I’ve never been very good at orbiting.
Enjoyed the game a lot – if I had any criticism it would only be the amount of grinding required to accumulate resources if you were not prepared to purchase them – something I have almost never done – where’s the satisfaction in that.?
The Reality
Games like this are built around progression loops. When the loop closes, you either:
- Wait for new content
- Artificially reset yourself
- Move on
I’m choosing option 3. Not out of boredom. Not out of frustration. But because the objective has been met. Mission accomplished.
What’s Next?
I’ve discovered I actually enjoy gaming, or at least enjoyed gaming
I foresee this could become mildly inconvenient for productivity, but as I’ll be leaving Supreme on May 15th 2026 (where I’m currently Head of IT) – not a problem. Had a great 9 years there – even enjoyed the work required to help get us to PLC status a few years ago. Not for one second did I ever think I would get to the point where I did not enjoy the job – long story. I might go back into consulting or something else, not sure yet. Might just tour Europe for a few months on the Trike – lot of places I haven’t experienced yet – who knows.?
In the meantime, I’m looking for the next gaming experience — ideally something:
- Sci-fi or fantasy
- Humorous
- Strong progression systems
- Large, active player base
- Deep enough to optimise (because of course)
Suggestions welcome.
Closing Thoughts
Two years ago, I hadn’t played a game since Doom back in the early 90s – which despite sounding fairly recent, is, to my great dismay, 30+ years ago. What the actual f…
Anyway – today, I’m retiring from The First Descendant at Mastery Rank 31 with every Descendant and weapon unlocked, optimised and maxed-out. That escalated quickly. No regrets, no half-finished builds, no loose ends. Just a surprisingly satisfying chapter closed.