No, they aren’t. DLC is an expansion upon the content. The best case scenario for mtx that do not affect gameplay are cosmetic only.

If a game in any way has anything else than cosmetic mtx, the game is worse.

“But you don’t have to buy it!” Is how I often see them defended, the subtext being that, if I don’t buy them it doesn’t affect my experience.

Here is the secret, games with mtx are designed to have problems and they sell you the solution. They are designed WORSE intentionally, so you will spend money to bypass the inconveniences. Often your time.

A perfect example is something like long standing games selling boosts to max level. They’re aware the old content is dead, and they’re aware the only people playing it are the people who don’t want to spend money. Why don’t they fix that?

The answer is they did, they decided that inconvenience was acceptable in their game in order to convince the player to spend money.

MTX is not content, often it’s used to bypass content or save time. DLC is content. DLC often expands upon the experience of the game. MTX worsens the experience of the game just buy existing. Dlc doesn’t change your experience if you don’t purchase or use it. MTX changes the game at a base level no matter if you spend money or not.

I have the HP envy 360, I have the Ryzen 5000 series not Intel. I’m a software engineering student that also leans heavily into the enthusiast side in terms of any kind of software, and I haven’t ran into anything I can’t do with this. I don’t game on it though so I can’t speak to that, I use other hardware for it. The touchscreen works well, I picked up some styluses for it that have different tips based on what I’m doing and I’ve done anything from note taking to art. I also fold it for watching YouTube and stuff sometimes or reading. The battery life is pretty good, if I’m doing heavy stuff i usually have to plug it in before I hit the end of the day. Lightweight stuff I’ve had it last a couple days.

The laptop comes with windows 11 but I have a dual boot setup. It runs fantastic in Linux or windows, this thing is a little powerhouse. The only issue I had on install of linux (I’m using debian) was that it didn’t recognize my wifi adapter but it wasn’t a hard fix. Otherwise it just feels fantastic to use. Its light, sleek, and stylish in a modern way if those are bonuses for you. Feels good to type on, and has an aluminum case. Other than my steam deck it’s probably my favorite piece of tech I own.

Sweet, I’ll check them out myself. Thanks for the suggestions

If you’re into gaming I would suggest

• NoClip (video game documentarians about modern video games)
• video game history hour (general video game history done by the video game history foundation)
• insert credit ( almost game show style, the hosts have only a few minutes to answer all kinds of questions about games, the gaming industry, or even opinions.)

Otherwise I really enjoy

• behind the bastards ( kind of like deep dives into shitty people of the world and what makes them tick)
• cautionary tales ( true stories about disasters, humon error, and catastrophies )
• 99 percent invisible (weekly episodes on all kinds of deep dives into things that often go without notice in our lives, the most recent episode covers the history of album art for example)