JeeseJames' Snap Situationship

A Casual "Pro" Snapper's Experience

Helllllooo everyone out there at the Fourth Location!  I’m excited to be a guest writer this week for you all. I’m JeeseJames from the channel of misplays and mispronunciations – and yes, you’ve pronounced that correctly. It is quite literally pronounced however y’all out there pronounce it, whether that’s Jesse, Jes, G-See, JJ, or – if I’m playing especially poorly – Geeze, James.

I’d like to share with you my personal experience with the game we’ve all fallen in love with – Marvel Snap. I now find myself in full love with the game, and enjoy any time I pick it up, but I haven’t always had this healthy relationship with the game. I’ve felt the stress and FOMO anxieties that push Snap to feel more like a chore, as I’m sure many have felt or do feel. Indulge me a bit as I share my experience, and let us know if anything resonates with you.

The Beta Days

Marvel Snap was introduced to me during the beta by some real-life friends. We had all previously played Hearthstone rather often, and they were excited to show me Ben Brode’s new beta game.  They had both received beta invites, but I had to take a quick vacation to the Philippines to start my account. I began right at the tail-end of Nexus Events – fortunate enough to receive Jane Foster for free while skipping the negative experience of the Nexus Event itself. I fell in love with the game during that July 2022 beta season.  I instantly started “optimizing” my resources by focusing card upgrades on common cards to benefit from the credit discount for collection level (CL) progression.

This was right around the time I began streaming (check me out on Twitch!) and Marvel Snap fit my streaming style perfectly. Snap allowed plenty of time to engage with viewers in between turns as we discussed together my (mis)plays and new cards in Snap. The game’s community was still quite small as we had not reached global launch yet. The early beta Snap community was a vibrant and accepting community – which we still see at its core today. I began focusing the Infinite climb for the August season, as I started far too late in July to make it.

And so, my slippery slope began – My Snap enjoyment was fueled by resource management and the infinite climb. It took me years to realize this play style was not conducive for me. Let me re-iterate – this is my slippery slope. There is no objectively wrong way to enjoy a game! Take my anecdote comparatively to determine your subjective way to enjoy Marvel Snap.

I achieved Infinite! My first full season and, boy, was I hooked! Infinite every season was my goal, and it was some of the most fun I had in early snap. My roommate and I would stay up way past bedtime on work nights to learn from, coach, and cheer SuperTechGod’s climb to infinite! Infinite began to be more exclusive as the prize evolved into avatars, and then card backs. I would continue to chase these exclusive bragging rights rewards for the better part of three years. The climb had its challenges and stresses – I almost gave up in one season having fallen from 90 to the mid 60’s, but the dedication and motivation shined through, and I’d get that coveted card back.

The ”Pro” Career

Maximizing card acquisition felt crucial for my climb, and managing resources was an early motivation for me. I quickly fell into the whale trap, having realized the easiest way to maximize my resources was to purchase bundles. It felt great! I was snagging sweet exclusive variants in a game that, to this day, has the best art styles I’ve seen, in addition to all the necessary resources that would boost my CL. I never quite made it to kraken territory, but after reviewing my requested snap data I can (hesitantly) let you know I made 1,193 in-app purchases for a total $4,322.87 of what the data calls “total revenue.”

Wow… I wish I didn’t look that up for this article.

My Snap experience was exploding! I was having fun season over season, getting Infinite, every new card was mine, and the possibilities seemed endless. I was invited to the first Creator’s Clash in New York City where I got to meet some of the best in the Snap community (who are still great friends today). I went to both community hosted Snapcons and participated in a handful of tournaments. I never won, but I started to feel like a Snap Pro. I was never top of the charts in Hearthstone, but this felt within my grasp.

Burnout & Balance

Then the burnout set in. Suddenly, Infinite was no longer good enough as streamers raced for day-1 infinite. Economy refactors occurred which introduced new cards weekly. Collection complete was a taller mountain to climb and maintain. Tuesday’s meta became an unbearable pile of mirrors and counters. I had to login 3 times a day to maximize my free resources. I still loved the game art and mechanics, but began finding myself viewing my playtime as a chore instead of a hobby. Meanwhile, I began getting into a physical TCG, Lorcana, which really had me start questioning the money I spent on “leasing” digital cards vs the resale value of painted cardboard.

I did not quit. Many community members around this time did, and to be fair, their YouTube videos exploded in metrics. I wanted to reconnect with the game, find why I loved it, and put the noise aside. The first noise I identified: spending money. I was starting to save for my wedding and could no longer justify spending money on anything that did not have resale value. Were these exclusive variants really giving me joy? Was collection complete worth it when I just keep playing the same tried and true deck? Could I recoup any costs for this hobby if I truly did quit? The answer to all was a resounding no for myself, and so, I quit spending. I no longer felt the need to maximize resources, and slowly began backing away from thrice daily logins for a puddle of credits.

I then took a moment to look at noise relating to my gameplay. I’d been Infinite since my first full season. I wasn’t going to let that streak go! Playtime was feeling tight with the introduction of conquest, and I was playing too much. I didn’t like mirror Tuesdays, and set that to be my variety day. I’d let the meta shake itself out and learn from the early adopters if a card is worth any resources, which were now very precious as I would no longer convert pictures of old men into pictures of comic characters in Snap. I focused my Infinite climb to be on stream. Conquest was always there if I felt the desire to play off stream. I’d still be obtaining Infinite, which let me believe I was still on a “pro” path, but the obvious-in-hindsight truth was that this was the start of my casual career. This swung my hobby-life balance in a healthy direction, but a lot of internal pressures still existed. FOMO for cards was still strong, even though I made my peace with not being collection complete. Beautiful cards came and went in bundles and Season Passes, which I would desperately enter giveaways for. The pressures were still there, but I no longer felt controlled by them.

The Final Snap

May 2025 brought with it the happiest event of my life: marriage. All of Snap simply became noise to me, as did almost every hobby. My life was joyously changing forever, and for one month I was unbothered by any anxieties other than “don’t forget the ring.” The momentous occasion provided me with the strength to break my urge for Infinite. At no point did my Snap rank cross my mind, as I had made peace with the fact my priorities were now and forever different. However, the season wasn’t over when I came back from my honeymoon, and the pressures came back. I grinded 'till the literal last minute for Infinite, reaching all the way to Rank 99 and 6 cubes with only minutes to spare. I pushed aggressively, snapping instantly in hopes my opponent would nope out and give me that final cube. Lost 8 cubes to a bot.  Now I’m greedy! I have to make up those 8 Cubes immediately. Lost 8 cubes to a bot. The streak snapped, it was gone, and with it left all motivation to rebuild or retain a streak. I was free. No more spending, no more mirror Tuesdays, no more Infinite.

Casually Playing

I’ve not had more fun with Marvel Snap than I do today as a casual player. I could hit Infinite if I want, but I don’t need to. Heck, I don’t even chase the Gold at rank 90.  I simply play what’s fun and when it’s fun. Sometimes I play Limited Time Game Modes (LTGMs), sometimes I don’t. I ignore new cards and hoard tokens until something catches my eye, and happily spend LTGM currency on cosmetics I want over Series 4 cards. I introduced my cousin to Snap during Thanksgiving with genuine enthusiasm and enjoyment (he’s hooked now by the way). I enjoy Marvel Snap, but then again, I always have. Now, I enjoy how I play Marvel Snap much more, and it’s freeing. Perhaps I was always destined to be a casual snapper, and it took years of play and months of self-reflection to understand and accept this. I can’t change the cadence of new cards, the grind to Infinite, or the price of bundles; what I can control is how I interact with the game, and I’ve learned it’s not the game I grew tired of – it was how I was playing Snap. 

Happy Snapping – regardless of how snapping makes you happy.

Scott's note:

Special thanks to JeeseJames for this guest article. We thought it served as a perfect capstone to 2025. The end of the year is a time when many people reflect on the past and their lives and JeeseJames did a great job of framing his place in Snap and helping us to reevaluate our own! Be sure to find him on Twitch and Bluesky! We are just getting started here at Fourth Location, and we have big plans for January and throughout 2026. Whether you're a hardcore grinder or a relaxed casual, you won't want to miss it!