Haha I did buy the gear as I bought the games, but not before I read a ton of posts and watched a bunch of YouTube videos for a few months to get a feel for the games and the gear. I eventually was like "ok I think I'll love this but hate it without any gear" which was very much the case haha. I totally love it and keep watching/reading about the sims and trying to improve my setup. I also didn't buy it all at once that's true.

I suppose I can see what ya mean especially if they think their gear makes them superior in some way or covering up skill issues. For the sim community it's not really as big of a deal because everyone is really chill there isn't much competition. We're basically all nerds who love to dial up immersion.