Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "TASK BAR HERO IS TOPPING THE MOST-PLAYED CHARTS BUT IS ALSO DEALING WITH BOTS & FALSE BAN CONTROVERSY"

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠⁠Join The Normandy For Ad-Free NME, Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠⁠ In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz delivers a complete breakdown of TBH: Task Bar Hero, the surprise idle RPG hit that runs as a compact desktop companion in your Windows taskbar.Analytic Dreamz explores how this free-to-play title from Nugem Studio and Tesseract Studio lets heroes auto-battle monsters while you work, with offline progression up to 8 hours. Learn optimal starting classes like Knight for beginners, essential Rune priorities including Rune of Command for extra hero slots, Cube System mechanics for item customization, and efficient Alchemy strategies to convert gear into gold without costly mistakes.Discover the game's massive Steam Marketplace integration that turns tradable loot into real Steam Wallet funds, driving its explosive launch success with peaks over 400,000 concurrent players. Analytic Dreamz also covers monetization, popular team builds, performance issues, anti-cheat controversies, server challenges, and why TBH became one of 2026’s most talked-about indie releases.Perfect for idle game fans and Steam players seeking deep progression tips in a unique taskbar format. Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

BetMGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has everything for the action on and off the ice. Hockey fans in Canada can place live bets, create same game parlays, take player props on their favorite skaters, and get an early jump on the 2026-27 season with futures on the 27th Stanley Cup champion. Bet on anything from goal and first 10 minutes to season-long awards. And remember, it's not just about what you can do on game day. The BetMGM app has improved its lineup this season to include instant withdrawals and data insights. Download the BetMGM app and enjoy sports like never before. Betmgmgm.com for terms and conditions.

19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact, Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2-6-00 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Shepard, promise me you'll tell them to subscribe for free content. Now, of course, over here at notorious Mass Effect, we get into the gaming and music IPs

that notoriously affect the masses. And guess what? Shepherd. Yeah. Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? Analytic Dreams video on Spotify to see the video along with the audio, because currently we're about to get into the second most play games. game on the Steam platform.

As of course, throughout my six years of notorious Mass Effect, you know what I mean, thanks to the supporters out there. Well, I just, but I just, anyways, after giving y'all praise, it's safe to say I've never seen Dota to be outlasted, but basically task bar hero being the second most play game. on Steam throughout my entire six-year coverage as far as notorious mass affecting gaming and music IPs I've always seen Counterstract 2 and Dota 2 in the top two so now when you look at task bar hero being the second most play game I think that's a humongous deal because of course

it doesn't stop there ladies and gentlemen as of course as you can see right here this game just came out but not only did it just come out but the concurrent player account has not dropped below 400,000 and as of right now if you don't know i'm going through the whole timeline of this game being released and as you can see is consistently holding that 400 plus concurrent player count of course the all-time peak was 11 hours ago with 546,000 which basically lets you know that this game is going to be around for quite some time. You guys. And now we have to get into the drama.

You guys. See, that's the problem. As when it comes to the review and sales roundup of the different games we get into, for this game in particular, a lot of people are having certain accusations and, let's just say obstacles when it comes to the gameplay loop. As when people come out, I'm trying to see back a fight. Okay, so people come out and they're saying that there are a lot of performance issues and task bar interaction bugs.

Now, of course, with that being said, I did want to get into the developers and the producers of this specific game. Because if you don't know, it's such a small team because New Jim Studio, which is the developers for this game, or no, they're the publishers. They are a Korean mobile focus indie known for idle RPGs such as Isakai Fighting Girls. And of course, Task Bar Heroes is the biggest breakout by far. Biggest hit by far. It's not even close. And it's a free game, ladies and gentlemen. You probably didn't, you know what I mean?

I probably should have started with that. You know, in today's age, everybody wants something for free. All right, my fault. Those are Xbox talking points. Anyways, when it comes to Tesserax, They are the co-developers. So once again, a small indie team and their prior games they were known for with games like Pano Pino Pino P. What, no, what, the actual Pino. Okay, hold up now. Let me get Dervis to read this out. Who in the actual put these letters together and said this was actual word? There's no way. Let me see. Let me see if drivers could read this out for me. No, that's not it. Okay, anyway, so we're not going to get a read off of that. Let me see. Peno Ptica. How to say, let me see. Let me see. see. Does that even pop up like how to say? Is that actual word? Um, let's see. Oh, we found it.

Okay, cool, cool, cool. So when it comes to our Mickey research, shape to say this actual word is pronounced like this. So let me see if I can have this read out. Um, pronunciation of panoptica. What? See? You guys. See, that's the problem. Like, come on, bro. Hey, bro, I tried to look it up. You know what I'm saying? No, bro. I know it's my job. At the end of the day, I had. had to look it up. I had no idea how to say the word. So I kid you not. That was, that threw me for a loop. I got to hear that one more time. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what learning looks like. Shout out to consonant. Pronunciation of panoptica. Okay, panoptica. There we go. You don't say? You learn something every day. So anyways, Teserac Studios, the co-developers for the co-developers for this particular game

had prior games like Panoptica, which is the idle RPG manager. So safe to say, they have a for these type of idol RPGs. New Gym studio with RPGs like Issaac Fighting Girls, Tessorac Studio with games like Panoptica. And of course, they're known for another game, such as mini-cozing room, which is also low-profile. Now, of course, the reason why I say all this is because a lot of people are coming

after them. Now, even Valve hopped out of the woodworks, Valve, like the whole owner of Steam. they hopped out of the woodworks and basically forced changes due to server load from bots slash farmers and before you say is that Kendrick Lamar? Is it okay? I got my dope on me?

No, not those type of bots. We're actually talking about the task bar hero bots as apparently when they forced the changes it was because of high level equipment certain levels from 25 to 90 and type B uncommon etc. had trading slash sentences restricted or reset. Now, why?

We're going to get into that in a second. The reason why I'm starting with drama is because this game is notoriously affecting the masses on Steam. But there's so much drama that you should be aware of before diving into this particular game. So you can't blame me if you still boot this game up and your PC blows up. You know what I'm saying? I mean, your PC malfunction.

So with that being said, getting back into the drama. So Valve, they essentially. that was it? Okay, here we go. They essentially had a restriction on those or reset. And then they had only materials and select items remain freely tradable, freely tradable. And the marketplace was temporarily suspended at their peaks. You know what I'm saying? Just look at the state of gaming. Like,

what is going on? So Valve was looking at the state of taskbar heroes and they'll say it to themselves, not on my watch. You're not going to have this. this marketplace just running rampant without any laws and restrictions out here. You know what I'm saying? So keyword is temporarily suspended at peaks. Now, of course, the developers complied to prevent economy collapse in server issues. So the reason why I'm starting with this is because not only are we dealing with a massive breakout hit, the second most play game on Steam, we're also dealing with a small indie studio

and New Gym Studio and of course Tessorac Studio who are probably having all type of optimization issues because they did not think everybody in their mama was going to hop on the game like they are as of right now. Once again, let me pull up the numbers one more time because ladies and gentlemen,

Counter Strike 2, Dota 2, I don't think I've ever seen them displaced this far. Well, Dota 2 was displaced. Counterstrike 2 is still number 1. But I've never seen Dota 2 displace as far as on Steam. For some reason, they just have a mammoth of a grip. like an iron grip on the top two as far as the steam charts. So for Tasbar Heroes to be the second most played game on Steam, that is the biggest factor on why this is even a big deal.

Because throughout all this drama from Valve, the actual owners of Steam, and then from the player base specifically, as when it comes to the marketplace being temporarily suspended time and time again, if you don't know, that is how people are being more acclimated into this game and being more intrigued because when it comes to the revenue task bar hero is a free game but when you look at the actual um micro transactions which has cosmetic slash class bundles which is

three dollars and the steam market fees on player traded loot which the devs of course take a cut indirectly via the economy you come to see where the cash is coming from now i'm not saying i'm a Hall of Fame Pocket Watcher. All I'm saying is I may have looked up the average earnings from these players. And so the players reportedly earn a few dollars to $50 a month selling materials slash gear while idling. But of course, Steam takes 15% and of course the developers take their percentage. As there is no major pay DOC required for progress. So it's not like a gotcha game where, oh, you have to give us money to continue the game. There's nothing like that. But when it comes to development, uh, no, when it comes to DOC aspects of

the game, there are certain classes which you have to pay for. I think I had that somewhere. So basically you have, I don't know if it's on here. Okay, here we go. So you have optional paid DOC, which includes the Hunter class, which is $499, the Slayer class, which is $499, And then you have stash, expansions, supporter packs, but do know that the priest class is available as free DOC. So at least you got some for a DOC for free. So there's so much to get into with this particular game that I wanted to start off with the drama because that's one of the biggest factors in the rise of this game. Because not only does a game that notoriously affect the masses, not only are they affecting the player base. But of course, there's some type of drama that's going to pop out of the woodworks.

game is big enough. I mean, y'all just wait. I mean, y'all just wait to see what type of drama GTA 6 is going to find itself in. I kid you not. Just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? The state of gaming is going to be in disarray when GTA6 drops. And the lawsuits are going to be running rampant as any notorious mass

affecting game always has drama and lawsuits following it. I mean, just as Epic with their battle with Apple, just as Power World. with their battle with Nintendo, any game that's just newly popular and has a certain revenue model that is blowing all the others out the water. Somebody is going to look at that and think to themselves, hmm, I wonder how we could throw them for a loot, right? Let's throw a wrench in their operation because people are just haters.

So anyways, getting back into Task War Hero, I didn't even get into the whole gameplay loop. Why? well for one i'm playing the gameplay right now uh once again analytic dreams video on spotify but of course for my audio only listeners i did want to get into what the actual gameplay entails so task bar hero is a free to play once again free free to play idle RPG that runs as a compact always on window in or near the windows task bar acting as a desktop companion while you work or browse now this particular game was released may 27th of course already to the developers and publishers with the publisher being New Gym Studio and of course in collaboration

with Tessorac Studios, the co-developers. Now when it comes to platforms, if you couldn't tell, this game is only on Steam. If you wanted to play it on console, if you wanted to play it on a Nintendo switch, I mean, that just inherently defeats the purpose. You know what I'm saying? So it's not coming to those platforms anytime soon. Now, when it does come to the Steam deck, that is a very interesting scenario because technically it is marked as playable though a lot of compatibility issues have been reported so if you hop on your steam deck and try to play this particular game don't say i didn't warn you all type of proton compatibility issues have been reported so with that being said let's continue from that so it's only on windows now this being the second best selling game on

Steam while it's being free is why I talked about the micro transactions first but now I want to get into the gameplay loop as you have a hero that automatically battles monsters while the game runs in the background you can manage a party of up to three heroes explore three acts with multiple difficulty levels you progress through hero level uh hero leveling equipment upgrades skills ruin upgrades achievements and it does support offline progress for up to eight hours, earning gold and experiences while the way. Now, I would get into the nitty gritty of this particular game, but I'm not trying to spoil everything.

But all I do want to say is there's over 500 unique items. So when it comes to the marketplace, I think it's getting into the land of crypto. Now, hold up now. Hear me out. Now, usually the value in crypto is what you place upon it, right, as far as a collective. that is the same thing when it comes to this steam market for taskbar heroes because these cosmetics these class bundles as three to seventeen dollars i mean with players trading amongst other players reportedly once again players are earning a few dollars to fifty dollars a month selling materials slash gear while idling now i don't know about y'all but there's a plethora of games out there that's immensely popular and besides uta fortnight roblacks i don't know any other immensely popular game where you could make revenue off of what you actually have in your, like, in your stash, as you can see right here, in your stash. So it does have that Roblox,

GTA roleplay type aspect going with it, going for it, as I think if the value keeps going up, if more people start to be enamored by this game, it could create its own ecosystem, its own crypto, like currency, similar to how Counterstrike 2 is, and similar to how GTA is with the roleplay servers and of course how Roblox is with their servers. So the reason why I say that is because there's a lot of classes in this particular game. Now, as you can see by the gameplay loop,

it's nothing spectacular. You know, the graphics aren't going to blow you out of the water. But hey, that's why it's called Task Bar Heroes. As you can play with classes such as a knight, a priest, which you get for free via the DOC, ranger slash archer a sorcerer hunter hunter slayer and popular team combinations are archer and priest but of course for balance you can have three hero parties and there's other content as far as 50 plus monster types uh pets and 50 plus achievements so once again the base game is free

there's a hunter class for d oc that's 499 a slayer class that's 499 and priest class is available for DLC but then you have stash expansions and supporter packs that you can also pay for so not only is this one of the biggest games on steam but I had to dive deep into this to see how this game is maneuvering as far as for the foreseeable future having an actual longevity type of stay on Steam because I'm not trying to be pessimistic but holding that number two slide as far as the number two most play game on steam, that's going to be very difficult to do. So I think showcasing and highlighting the problems at the very beginning like I did is one

of the things that developers and publishers should focus on as the impact on PCs is another thing I wanted to highlight. As even though this is a task bar hero type of game, it's definitely going to increase your CPU and GPU usage, fan noise. And if your PC isn't optimized, I think it will. annoy people who have multitasking type of days with their PC. You're not going to be able to play this game on a potato and also edit photos or videos or not even edit photos or videos. Maybe watch a video on another browser, maybe do something else on another browser. Like I think when it comes to

heavy multitaskers, your PC is really going to have to be up to date if you want to enjoy task bar heroes and also enjoy other things that you do on your PC because I don't care what nobody says. The reason why we call PlayStation Xbox and Nintendo consoles is because you cannot multitask like you can on PC. You can't just boot up YouTube or boot up photo editing or video editing on your PlayStation or Xbox like you can on PC. It's just so many different, PC is an actual tool that you can use regardless of gaming. The same can't be said for a PlayStation for Xbox for a Nintendo.

switch, which is why those are called consoles because it's primarily for gaming. Now, with that being said, that is why that is going to be the major issue going forward for task bar heroes, trying to optimize the CPU slash GPU usage similar to the same type of obstacle that wallpaper engine had to face because I was trying to bring this up so I can show you all. So basically, I have a wallpaper, obviously. and it's not on this monitor of course let me show my other monitor so this monitor right here so i use wallpaper engine all the time right this this is obviously a moving graphic this doesn't

bother me at all i stream i edit videos photos things of that nature and nothing never goes array now you know knock on wood you didn't know my desk is made of wood you know what i'm saying i'm my fault i ain't trying to stun all right but anyways so when it comes to the wallpaper engine is very easy on my PC. Of course, I do have, what I have right now? I have a 50-60 TI, whatever that is. I just know it's up to date. So with that being said, my PC, I think is on the higher end as far as builds, right?

Now, the reason why I'm saying that is because if you want to have multitasking type of aspirations with your PC and you have a potato, it's not going to work out well for you. So I will look up the actual compatibility specs for this particular game, and then I would go from there. Don't just automatically think your PC will be able to run this game while doing other tasks without looking at the compatibility. So, but you should do that for any Steam game, but I'm definitely letting you know for this game because that's been brought up a lot as far as the optimization issues

and the controversies surrounding this particular game. Because I think one of the major things, things is whenever you're playing this game and let's say you're running certain features on your PC right and now you get falsely flagged for cheating so when it comes to that a lot of accounts reportedly has been banned on steam don't ask me what they were doing i just saw multiple because remember this is a review roundup of the masses so this is the masses experience so somebody out there with multiple people out there have reported that they've been banned falsely due to anti-cheating measures so because this is a task bar type of game,

no telling what they was doing on, you know, their PC to where they popped up falsely. But it happened too many times for me not to even say in this segment. So hopefully you don't think I'm ragging on the game. I'm just giving y'all their objective facts and then letting you do of that as you will. Because when it came to this game, I did want to dive deep into it

because it seems like this game's not going anywhere. I mean, it came out when this game come out. This game came out. this game came out June May 27th of this year and it hasn't dropped below 400,000 once

the all-time peak was 12 hours ago ladies and gentlemen we're dealing with probably one of the more impressive games in the year of 2026 now obviously when GT6 comes out it's going to blow everything out of the water as far as engagement and revenue but as of right now

What Task Bar Heroes is currently doing, this is one of the most impressive games out the gate that we've seen in the year of 2026. And once again, the reason why I got into the controversy first as well is because of this score right there. Oh, my fault. It cuts off my hand. But over here, when you see the scores, 56.18% as far as the rating that the masses give on Steam, which is why I started off with the technological issues and optimization issues, because of course, course that's a big deal and you you see it resimp you see it reflected on the steam reviews so we're definitely going to get into more reviews i think that was basically it because i was trying to

look for other things so um well no i think i had other things brought up oh for my taskbar hero connoisseurs out there do know i wanted to explain the trading market because some people would be unaware so when it comes to task bar hero and the ultimate revenue structure that they have set up right now. Apparently, Taskbar Hero works with, works via Steam Community for market integration for real money. So if you wanted to earn real money, then list it up. And of course, this is not an ad. I'm just making sure you all are informed. So with that being said, how this works is you unlock the cube level, which is number 10, the heart gate. You trade your ship, click the ship icon top left in the game, drag eligible.

loot from your inventory to the ship this moves it to your steam inventory number three you listed on the market you go to steam community market select the item set price and guess what the rest is history of course steam takes a 15% fee which varies by value slash region and of course when it comes to you selling these items make sure to check recent sales and history for prices and list slightly below the lowest for the quickest sales. Now, don't say I never did something for you, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You ain't got to do all that.

You ain't got to do all that. But you can rate this five stars. Okay, so anyways, who that being said, I think that is one of the biggest drivers as far as this particular game because a lot of people are really intrigued by this whole ecosystem that Task Bar Heroes has built out the gate. Now, as far as future developments,

of this particular game. I don't think there's any other ones. We've already went over the marketplace issues. We've went over everything else as far as the sales and things of that nature. The actual revenue numbers for this particular game is not available because it's free. And with the marketplace, there's no telling how much the players have actually made in totality. But I did have actual numbers as far as the cosmetics,

class bundles being $3 to $17. And the players on this game earning from $3 to $50 a month. So that's all the revenue I have available to me. So yeah, with that being said, let's get into the review roundup. So of course, they're all reviews from Steam because it's only available on Steam once again. And with that being said, starting with the first one, ladies and gentlemen, it's not going to be a lot of good positive reviews. I ain't going to cap to you.

You guys. See, that's the problem. And hopefully you don't think I'm just making this up because as you can see right here, ladies and gentlemen, that is a, 46.18 rating. You know what I'm saying? People thoroughly wanted to express themselves when it came to this game.

Over 28,000 reviews and 45. Well, actually, if you highlight it, it's even lower. 45.99% of the 28,040 reviews are positive. I don't think that's the greatest ratio. Anyways, so with that being said, these are the reviews from Steam.

So one of the high, helpful, voted reviews is from this user that says, not recommended. I guess it's like a thing you could click. As you could tell, I never rated anything on Steam. I guess I should. But hey, I guess that's what notorious master figures for. You know what I'm saying? So anyways, this user says, quote, questionable data collection and analytics for a rather simple game like this.

I am also talking about the endgame logs, crash reports generated, and the automatically created logs through gameplay. It's fine to add this as an optional toggle, but I do not agree to it to be forced. And Clause 67 combined with 68 within the terms

of service is misleading. Oh, hold on now. Somebody did it, hey, somebody did their research. That may be a lawyer right there. Now, I'm just saying, you know, TASBART, I mean, not TASBarrs, who's the developers again? Hey, new gym studio, Tess Rack Studio, y'all may have the lawyer up. I ain't going to want to you. You guys. You know what I'm saying? See, that's the problem. This man said clause 67 combined with 68 within the

terms of service. It's misleading and not transparent enough. You guys. See, that's the problem. Okay, somebody else who had, let's go to one who had a bunch of hours on the game. So, oh, somebody had 400 plus goodness gracious. You know his chesting. I mean, you know he's having fun on the game. Um, he said, he or she said, quote, version one point. 0.14 update the issue with the chest has been resolved however the market remains closed the game is also still balanced poorly basically don't try to get this don't try to get into this game with the hopes of making any amount of money from the market oh you know he got burned you know he got burned as a pure idler gamer he's like you know out the gate this is what he loved to do this is passion this is just what he owed to shepherd all right As a pure idol of gamer, it's all right, but the end game is flat. Original, um, okay, there we go. And then also we keep going in his quote.

It says, this is a game that is a victim of its own success. Okay, these reviews come in kind of hard. The devs never accounted for the sheer volume of people and the result is a game that has steadily degenerated. But then, you know what I'm saying? I was like, damn, look at that boy. It was upset. I could you not. All right, so let's go.

Yo, all of these are just not bad. I mean, all of these are bad. Wait, no, we found one. All right, so I found one that says recommended. 294 hours on the game. So I love how Steam has that feature because it lets you know that person actually played it. So once again, you know, over here at notorious mass effect.

Getting into the gaming and music IPs that notoriously affect the masses, this is more of a review roundup. So you're hearing what the masses have to say about this particular game. So anyways, we did find a, positive review. 294.5 hours on the game and this person says, quote,

updated 16th on June 2026. Game version 1.00.13 after dedicated server update. Gave it a rating 8 out of 10. It says after the version 1.001.1.1.1.1. The game appears to be back to roughly a five minute cool down. Don't know what that means. Core idle farming came a gameplay feels smooth and enjoyable again.

what I like plus okay what I like free to play plus idle game plus items can be sold on the steam market plus great art style what could be improved poor balance starting from hell at three difficulty

no meaningful in-game content overall the game is in a much better state and with that being said I did want to get into one more review as we already heard two negative ones. I got into one positive and there's no more positives, ladies and gentlemen.

So if you ain't like that, let me see. All right, let's get into the most helpful review. So this one had a thousand helpful votes. I don't know what that means. So basically thumbs up. So this review had 93.3 hours on the game saying, quote, game was fine and a fun, I learned, but developers are actively ruining it. Dang, they're ruining it.

Anyways, instead of fighting Chinese bot farms, goodness, and marketplace cheaters, they punish their most engaged players and paying customers by silently nerthing the drop rates. And there's a bunch of hearts and it says up progression. I don't know what that means. You had a hidden gym here, but somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Goodness gracious. And edit. Now there's also a huge wave of false bans. That's what I was talking about earlier.

As far as people getting banned for like supposedly cheating. But no tell. I'm not trying to advocate for them. But of course, Taskbar hero, you're probably going to be doing other things on your PC. Maybe that ended up having them false flags. So what that be said, ladies and gentlemen, there's a reason why I started off with controversy. And the masses given their different reviews from people who played 400 plus hours in the game. There's a reason why we're ending with controversy. As all of that said to decide,

this game is still the second most play game on Steam. So either this game is going to completely collapse or New Jim Studio and Tesser, Tesserac Studio are going to get it together so that their player base doesn't turn on them. Because as you can see, the people are enjoying the game. They're saying you have something good on your hands. You have something fantastic. a hit on your hands and you're completely ruining it. So hopefully they find some way to unruin it. No, that's not a word. But you get the point.

Basically, they need to find to reverse the course of public perception and find a way to get into good gracious of the community. Because as of right now, you can't say the support's not there. I know it is a free game, but still, being the second most play game on Steam is no easy accomplishment. All of these games on this list would love to be the second most play game. on Steam. And right now, as of right now, is Task Bar Hero. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming.

Like, what is going to be? So with that being, say, click my link to you in my bio, follow me on one of my social medias. And of course, if you're on Spotify, and if you play Task Bar Hero, let me know what should the developers do to reverse course of action as far as this game and the ultimate micro-transactions being considered? Thank you.