Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure • Hacker News Board

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#141

Post by malloryerik » Thu, May 24, 2018, 3:55 AM UTC

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

What do you think are the best games for modding? Of course Minecraft. What else? I'm thinking especially in terms of modding as a way to get into programming.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#142

Post by FooHentai » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

malloryerik wrote: post #141

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

What do you think are the best games for modding? Of course Minecraft. What else? I'm thinking especially in terms of modding as a way to get into programming.

I'm not super up to date but if you're willing to look at older games with active modding communities, the Elder scrolls, Fallout, and Stalker series' stand out as having very active modding communities.

ModDB is also a great resource (was, not sure if still the best), you can figure out where the crowds are at based on levels of submission and discussion activity there.

PS Minecraft modding is an interesting example of where those commercial revenue-focused practices have bled into the modding scene. Never have I seen so much adfly, patreon, and general money-making motivation within a modding community. I doubt it's the only one that suffers from the issue, but it's notable.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#143

Post by RidingPegasus » Thu, May 24, 2018, 5:57 AM UTC

malloryerik wrote: post #141

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

What do you think are the best games for modding? Of course Minecraft. What else? I'm thinking especially in terms of modding as a way to get into programming.

The entire Arma series has a huge modding community, along with good documentation on the internals, it's one of the main selling points of the game. Their last competition spawned hundreds of entries and awarded €500,000 in prizes to content creators.

https://arma3.com/features/content-creation

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#144

Post by onion2k » Thu, May 24, 2018, 6:08 AM UTC

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

Current Xbox One mainstream games are pretty much all available on plastic discs, and all work without an internet connection (obviously without patches or online multiplayer). You don't need to sign up for any services. There's a trend for multiplayer-only FPS games but that's a relatively small part of gaming as a whole.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#145

Post by sbr464 » Thu, May 24, 2018, 6:12 AM UTC

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

I’m also put off by the fact you can’t just turn on and play a game, you need to download a 5gb game update, platform updates and are spammed with notifications, especially if you don’t play for a few weeks.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#146

Post by nitrogen » Thu, May 24, 2018, 6:17 AM UTC

bambataa wrote: post #121

mrguyorama wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atari aimed for a playtime per quarter of 2-3 minutes back in the day

Wow, maybe not that different then when you account for inflation (though I might be way off). Who were these kids then who had rolls of quarters to throw into machines?

Sadly, sometimes they were the kids who stole money and possessions from their siblings to convert to play time.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#147

Post by imustbeevil » Thu, May 24, 2018, 6:29 AM UTC

sbr464 wrote: post #145

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

I’m also put off by the fact you can’t just turn on and play a game, you need to download a 5gb game update, platform updates and are spammed with notifications, especially if you don’t play for a few weeks.

People bring this up a lot, but forget that the alternative was the game gets released with bugs that never get fixed.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#148

Post by wu-ikkyu » Thu, May 24, 2018, 7:02 AM UTC

imustbeevil wrote: post #147

sbr464 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m also put off by the fact you can’t just turn on and play a game, you need to download a 5gb game update, platform updates and are spammed with notifications, especially if you don’t play for a few weeks.

People bring this up a lot, but forget that the alternative was the game gets released with bugs that never get fixed.

Maybe another alternative could be a game in which developers are given more time and resources to develop and test instead of shortstaffing, overworking, and rushing to market? More of a waterfall than an agile approach perhaps

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#149

Post by zaarn » Thu, May 24, 2018, 7:29 AM UTC

malloryerik wrote: post #141

FooHentai wrote: post #129

I'm currently going through a phase of setting up a games room, and acquiring a bunch of slightly older video game consoles and games to populate it. I've settled on PS2 and PS3, and Xbox/360 as the sweet spot for this. Partly due to price (they're not old enough to be worth much, but not new enough to be hawked at retail prices). But a factor just as big as price is how, from about mid-360 and PS3 onwards, gaming st…

What do you think are the best games for modding? Of course Minecraft. What else? I'm thinking especially in terms of modding as a way to get into programming.

Factorio has to my knowledge a pretty neat modding API internally.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#150

Post by pasquinelli » Thu, May 24, 2018, 7:32 AM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #66

piker wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...and how does one practice to "beat" Pac-Man with a perfect score?

Getting to the kill screen seems like it should count as a victory. Getting your initials on the top of the high score screen counts too, if perhaps only briefly. The idea that you can't say you've won unless you've played a completely perfect game is a mindset for insane people who will never be happy.

that's if you're stuck on the idea of beating a game of skill. if you need that idea, then you have to be able to beat pacman, and so you feed quarters to get to the game ending bug. if you dispense with that idea then you play for your best score, and feeding quarters to get to the kill screen becomes a waste of time.