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What is interesting about Factorio

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Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#11

Post by kennu »

fouc wrote: post #6

As someone that stopped playing games in university, I've found it weirdly hard to get back into games many years later. Factorio seems like the type of game I would've liked as a teenager, but now it just feels like work to me. As do most interesting games. It seems like there's a learning curve to games that I don't want to spend the time dealing with anymore.

You have to give the game some time. If it's good (like Factorio is) it might just pull you in. You also need to be in the right mood for that particular game. Sometimes you have to try a game many times until get pulled in.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#13

Post by frenchie14 »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #5
jfim wrote: post #2

> It's also extremely addictive to engineers. Quite the understatement. Pretty much every engineer that I've introduced to the game has played for at least 40 hours.

Interesting. I used to play video games but now I mostly 3D print stuff and design robots for fun. I don’t think video games are a bad use of time generally, but I feel so good about doing actual engineering for fun that I’m always a little surprised with games that are supposed to be fun for engineer types. I kind of wonder why actually doing engineering for fun isn’t more popular?

I would claim that playing Factorio constitutes as doing engineering for fun

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#14

Post by jfim »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #5
jfim wrote: post #2

> It's also extremely addictive to engineers. Quite the understatement. Pretty much every engineer that I've introduced to the game has played for at least 40 hours.

Interesting. I used to play video games but now I mostly 3D print stuff and design robots for fun. I don’t think video games are a bad use of time generally, but I feel so good about doing actual engineering for fun that I’m always a little surprised with games that are supposed to be fun for engineer types. I kind of wonder why actually doing engineering for fun isn’t more popular?

Certain game types basically are puzzles that are similar to the kinds of puzzles one would encounter during engineering things.

Factorio is one of them, but other puzzle games such as topological ones (Spacechem, Opus Magnum, Infinifactory, Molek-syntez), programming (Shenzhen IO, TIS-500, Human Resource Machine, Silicon Zeroes) or logic ones (Baba is you) kind of scratch similar itches.

As for doing engineering for fun, some of us are stuck doing rather boring tasks at the office, and the idea of having a game that one can just put away seems less daunting than having a code/hardware project that could potentially sit uncompleted. Designing robots definitely is fun, although it requires a fair bit of working space and tools.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#15

Post by beart »

umvi wrote: post #3

I really want to play this game. I've put it on my wishlist 2 years ago, but I swear, I've never seen it on sale! I wonder if it's because technically it is still Early Access.

As jfim mentioned, this game will probably never go on sale but the list price is definitely worth it.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#17

Post by deathanatos »

roel_v wrote: post #12
umvi wrote: post #3

I really want to play this game. I've put it on my wishlist 2 years ago, but I swear, I've never seen it on sale! I wonder if it's because technically it is still Early Access.

It's $20. For a game you will spend 100's of hours on.

The price was raised a while back to $30.[1]

[1]: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/016-price-change

(I purchased it for myself at the $20 price, but I've also purchased it as a gift at the $30 price. I have definitely gotten my money's worth.)

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#19

Post by robocat »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #5
jfim wrote: post #2

> It's also extremely addictive to engineers. Quite the understatement. Pretty much every engineer that I've introduced to the game has played for at least 40 hours.

Interesting. I used to play video games but now I mostly 3D print stuff and design robots for fun. I don’t think video games are a bad use of time generally, but I feel so good about doing actual engineering for fun that I’m always a little surprised with games that are supposed to be fun for engineer types. I kind of wonder why actually doing engineering for fun isn’t more popular?

Engineering as a job often requires a lot of grinding to get an outcome, even the “easy” engineering (?) disciplines like embedded software work in my experience.

Your “engineering for fun” is perhaps not what most engineers do day to day. And certainly our jobs and workplaces generally are not explicitly designed to be enjoyable with satisfying outcomes.

Re: What is interesting about Factorio

#20

Post by avalys »

My computer gaming has been pretty modest for the past 6 or 7 years. An hour here or there, mostly on the weekends. I don’t really get absorbed in games that much anymore.

Factorio is something different. I started playing it on a Saturday morning. Slept a few hours that night. When the sun started rising Monday morning I realized I should probably try to get a little sleep before heading into the office. Never had that experience before or since. Probably the closest I’ve ever come to a “bender”.

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