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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#191

Post by mikewarot »

shagie wrote: post #126
serf wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This makes me sad. I gotta say, I think I agree. Maybe it's just rose-tinted-glasses, but I remember a time when software was split between "IBM-Corpo" culture, and zany SV/MIT/Caltech culture where people threw things at the wall and proceeded when stuff stuck. It kind of saddens me that it feels like it's now only IBM-Corpo, and everyone feels the need to be ever-productive and adhere to strict rules and schema. t…

Not long after his immersion in LIFE, Gosper himself got a glimpse of the limits of the tight circle the hackers had drawn. It happened in the man-made daylight of the 1972 Apollo 17 moon shot. He was a passenger on a special cruise to the Caribbean, a “science cruise” timed for the launch, and the boat was loaded with sci-fi writers, futurists, scientists of varying stripes, cultural commentators, and, according to…

Thundering towers blasting into space is a primal thrill... but what if the hackers can do all of that with some aluminum foil, duct tape, and other things found in every garage workshop?

Big and flashy bets are expensive, many small bets are a far, far better way to explore the design space, especially now that we can share all the results with almost no cost.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#193

Post by 0points »

lucb1e wrote: post #125
dartos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad. This makes me sad. You don’t need to make software for mass appeal. Git is weird and bizarre (especially when initially released), but it’s used and well loved.

> You don’t need to make software for mass appeal. Hear, hear. I would tell you all about the tools my household runs on but it is as you say. Still gives me a lot of satisfaction to make stuff that makes life better, and for someone more adventurous than me it might also be something you can use to try out new technologies or build something for on your CV. The only downside is that internet connectivity being down…

It fascinates me how someone like you manage to build all these tooling to run your house, but still struggle with

> need to remember to load the grocery list before leaving the house that has the server in it

^ remote access

and

> better hope your phone doesn't decide for you that the page needs to be unloaded on the way

^ unreliable tech

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#194

Post by 0points »

Animats wrote: post #82
delichon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I asked Kovařík about this, he brought up Euro Truck Simulator, a wilfully mundane game about hauling cargo. The developers, who are friends of his, once told him that many of their most enthusiastic players are ... truckers. Truckers who spend their time off from their trucking jobs pretending to do more trucking ... a lot of people actually enjoy the work they do. They just don’t always enjoy their jobs that m…

There's a whole genre of such games. - Modern Farming. Has really good working models of expensive farming equipment. There are videos of real farmers playing it. - Lawnmower Simulator. Yes, really. Mow enough lawns, get a better mower. - Power Wash Simulator. Not kidding.[1] The first game in this category was probably the famous Desert Bus. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5G-2qTupCk

Then there's the PC Building Simulator

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#196

Post by MichaelDickens »

Xeronate wrote: post #7

The article mentions one of the main appeals of factorio is you get to think like a programmer without bosses/overhead from actual work but it’s always been hard to get into games for that reason because I could just work on a side project with the same result. I really don’t understand the appeal.

You could just as easily say, why work on a side project when you could play Factorio instead with the same result?

What makes a side project better than Factorio?

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#197

Post by dalanmiller »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #159

I was looking at this game this morning, it sounds fantastic fun podcasts I've listened to, but at 50 Australian dollars it'd be the most I've ever paid for a game on Steam. Someone convince me it's worth it?

Easily the single best bang for your buck game I have ever played.

I’d still say that at AUD$100

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#198

Post by kfajdsl »

herval wrote: post #145
derektank wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you subscribe to Peter Singer's views on consequentialism, we all have a moral duty to spend our life maximizing the number of people we save from dying or from immense suffering. Hard to do that if you're not being productive; though I'll be the first to admit nobody does or can live with perfect adherence to that principle

That’s a crazy ascetic view of life. Also completely unrelated to almost anyone on this forum, since it’s unlikely most here are doing any work that saves anyone’s life

I mean, you work to make money, and you can donate that money to all kinds of charities that do save lives.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#199

Post by fragmede »

mikewarot wrote: post #195

Is there a similar game that lets you place logic gates and do computing? Bonus points if it's open source.

Nandgame and nand2tetris both take you on a journey from discreet transistors to a computer, in the form of a game. There's also Zachatronics games' TIS-100, and Shenzhen I/O.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#200

Post by scott_w »

dartos wrote: post #50
Taek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its just fun. "Okay wth, today we're going to make the entire base solar powered" When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad. But in Factorio? Nobody is using it so sure, make it bizzare. Change the rules, let yourself go. Don't test the design just send it. Bored? Too challenging? Don't bother finishing…

> When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad. This makes me sad. You don’t need to make software for mass appeal. Git is weird and bizarre (especially when initially released), but it’s used and well loved.

> You don’t need to make software for mass appeal.

Some people, like myself, enjoy writing code but need a purpose to write code. If I don’t have a reason, or problem to solve, I can’t just sit down and start coding.

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