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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#261

Post by bjackman »

satvikpendem wrote: post #35

I know lots of people who play Factorio but for me, I guess it just feels too much like work? Whenever I play it, I get the distinct feeling that I could instead do the same thing but productively instead, such as by contributing to my OSS projects (sometimes, maybe even for profit instead). I never got into these types of programmatic games for precisely this reason but I'd like to understand other perspectives on t…

I get the same feeling with increasingly many games as I get older.

It started with games that are basically engineering work. But now it's anything with resource management or long-term strategic thinking (basically whenever I think "hmm, I need to note down my thoughts so I can pick up my strategy where I left of next time I play").

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#262

Post by fphhotchips »

shadowgovt wrote: post #166
klik99 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like it and Satisfactory redirects the part of me that creates and looks for novel ways of doing things from something that yields useful byproducts that actually change the world in tiny ways into something that yields nothing but more of itself. And it never really ends. I don't mind useless stuff, I play games, but something about Factorio and Satisfactory both draws me in and makes me feel so empty. I thin…

It's a digital model train set. At least it doesn't take up the whole basement like the sets previous generations played with.

People look at me funny when I say this, but it's true.

I work in performance - a space where we're thinking about threading, parallelism and the like a lot - and I often say "I want to hire who play with trains". What I mean is "I want people who play Factorio", because the concepts and problems are very very similar. But fewer people know Factorio, so I say trains instead.

I think I know why it's enjoyable even though it's so close to work, too. It's the _feedback_. Factorio shows you visually where you screwed up, and what's moving slowly. In actual work the time and frustration is usually in finding it.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#263

Post by EspadaV9 »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #164
fragmede wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Factorio doesn't go on sale. The author's reasoning being it's disrespectful to those who paid full price for it. Edit: official forum link stating thus: https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?p=159626#p159626

It's funny I came across this thread. Just yesterday I was looking at buying it, but it's 50 AUD. I went to add it to my wishlist to wait for a sale, but it was already there. I realised it must have been on there for a long time. I was wondering if I somehow missed it going on sale, or it never had. Glad I know it isn't likely to any time soon.

Yeah, it stings. I did buy 2 copies on launch day for myself and my son (8) though. We have spent a lot of time on Factorio together though and I prefer it much more than Minecraft (although we have probably clocked up many many more hours on that).

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#264

Post by downut »

medstrom wrote: post #225
0points wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What would you do?

We keep a postit list next to the breadmaker and write stuff down when we need to get something. Then when it is time to go shopping, we simply peel off the list and away we go.

I am getting disgusted by people who need to have that screen in their hand, all waking hours.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#265

Post by 7952 »

serf wrote: post #56
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.

>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…

I think that culture still exists outside of official IT teams. It is just contained in python scripts, R coding, excel, PowerApps, shadow IT etc.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#266

Post by hluska »

bowsamic wrote: post #192
hluska wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is way too short to be boring.

It’s boring to play CoD instead of Factorio?

No, it’s boring to use cheap personal attacks (like I responded to) instead of actually engaging. If I wanted to read that, I could find it in YouTube comments.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#267

Post by cedws »

sureglymop wrote: post #230
herval wrote: post #127

Lots of comments on this thread in the vein of “I dislike this game because it’s not productive”. My honestly question is… why? Why is “being productive” this goal that has to consume your entire life?

I think it's perfectionism and impostor syndrome. When I play games, I never play competitive or intense games, I see it as a therapeutic activity. I play relaxing single player games like Stardew Valley or Tiny Glade. Cultivate some crops, feed my chicken, pat my cat. No real end goal other than to just relax. I urge anyone to try, especially in co-op with with a friend or partner. It really is therapeutic.

I’d love to do that, but I have a different kind of syndrome where I can’t motivate myself to play something unless I’m playing with other people. Being an adult, I don’t have anyone who can just jump on a game with me on a regular schedule.

I’ve wanted to play Valheim for ages. I even bought the Factorio DLC on launch day and barely played it because nobody wanted to play.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#268

Post by mft_ »

I've started and re-started Factorio several times, and always enjoy it... up the point where an automated train network is necessary. Here, I always run into problems, and no amount of researching or fettling of the setup seems to guarantee that my trains work. Sometimes they do... often, I have to drive them manually.

Anyway, if you like Factorio, you might also enjoy Mindustry: simmilar-ish, less constructional depth, more tower-defence and fighting.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#269

Post by throwaway19972 »

downut wrote: post #264
medstrom wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you do?

We keep a postit list next to the breadmaker and write stuff down when we need to get something. Then when it is time to go shopping, we simply peel off the list and away we go. I am getting disgusted by people who need to have that screen in their hand, all waking hours.

I won't go so far as to say I'm disgusted by what others do, but I am increasingly resenting having to use my phone for myriad tasks that shouldn't require a phone in the first place. Like unlocking my apartment door. It's obviously so that someone can get a recurring cut where they would have once provided a one-time semi-permanent solution (like a key, or a notepad).

I mean, maybe some of this will be blunted over time as open source slowly eats away at these utilities, but until then I view my phone like a grenade, or a drug, or a slot machine, or a money-eater.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#270

Post by wiseowise »

47282847 wrote: post #218
wiseowise wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is agonizing, CS doesn’t try to replicate real world scenario. In real life if you die - you die, you don’t get to respawn with $800.

You sure?

I haven't tried it myself, but heard that this is indeed the case.
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