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Solitaire

localthunk.com

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Re: Solitaire

#81

Post by banannaise »

sdwr wrote: post #64
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

It's a roguelike deckbuilder. The randomness is necessary to the genre.

I think you've missed something important: none of these elements in Balatro are monetized. The only way the developer makes more money is through players telling other players how fun the game is, which convinces them to buy it.

Re: Solitaire

#82

Post by matsemann »

foobarian wrote: post #33
bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

This is why I play it with actual physical cards. I learned it as kid so partly it's a comfort ritual, and partly the tactile interaction is very soothing.

It also "forces" you to keep playing when it gets tough, as a complete shuffle plus new setup isn't just a simple click away. It's also nice to get off the screen for a while.

I recently bought a smaller deck of cards, like half or three quarters of the size of a normal deck or so. Makes it easier to play without needing a huge table.

Re: Solitaire

#83

Post by playsolitr »

bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

[dead]

Re: Solitaire

#84

Post by ChainnChompp »

cwizou wrote: post #30
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

> It's a comfort game. A pasttime rather than an addiction. Balatro is a stress reliever for me and I can jump in, play, and jump out and it's fine. Exactly. To me there are two specific things that gives it that stress reliever, jump in/out spirit of Solitaire : - You know from the start you may not win every round. - Things can instantly and dramatically turn one way or another. I think both are perfectly captured…

> - You know from the start you may not win every round. > - Things can instantly and dramatically turn one way or another.

Nailed it. A good rogue-like deck-builder should always have these qualities. My favorite for a few years now - Slay the Spire - lives by this.

Re: Solitaire

#85

Post by bscphil »

banannaise wrote: post #81
sdwr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

It's a roguelike deckbuilder. The randomness is necessary to the genre. I think you've missed something important: none of these elements in Balatro are monetized. The only way the developer makes more money is through players telling other players how fun the game is, which convinces them to buy it.

> players telling other players how fun the game is

I wonder if we've collectively been trained to perceive addictiveness as fun. It's good that the developer isn't being directly monetizing eyeball-hours, but when users have grown to expect that specific dopamine hit that proves addictive, you end up having to include it anyway.

Re: Solitaire

#86

Post by joemi »

sl3dge78 wrote: post #39
bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

I highly recommend the Zachtronics Solitaire Collection. Greatly designed solitaire games. I play them every day on my commute to work.

I absolutely love the Zachtronics solitaires. I play at least one a day on my phone. That said, I wish they were slightly better designed for phones, since the text/images and touch targets can be a little small. It's too bad Zachtronics is no more -- it'd be nice if they were able to do some UI updates.

Re: Solitaire

#87

Post by [deleted] »

sdwr wrote: post #64
superultra wrote: post #3

I love this post a lot. Our entire world is perpetuated by platforms that are desperately begging us for engagement. It feels to me at least that I'm being pulled in a hundred directions, for all my time for all time. My engagement with Balatro is not quite the same as localthunks. I go in phases where I play a lot and then put it down and walk away, and then weeks later I get back into it. But that also feels like i…

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

[deleted]

Re: Solitaire

#88

Post by kevinmchugh »

banannaise wrote: post #81
sdwr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you can say that with a straight face. Balatro is building on 50 years of addiction-seeking game design. Everything from the sound effects, to the random round rewards, to the pacing of unlocks is optimized to be as attention-grabbing and dopamine-releasing as possible. It's like praising Coca-Cola for not tasting as sweet as Pepsi

It's a roguelike deckbuilder. The randomness is necessary to the genre. I think you've missed something important: none of these elements in Balatro are monetized. The only way the developer makes more money is through players telling other players how fun the game is, which convinces them to buy it.

There's also nothing timed in balatro, so there's no need for the next game to be _now_.

Re: Solitaire

#89

Post by MattSayar »

bbkane wrote: post #14

I love Solitaire - it's such a nice way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something else. Unfortunately, many solitaire phone apps are filled with ads, slow, or have clunky controls. A few years ago, however, I found https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.tobiasbielefeld.solitaire... . Its free and open source, and quite fast with nice shortcuts to move the cards. I love this app and have played multiple Klondike/S…

One nice side benefit of DNS-level adblocking (pi-hole, etc) is that a lot of mobile games never end up showing ads. It doesn't always work perfectly, but in particular I play a euchre game on my phone that frequently asks me to "pay X to play with no ads" and every time I think "What ads?"

That said, sometimes I pay to support the developer if I like the game. Sucks when a game I like doesn't offer the "remove ads" option.

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