More people own Lost Coast, an addon for Half Life 2, than Half Life 2 itself? How did that happen?
It's not an addon, it's a free tech demo of features they didn't manage to have ready for the engine at release, HDR and the like.
Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#42More people own Lost Coast, an addon for Half Life 2, than Half Life 2 itself? How did that happen?
Lost Coast is a standalone freebie tech demo; it probably was issued freely to owners of various other Source Engine games (or maybe even just to absolutely everybody). Apparently it was also given out to people who bought certain graphics cards too.
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#43Games scare me because of their addictiveness, especially for people who need an escape from crappy things in their lives. I enjoy them occasionally as much as the next person, but it makes me sad to see how high the play numbers are for some games. A good friend of mine in college pretty much ruined his life by using Team Fortress 2 as his "coping" mechanism for depression: he logged 2000+ hours on the game in 6 mon…
Depression ruined your friend's life, not Team Fortress 2.
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#44Games scare me because of their addictiveness, especially for people who need an escape from crappy things in their lives. I enjoy them occasionally as much as the next person, but it makes me sad to see how high the play numbers are for some games. A good friend of mine in college pretty much ruined his life by using Team Fortress 2 as his "coping" mechanism for depression: he logged 2000+ hours on the game in 6 mon…
I hear that a lot from people, but from my personal experience I find them no more addictive than books or TV. I find most single player games take somewhere in between reading a book and watching season of a TV show, in terms of hours. And just like TV shows and Books, you don't have to consume the whole thing at once. It's funny because nowadays people talk casually about binge watching TV seasons on Netflix, but i…
>I find them no more addictive than books or TV //
They're entirely different in many respects but no book nor TV show is essentially endless as a MMORPG is. If I spent 12 hours a day reading a novel I'd have finished it inside 2 days, similarly for watching many TV series. Yet I could spend 12 hours a day every day playing a game and continue until ... some external factor intervenes.
Books and TV shows don't have the same "reward" mechanisms (think Skinner box) they don't really relate as an experience other than that all 3 media usually involve a narrative of some form. Games feel like you're doing something worthwhile beyond sitting and consuming media as you do for a novel or TV drama; they give an illusion of achievement [often one carefully psychologically tailored to engage and retain the user as much as possible] that compels in a way other media do not.
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#45Games scare me because of their addictiveness, especially for people who need an escape from crappy things in their lives. I enjoy them occasionally as much as the next person, but it makes me sad to see how high the play numbers are for some games. A good friend of mine in college pretty much ruined his life by using Team Fortress 2 as his "coping" mechanism for depression: he logged 2000+ hours on the game in 6 mon…
Yeah, I purchased Civ V a while ago but I can't bring myself to actually play it. I think I'm too old to lose 4 hours to a game that gives me no real benefit.
You could watch a livestream on Twitch instead: it can even be fun to chat with other viewers or you can even work on other things at the same time. It's not as good as playing the game yourself, but it can be an alternattive.
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is something I've been thinking about as well. Whenever I meet someone who doesn't play videogames, I ask them what they do in their spare time (because it's an idea I can't comprehend). It's always "watch tv" or "facebook" or "reddit" or something equally mundane. I'd rather be engaging my brain, thinking spatially, and solving interesting problems.
I used to be a heavy gamer, now I spend my spare time doing research and working on side projects that will make me a better developer. I now find this infinitely more rewarding than video games. At a certain age the entertainment value of the games was ruined by mortal terror at the rapid increase in the rate of my birthdays. :)
Do you not feel that workin on side projects all the time wears you down? I haven't had one for about 5 months now, I've been working so hard on other stuff, that I need something like LoL, WoW, or battlefield to take my mind off things on the evenings.
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#47Games scare me because of their addictiveness, especially for people who need an escape from crappy things in their lives. I enjoy them occasionally as much as the next person, but it makes me sad to see how high the play numbers are for some games. A good friend of mine in college pretty much ruined his life by using Team Fortress 2 as his "coping" mechanism for depression: he logged 2000+ hours on the game in 6 mon…
Yeah, I purchased Civ V a while ago but I can't bring myself to actually play it. I think I'm too old to lose 4 hours to a game that gives me no real benefit.
But do you spend time watching TV? There's no real difference, if you enjoy spending time doing something then you should do it. Whats the point in working hard if you don get to chill out?
Re: Steam Gauge: Steam’s most popular games
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hear that a lot from people, but from my personal experience I find them no more addictive than books or TV. I find most single player games take somewhere in between reading a book and watching season of a TV show, in terms of hours. And just like TV shows and Books, you don't have to consume the whole thing at once. It's funny because nowadays people talk casually about binge watching TV seasons on Netflix, but i…
> I find them no more addictive than books or TV // They're entirely different in many respects but no book nor TV show is essentially endless as a MMORPG is. If I spent 12 hours a day reading a novel I'd have finished it inside 2 days, similarly for watching many TV series. Yet I could spend 12 hours a day every day playing a game and continue until ... some external factor intervenes. Books and TV shows don't have…
It obviously depends on the game or TV show. I suppose if you were "addicted" to news you could watch cable news 12 hours a day ad infinitum.
Again, I can only relate personal experiences, but I've been just as compelled to read "just one more chapter" of certain books or to watch "just one more episode" of a TV series as I have to advance in a game.
I enjoy all three mediums and at different times in my life I've been into one more than the others. They all seem more or less the same to me (in terms of time spent, culture absorbed, entertainment value).