I don't really understand what this is. There was just text that said there was nothing to solve but it had a link to click that said "Solve". I clicked it and it ran something and just said "You are not." which doesn't make sense. So I left.
Will you drown?
111–120 of 145 posts
Re: Will you drown?
#112I don't really understand what this is. There was just text that said there was nothing to solve but it had a link to click that said "Solve". I clicked it and it ran something and just said "You are not." which doesn't make sense. So I left.
It gets more complex. Just keep solving things.
Re: Will you drown?
#113You have:
Hope
Body
Life
Love
311 Memory
Integrity
16 Friend
Job
35 Experience
40 Respect
3 Stuff
7 Crushed Dream
6 Broken Heart
9 Project
Lover
5 Money
Knowledge
You are troubled. [Can't afford] -Integrity -Lost Ambition
You need to try harder. [Can't afford] -5 Respect -10 Stuff +Lost Ambition
Man why do I even want to buy more stuff. I have projects to complete. Yeah, so seven of them failed. Nine of them didn't. And like a good third of those memories are of making love. Yeah, time to close this browser window and get back to my RL projects. Or to some playing, it's late.
Re: Will you drown?
#114At the end of every episode in "Once Upon Atari," Rob Fulop (author or co-author of Demon Attack, Night Driver, Space Invaders, and Missile Command for the 2600) talks about how many children in the 80s played thousands of hours of Atari 2600 games and the effect that it had in their psychological development. Specifically, he believed it produced a nihilistic generation due to the overarching message that "you alway…
That seems a little harsh. It was a nihilistic time. Missile Command was brutal, but no more so than The Day After[1]. You always lose pinball in the end, too, but nobody blames that for ruining the youth. Well, nobody in that generation. Previously, like everything else novel the youth do, it was Satan's handmaiden. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After
I agree that he's probably overestimating Atari's impact on an entire generation's psyche, but I like that a) he's indirectly reminding artists to stay conscious of the emotions their artwork provokes in people and b) that's he humble and introspective enough to accept and admit the possible negative by-products of his work.
Re: Will you drown?
#115Re: Will you drown?
#116I didn't try automation, but I noticed pretty quickly that the actions can run simultaneously -- e.g., I clicked on Play and Learn while I was reading & clicking other things, just to keep those two running as frequently as they could.
[-- until those 2 options disappeared, which I felt was too soon; why should play & learn disappear as possibilities when work and get stuff are still available? Ugh. That's not my plan!]
But a more interesting point -- I liked that while you can rapid-click to get a lot of plates spinning at once (and obviously "progress" faster in the game that way), you start missing things. E.g., I spent a minute just clicking every Solve I saw without reading carefully, and didn't notice how I gained/lost a few things.
To experience life deeply, you have to do things one at a time, in other words.
Re: Will you drown?
#117Re: Will you drown?
#118I absolutely loved this game. In the beginning, I took my time, thought about what each [Solve] would do, and really paid attention. As more and more options popped up, I ended up clicking faster and faster. This lead to a bitter life and then death. I don't think I've ever played anything as profound as that moment, when I realized I had just rushed through life. What a game.
Re: Will you drown?
#119The dark aspect of the flow is that this seems like a life that ends in suicide.
It's a question of interpretation, of course, but where does a retirement of any kind fit in? Not "stop work and focus on my gardening" type of retirement (which doesn't go so well for people who have defined themselves by their work!), but a switch back to more play and learning, a less rigorous schedule (and less "stuff") but more profound connections.
There's not a possible flow where "go to work" disappears, but "play" and "learn" remain.
Instead, Play/Learn drop out, as does the possibility to get a better job -- which implies that my capacity to grow fails while I'm still in my main working life; so my career will plateau while I go through "you are troubled", "you are bitter", and finally (as options disappear) "you are starting to accept".
"Accept" that I've lost the ability to learn/play and nothing but work (but with no hope of further self-improvement) and "get stuff" remains in my life? That's bleak. I can't even make new friends, apparently.
When I solve "You are starting to accept", that costs me "Life". I.e., accepting that there's nothing more I can expect from my life (in a game titled "Drowning in Problems", I end it.
Counterpoint: "Hope" is the last thing to go -- that doesn't fit with the narrative I'm describing here -- but that strikes me as a red herring, possibly intentional.
I have a bunch of interpretation to add to this -- is this a "too successful too young" anomie? Devaluation of the wisdom that comes with half a century of learning/playing because most people don't learn and play so long? Devaluation of what a relationship with another (friend or love) can be after decades of shared experience, because that doesn't seem to happen?
But yeah, I've spent enough time on HN already today.
Re: Will you drown?
#120At the end of every episode in "Once Upon Atari," Rob Fulop (author or co-author of Demon Attack, Night Driver, Space Invaders, and Missile Command for the 2600) talks about how many children in the 80s played thousands of hours of Atari 2600 games and the effect that it had in their psychological development. Specifically, he believed it produced a nihilistic generation due to the overarching message that "you alway…
That seems a little harsh. It was a nihilistic time. Missile Command was brutal, but no more so than The Day After[1]. You always lose pinball in the end, too, but nobody blames that for ruining the youth. Well, nobody in that generation. Previously, like everything else novel the youth do, it was Satan's handmaiden. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After
It’s positive in a way. Sure, you always lose in the end, but you can have a lot of fun in the meantime.