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Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

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Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#2
Since I care about memorable stories that emerge through play, convenience is not king. It’s a difficulty balance to strike, as we all have different frustration tolerance and different reasons for playing games in the first place. I’ve always been an explorer in games, and I used to care more about being powerful. Now what little free time I spend in games is less about the (illusion of the) end goal and more about the escape into a low/no-stakes arena where the journey matters most and I don’t much care if this moment is the last I’ll ever spend in this game. I’m trading time and some light decision-making practice for memories, both solo and with friends.

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#5
I haven't played this game, but I'll definitely add it to my watchlist from this insightful conversation.

I had an interesting experience with friction playing the Retro Bowl (football) and Retro Goal (soccer) games on my iPhone. I don't usually play sports titles, but they build an interesting feeling where you just can't win 'em all. If you are building a franchise, some matches will be impossible to win, so you just need to try your damndest to lose less. While action games will warp you to a checkpoint when you die and roguelikes will bring you back to the beginning, these games give you a penalty and let you proceed. It's a fun procedural narrative when you have an abyssal record, pissed off investors/fans, and a team with great potential, but low morale.

Unfortunately, these games are single player but F2P, so there is a tempting micro-transaction of spending $2/$5/$10+ to get a morale boost or funds. I appreciate the design decisions, but it does make me think the game traps you into failure until you spend some cash.

I had to admit that I spent real money in Retro Goal. I actually justified it by pretending I had to take Qatari funding to keep my Premier League team afloat.

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#7

Is this headline one of those "trip up a Turing Test contestant" things? Because if it is I'm a confused app.

I read other postings as well, and maybe it's just quirky phrasing (of an admittedly odd topic) or ESOL, but there is a GPT ring to it.

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#8

I haven't played this game, but I'll definitely add it to my watchlist from this insightful conversation. I had an interesting experience with friction playing the Retro Bowl (football) and Retro Goal (soccer) games on my iPhone. I don't usually play sports titles, but they build an interesting feeling where you just can't win 'em all. If you are building a franchise, some matches will be impossible to win, so you ju…

Last line, hilarious.

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#9
The way he describes friction reminds of the book Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Good book with a giant obstacle of tons of made up vocabulary. I read that a long time ago, and now I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the story/characters and how much of it was just a different level of immersion and satisfaction from getting through the friction.

Re: Inside Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator’s deliberately designed friction

#10

Is this headline one of those "trip up a Turing Test contestant" things? Because if it is I'm a confused app.

In this case, the capitalization of the words is very helpful in determining that there is a title in the middle of that title.
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