Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It is as if you were doing work

pippinbarr.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 214 posts

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#151

Post by btschaegg »

tempestn wrote: post #75

This just makes me sad that windows stealing focus, grabbing a randomly typed space bar, and submitting themselves before you can even read them is still a thing.

Today I found out that MS "solutions" can also go in the other direction by not telling you what happened.

Scenario:

- You're forced to use TFS. - Your credientials are managed by a Windows domain controller. - The same credentials are used to authentify with TFS. - Your password expires.

Welcome to a non-trivial amount of time trying to figure out what happened. This is the single scenario I've encountered so far where interrupting my workflow would have been sensible, and it seemingly is also the only one where Windows doesn't do it.

I miss Git so much ._.

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#154

Post by odbol_ »

ericdykstra wrote: post #53
Aissen wrote: post #43

I love the "busywork" aspect of this game. You work like a drone, doing simple tasks with no intelligence whatsoever. This must be what most people working on a desk must feel like (not sure people on HN can relate to this). It's also a reflection on modern gaming in general. If only some games had busywork as part of their gameplay, they'd feel less tiring and more fun.

There are plenty of games that have "busywork" aspects. The term for it in gaming is "grinding" (implies mindlessness, even though it is sometimes used in a different context). The vast majority of RPGs, especially old-school JRPGs and MMORPGs, require you do "grind" to get to a certain level to unlock more stages. Many modern mobile games are literally just mindless busywork with an option to pay money to skip some…

Re playing Chrono Trigger this weekend. The "fast-forward" button and instant saves real make it a fun experience for the story without the chores of the grinding.

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#155

Post by ggsp »

hosh wrote: post #67

I wished I could find this article again -- it was an analysis of games that were designed to be deliberately addictive but not fun. Examples were things like ProgressQuest. This was right around when gamification became a fad on the internet (around 2012). It's all dopamine hacking.

That sounds like a super interesting read, too bad you can't find it :(

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#156

Post by memco »

eckza wrote: post #86
tempestn wrote: post #75

This just makes me sad that windows stealing focus, grabbing a randomly typed space bar, and submitting themselves before you can even read them is still a thing.

One of my favorite things about OSX is the fact that applications rarely / never are allowed to steal focus.

While I mostly agree with you I recently had a corrupted keychain that I was trying to fix. In the process I was transferring items from one keychain to another and had 100+ dialogs pop up asking me to enter my password to allow each individual item. Once started, there was no way to cancel the dialogs easily, no way to bulk authenticate, no way to see/sort the windows and no way to associate any particular dialog with any particular to know where I was in the process if I did decide to abort and start again. Fun times.

Granted this was an edge case and is not the norm. It was still a pretty horrid UX.

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#157

Post by empath75 »

hosh wrote: post #67

I wished I could find this article again -- it was an analysis of games that were designed to be deliberately addictive but not fun. Examples were things like ProgressQuest. This was right around when gamification became a fad on the internet (around 2012). It's all dopamine hacking.

Jonathan Blow has given a bunch of talks on that topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqFu5O-oPmU

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#158

Post by morugin »

Aissen wrote: post #43

I love the "busywork" aspect of this game. You work like a drone, doing simple tasks with no intelligence whatsoever. This must be what most people working on a desk must feel like (not sure people on HN can relate to this). It's also a reflection on modern gaming in general. If only some games had busywork as part of their gameplay, they'd feel less tiring and more fun.

Hm, that's a side of gaming that is foreign to most people who call themselves "gamers" (even casual gamers). A game like starcraft is much more complex (by orders of magnitude) than chess, a game with a respected intelligence component. AI cannot (yet) outperform human teams in mobas like league of legends or overwatch. These are the titles i think of when thinking about "modern gaming".

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#159

Post by Cerium »

majewsky wrote: post #103
fomojola wrote: post #15

Clearly it needs the following 3 things: 1. It needs a fake calendar that is randomly populated with meetings. 2. It needs to randomly require that you open Google Hangouts and chat with other users. 3. It needs to send random Slack notifications.

> 1. It needs a fake calendar that is randomly populated with meetings. While we're on this, can everyone please post their favorite ridiculous meeting title that is really real? I'll start with a recurring meeting series from last year that was called "mid-sprint calibration".

"Monday Morning Meeting", routinely lasted well past noon.

Re: It is as if you were doing work

#160

Post by ld00d »

Aissen wrote: post #43

I love the "busywork" aspect of this game. You work like a drone, doing simple tasks with no intelligence whatsoever. This must be what most people working on a desk must feel like (not sure people on HN can relate to this). It's also a reflection on modern gaming in general. If only some games had busywork as part of their gameplay, they'd feel less tiring and more fun.

> If only some games had busywork as part of their gameplay

Try Mass Effect

Post reply on HN