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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#201

Post by wildpeaks »

runeblaze wrote: post #11
Xeronate wrote: post #7

The article mentions one of the main appeals of factorio is you get to think like a programmer without bosses/overhead from actual work but it’s always been hard to get into games for that reason because I could just work on a side project with the same result. I really don’t understand the appeal.

Same here. Also Factorio AFAIK has no good copilot. Sadly the best LLMs are not fine-tuned on Factorio so my productivity takes a massive hit when moving from side projects to Factorio.

Perhaps you should be concerned if your productivity is so low when you don't have an AI crutch doing the work for you.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#202

Post by wiseowise »

Taek wrote: post #38
satvikpendem wrote: post #35

I know lots of people who play Factorio but for me, I guess it just feels too much like work? Whenever I play it, I get the distinct feeling that I could instead do the same thing but productively instead, such as by contributing to my OSS projects (sometimes, maybe even for profit instead). I never got into these types of programmatic games for precisely this reason but I'd like to understand other perspectives on t…

Its just fun. "Okay wth, today we're going to make the entire base solar powered" When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad. But in Factorio? Nobody is using it so sure, make it bizzare. Change the rules, let yourself go. Don't test the design just send it. Bored? Too challenging? Don't bother finishing…

> When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad.

Sue you do. And you’re not obliged to keep it in some workable form just because they use it, they can use something else.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#203

Post by jasfi »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #162

Factorio provides the illusion of achievement which produces happy chemicals in my brain. I will happily forego any other work when getting my fix from factorio. So I stopped playing it and returned to interesting side projects. I confess I have purchased the recently released Space Age expansion, and my productivity is in the toilet again. I’ll probably be done with it by thanksgiving.

The Civ series does the same thing for me. I've also moved on from games, although I think from time to time they may be useful for stimulating creativity.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#204

Post by wiseowise »

duckmysick wrote: post #64
satvikpendem wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand, I can make whatever software I want, for whatever purpose, and it can still be impactful, depending on the user. It feels way more impactful than anything I can make in Factorio or similar.

> I can make whatever software I want, for whatever purpose Such freedom is extremely rare when you get paid for writing or maintaining software.

You’re not playing Factorio for a living, are you? Supposedly we’re talking about your free time.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#205

Post by bemmu »

satvikpendem wrote: post #35

I know lots of people who play Factorio but for me, I guess it just feels too much like work? Whenever I play it, I get the distinct feeling that I could instead do the same thing but productively instead, such as by contributing to my OSS projects (sometimes, maybe even for profit instead). I never got into these types of programmatic games for precisely this reason but I'd like to understand other perspectives on t…

I love Factorio, because in real life it's difficult to fully automate things so abstractly. It's so wonderfully simple to think that oh this thing goes here, is combined with this and this... profit.

You then walk away from the game, inspired to apply such process-thinking to your actual work and life, and realize that it's actually rare to be able to do.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#206

Post by dartos »

scott_w wrote: post #200
dartos wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When making software that's supposed to be used, you can't mess around that much. At the end of the day, someone has to use it and if its weird it'll be bad. This makes me sad. You don’t need to make software for mass appeal. Git is weird and bizarre (especially when initially released), but it’s used and well loved.

> You don’t need to make software for mass appeal. Some people, like myself, enjoy writing code but need a purpose to write code. If I don’t have a reason, or problem to solve, I can’t just sit down and start coding.

Try graphics programming.

Endless fun to be had trying to recreate shaders and having cool ideas for different vfx.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#207

Post by wiseowise »

ekidd wrote: post #58
satvikpendem wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, I actually used to play America's Army 3, a game which explicitly was funded by the DoD. It was pretty fun, not gonna lie, much more tactical than many other shooters during that time.

I remember speaking to several of the people who worked on America's Army back around 2007, when Counter-Strike was all the rage. I think this was at the GDC. The people I spoke with were from the Army. And they found CS-style games agonizing to watch. So many people running around with no plan, so much friendly fire, so many unrealistic tactics. You could practically see them shudder. They also had some people who w…

Of course it is agonizing, CS doesn’t try to replicate real world scenario. In real life if you die - you die, you don’t get to respawn with $800.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#208

Post by wiseowise »

beeflet wrote: post #138
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fps: the US military thanks you for training for infantry in your spare time.

Gonna enlist and be the first man to rocket jump

Finally my 14 years of TF2 will pay off. Do they have sticky bombs too?

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#209

Post by wiseowise »

OrigamiPastrami wrote: post #10
Xeronate wrote: post #7

The article mentions one of the main appeals of factorio is you get to think like a programmer without bosses/overhead from actual work but it’s always been hard to get into games for that reason because I could just work on a side project with the same result. I really don’t understand the appeal.

I remember when Guitar Hero came out I didn't understand why anybody would play that instead of just buying a guitar. The point is the videogame itself is designed to be fun and remove plenty of other elements from the real life equivalent that focuses more on enjoyment and less on grinding it out. If you're thinking about "what have I accomplished?" instead of "I'm having so much fun!" then it might not be for you.…

But we’re talking about professional programmers here, not amateurs role playing.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#210

Post by lelandbatey »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #109
IggleSniggle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with side projects is that they do not have a well defined goal. Or they do, in which case something like Factorio won't have any appeal because you can just work on something more meaningful instead. Factorio is for people who want to keep programming but are too frustrated or cynical about the real world to do it there. If the real world was better, they would do it there. If the real world could be fix…

There are plenty of technical problems that are in fact technical problems. e.g: making bluetooth 10% more energy efficient in the next few revisions In fact there are probably infinitely many.

Making Bluetooth 10% more energy efficient in the next few revisions is a terrible example because you absolutely cannot just tackle that by yourself. Not because it's technically hard, but because it's actually a people problem in disguise!

If you just walk up to the mailing list with the complete designs, documents, experimental results, schematics, trade offs, feasibility studies, you know what you're going to get? People saying "whoa, hey, great work but let's talk about this. I see here you've made assumption X about implementation area Y and that actually conflicts with the direction that we had in mind for the upcoming release, so let's talk more. To start, we'd like to see if we can explore option Z, thoughts?"

That ain't fun. It's rewarding but it ain't fun. Not like sitting down and messing with Legos in your own house is fun, or building a silly factory in Factorio is fun.

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