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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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251–260 of 437 posts

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#251

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…

Same, I get to a certain stage in the game (usually the first big factory 'refactor') and find myself thinking that the exact same effort I'm applying to the game could be applied to any number of work-related things that would be just as fun and much more beneficial.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#254

I don't play computer games anymore. Factorio was the last game I played. I lost a weekend and ended up with a raging headache. Before that an MMORPG did the same A year before that it was Civilization IV, exactly the same, lost an entire weekend then never played it again. I don't think I am suited to games. Or maybe I just need more free time

Same. In my case I have real world problems that need my attention and I struggle to justify playing games while those problems loom. Only exception is playing games with my kid, but that is time boxed.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It fascinates me how someone like you manage to build all these tooling to run your house, but still struggle with > need to remember to load the grocery list before leaving the house that has the server in it ^ remote access and > better hope your phone doesn't decide for you that the page needs to be unloaded on the way ^ unreliable tech

What would you do?

Email in the drafts folder on my phone

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#256
post #233

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…

That’s why I prefer Satisfactory : it’s the same principle but it also allows you to build gigantic great and beautiful things. For me it’s the perfect mix between Factorio (for building factories) and Minecraft (for allowing you to create your environment) and, contrary to those two, it’s also aesthetically beautiful. In fact building production lines is not even what I prefer, what I prefer is organizing them in ch…

Agreed. Factorio is a fantastic game and it ran so Satisfactory can fly. With every update (and with release) Satisfactory keeps upping the complexity. I would be extremely happy if Factorios development helped push Satisfactory in this way and led to more maps (planets!)

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#257
post #189
post #127

Lots of comments on this thread in the vein of “I dislike this game because it’s not productive”. My honestly question is… why? Why is “being productive” this goal that has to consume your entire life?

Because we'll all be dead soon and I want to have achieved something great with the short time I was given on this planet.

If you don't somehow make something useful, or built a thing people actually use, then what was the point of it all? To have fun and then be forgotten?

Though, with AI looming to take this last shred of human dignity too, maybe having a bit of fun along the way isn't such a bad idea.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#258
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being productive doesn’t require you to be productive non-stop. It’s not good for you and will likely make you far less productive in the long run Trivia on farming: Medieval peasants worked far less than modern employees (at most 150 days a year). It was obviously harder physical work than sitting in an office all day, but they had plenty of downtime

Medieval peasants also had life expectancy of 30 years, what’s your point?

How’s that in any way related to the topic?

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#259

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…

On the other hand, what bother me about factorio is its deterministic nature. Perhaps it would be more fun with more random elements like equipment failures etc.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#260
post #127

Lots of comments on this thread in the vein of “I dislike this game because it’s not productive”. My honestly question is… why? Why is “being productive” this goal that has to consume your entire life?

I faced my mortality and went the other way. I’ve already achieved more from an extremely difficult background than I ever could have imagined and it turns out when faced with my mortality, that was enough for me.

Everyone has different ways of unwinding and finding meaning, and productivity doesn’t need to be the sole measure of time well spent, at least for me anymore.

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