Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Or Quake 3!
How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
281–290 of 437 posts
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#282Earlier 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.
Consider yourself lucky. I enjoy programming in itself greatly, but I don't find myself motivated by producing anything useful.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#283The 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.
You could just as easily say, why work on a side project when you could play Factorio instead with the same result? What makes a side project better than Factorio?
I feel I contribute to society more by working on a side project of mine than if I play video games.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
I won't go so far as to say I'm disgusted by what others do, but I am increasingly resenting having to use my phone for myriad tasks that shouldn't require a phone in the first place. Like unlocking my apartment door. It's obviously so that someone can get a recurring cut where they would have once provided a one-time semi-permanent solution (like a key, or a notepad). I mean, maybe some of this will be blunted over…
In the part of the world where I currently live there are cafes/restaurants that have a menu ONLY in the form a QR code that leads to some shitty slow and laggy webpage with the actual menu. I can't express how much I hate this. Why do I even need a smartphone the go to a restaurant and eat something? Why would anyone effectively refusing service to people who don't have smartphones or do not want to use them? If I n…
This. And then getting shouted at or (less than politely) talked down to for wanting to talk to the staff for how they deal allergies. Only to finally load the menu, show them the information isn’t there, and promptly walk out.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Well of course it would take a literal super genius to actually accomplish successfully this via individual submission.
Nobody is going to believe anyone short of that bar would have even fully understood the bluetooth specification. So even a regular genius, 99.9th percentile HN user, would have a starting credibility of roughly zero.
But there are likely infinitely many waiting for that 99.9999th percentile HN reader to come along.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#286I 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.
The time I put into Nintendo Switch with my kid in the last year is the most I've gamed since very early 2000s
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#287I 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…
To me it just feels very repetitive. I don't feel clever building out factories, I just feel more like a drone doing iterative manual labor. As an engineer I just couldn't get into it.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#288I'm terrified of Factorio. I've deliberatly avoided playing it because I know, if I do, I'll lose an entire month. Kudos to the creators on their brilliant game, it's like heroin for a particular type of brain.
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
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. 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.
I do not find git weird and bizarre at all. First time I hear such nonsense. Why do you feel that way?
Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me
#290I'm terrified of Factorio. I've deliberatly avoided playing it because I know, if I do, I'll lose an entire month. Kudos to the creators on their brilliant game, it's like heroin for a particular type of brain.
Yeah I have that feeling about Path of Exile 2. I also know I won’t be able to resist.