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How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

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Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#371

Post by the_gipsy »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #362
OrigamiPastrami wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Being someone who grew up on these games, I often think of the steep trade offs I made in childhood playing them. If I’d spent all the time playing Guitar Hero playing an actual guitar instead, I’d be a real guitar hero. I could also be a pro skater.

Maybe you would have tortured yourself and still wouldn't be any good.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#372

Post by phreeza »

kfrzcode wrote: post #74
delichon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This behavior is known as "play". Many of us find it stimulating. If it doesn't work for you you have my sympathy.

I've found myself in playtime with Claude 3.5 lately; it scratches both itches very satisfyingly.

What do you do with it?

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#373

Post by toast0 »

craz8 wrote: post #370
r3trohack3r wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being someone who grew up on these games, I often think of the steep trade offs I made in childhood playing them. If I’d spent all the time playing Guitar Hero playing an actual guitar instead, I’d be a real guitar hero. I could also be a pro skater.

If I could have got a steady hand with tweezers, I could easily have been a surgeon. Real patients probably don’t have noses that light up, which reduces distractions too!

My malpractice insurance payments would be through the roof. I'm pretty sure I managed to lose leg bones inside the patient.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#374

Post by vinceguidry »

adastra22 wrote: post #367
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Once I get successful in it, I'm like "but I should be making money in the real world, not this world" as I do have side projects. the game does turn into a slog, if you approach it that way Life is a slog if approached that way. Spending your time chasing more money instead of enjoying life is the quickest way to have a miserable existence.

Spending your (now short) life hungry and homeless on the streets is not enjoyable either.

That's... a weird dichotomy to draw. Seems like you're determined to keep yourself miserable.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#375

Post by MichaelZuo »

surajrmal wrote: post #317
MichaelZuo wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 read…

No one is waiting for super geniuses. They are just trying to use groups of people to solve hard problems instead of relying on individuals. It's amazing what people can accomplish by working together.

This isn’t a feasible pathway outside of a lifetime commitment, because it takes several decades to build up enough credibility to reliably advance proposals in such committee work. (Or be very lucky )

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#376

Post by herpdyderp »

Kiro wrote: post #311

I don't agree with "Factorio is like work". The grind is no different to me than playing Diablo. It feels like a comparison that programmers love to tout because it makes for a memeable and relatable story but at its core it's just like any other gameplay loop.

I’ve always been a little miffed with the comparison to programming. I love Factorio because it’s the only survival-craft game I’ve played that doesn’t devolve into an inventory management game. The game scales with your gameplay.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#377

Post by adastra22 »

vinceguidry wrote: post #374
adastra22 wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spending your (now short) life hungry and homeless on the streets is not enjoyable either.

That's... a weird dichotomy to draw. Seems like you're determined to keep yourself miserable.

I'm not miserable. I quite enjoy having money. It allows me to spend time with my family doing the things I enjoy.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#378

Post by pinkmuffinere »

alexjplant wrote: post #347
OrigamiPastrami wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

I can't stand Guitar Hero because it's nothing like playing a real guitar and I'm therefore no good at it. At least the Rock Band drums vaguely approximate playing a cheap e-kit and the vocal part has proper pitch detection... unfortunately a real guitar is hard to replicate with cheap plastic hardware. There's also the fact that memorizing a real song is easier than memorizing colored buttons because you can build a…

Omg aoe2 is so addictive! Some things you might enjoy:

- YouTuber “spirit of the law”

- watching some build order guides. Fast feudal and fast castle build orders are super useful

- watching commentated games of the Viper

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#379

Post by gwervc »

dpkirchner wrote: post #19
TechDebtDevin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel guilty every time I turn on Factorio and basically no longer play it because I know I could have just as much enjoyment building something for the real world.

I've yet to find something I can do in the real world that's as enjoyable, accessible, affordable, and easy to pick up and put down as Factorio, or similar games (that scratch a "builder" itch). What sort of things do you have in mind? * edited for clarity, typos

For me it's me PhD thesis. It's a drug, and there's always something to do either on the code or writing or reading. I'm even a bit disappointed by Space Age.

Re: How 'Factorio' seduced Silicon Valley and me

#380

Post by ozim »

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 play Cities Skylines for that reason I have to debug the traffic but mostly have fun building the city the way I want. Like once I feel like building a lot of tram lines, other time building train lines.

I also build side projects - but from the game I get instant gratification as I can build decent city with goal I have in one evening whereas side project to have anything I can say is pleasing takes much more time than one evening.

Games don't have annoying blockers like trying to use some new library, cities I build also did not work first times I was playing because I was noob - but even libraries frameworks I use on daily basis always have some kinks I have to figure out so it takes multiple evening anyway.

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