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> As someone that stopped playing games in university, I've found it weirdly hard to get back into games many years later. > Factorio seems like the type of ga

> As someone that stopped playing games in university, I've found it weirdly hard to get back into games many years later. > Factorio seems like the type of game I would've liked as a teenager, but now it just feels like work to me. Same. I was an avid AoE, Survival Horror and Gran Turismo nerd (quitting right before the GT academy happened to my dismay) and I held quite a few records during the outbeak days. But it fell off my radar entirely after sophomore year in University. I got into Factorio for a week after Steam allowed Bitcoin purchases and I had a go as it looked interesting; I ended up playing like 6 hours a day only to come to the same conclusion you did: this is work, with clearly little to no ROI or ultimate gratification. So with that in mind, I went on youtube, saw the ending and got over it and stopped a time sink right away. Even when I thought I'd try to create a solar only Factorio factory, only to see one on Youtube and hearing the guy sunk 1000s of hours into it and scoffed at the idea. I uninstalled it entirely when I realized how the gaming Industry was migrating toward a free-ware micro tx based business model that relies on in game purchases for upgrades like Fortnite. These things are designed and optimized for targeting those with addictive behavioural patterns. I still want to build a driving simulator like this one day, but half the process and challenge will be the build itself: https://www.carscoops.com/2020/04/this-guy-turned-a-mini-cooper-s-into-a-racing-simulator-for-his-basement/ https://www.carscoops.com/2020/04/this-guy-turned-a-mini-coo... I actually located an ideal candidate on craigslist: a Focus hatchback with a blown drive train for $700 that I wanted to convert to Colin McRae's Martini Livery WRC car from the 90s.

Baeocystin 7y ago
>I uninstalled it entirely when I realized how the gaming Industry was migrating toward a free-ware micro tx based business model that relies on in game purchases for upgrades like Fortnite. but... Factorio is literally the antithesis of this.
AQuantized 7y ago
The idea of "seeing the ending" of Factorio undermining its appeal seems disconnected from my own experience. I'm not sure how giving up a game with no micro transactions helps that issue with the gaming industry either.
- Melting_Harps 7y ago
  > The idea of "seeing the ending" of Factorio undermining its appeal seems disconnected from my own experience. I'm not sure how giving up a game with no micro transactions helps that issue with the gaming industry either. I guess it was the stark realization that the Industry was in the midst of shifting to this predatory business model and that I (seemingly) was also prone to the pitfalls of its optimization that did my head in... I didn't need to divert my attention away from my work or my relationship, and yet I still managed to spend 6 hours a day playing and researching how to get the most efficient layout and upgrades for a game I only found by a random impulse purchase. I'm well aware that Factorio doesn't have micro txs, as I mentioned: I paid for it in BTC. I guess it seemed like in my absence the gaming Industry took what was once a seemingly innocent, fun thing you did to pass the time or play with friends with known upfront costs for development/expansions and hardware into an altogether exploitative trap that was refined by what appeared to me at least, as the same addiction based conditioning beavhiour patterns seen in Social media platforms. Fortnight went on to make over a Billion dollars, countless of stories of kids stealing their parents credit card in the process (and then uploaded to social media) showed how effective their strategies were, at least on impressionable minds; so, I'd say my intuition turned out to be right. So much so it became a meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbAMrNpMrg8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbAMrNpMrg8 I guess when I saw how underwhelming something like Factorio is when it ends it made me realize I need to cut my losses and focus on something that actually enhances my quality of Life? Facrorio seemed more like a distraction to me, then and now. Factorio was mildly amusing at best, it reminded me of a more intricate look at what the building up resources portion of RTS games could be; by contrast I'm looking forward and prepared to sinking tons of hours on Cyberpunk 2077 and AoE 4, but that's mainly because they've been in development for so long and I've followed them closely since the beginning. But, in practice I'm fairly sure that my initial excitement will fizzle out to my other hobbies, as I have so many. Another anecdote to support this observation: I bought Watch Dogs 1 and 2 for PS4 when 2 came out to support the genre/studio, but I hadn't owned a console since PS2. They sat in their shrink wrap for years. I recently got the time/chance to play and got a friend to lend me his PS4 when he went on vacation. I played 1 and it was fun in a GTA kind of way and I got to the last mission in about 2 weeks, which I couldn't beat so I went youtube saw the ending(s) and was satisfied enough to then start 2. I must have gotten 4 hours into it before I lost all interest and just watched the no commentary 'cut-scene movie' someone uploaded in the background while I went back to working on other stuff. I can't even remember how it ends now, which goes to show how much I was paying attention. The plot was solid, and entertaining, I just preferred to do other stuff instead.

Baeocystin 7y ago

>I uninstalled it entirely when I realized how the gaming Industry was migrating toward a free-ware micro tx based business model that relies on in game purchases for upgrades like Fortnite. but... Factorio is literally the antithesis of this.

AQuantized 7y ago

The idea of "seeing the ending" of Factorio undermining its appeal seems disconnected from my own experience. I'm not sure how giving up a game with no micro transactions helps that issue with the gaming industry either.

Melting_Harps 7y ago
> The idea of "seeing the ending" of Factorio undermining its appeal seems disconnected from my own experience. I'm not sure how giving up a game with no micro transactions helps that issue with the gaming industry either. I guess it was the stark realization that the Industry was in the midst of shifting to this predatory business model and that I (seemingly) was also prone to the pitfalls of its optimization that did my head in... I didn't need to divert my attention away from my work or my relationship, and yet I still managed to spend 6 hours a day playing and researching how to get the most efficient layout and upgrades for a game I only found by a random impulse purchase. I'm well aware that Factorio doesn't have micro txs, as I mentioned: I paid for it in BTC. I guess it seemed like in my absence the gaming Industry took what was once a seemingly innocent, fun thing you did to pass the time or play with friends with known upfront costs for development/expansions and hardware into an altogether exploitative trap that was refined by what appeared to me at least, as the same addiction based conditioning beavhiour patterns seen in Social media platforms. Fortnight went on to make over a Billion dollars, countless of stories of kids stealing their parents credit card in the process (and then uploaded to social media) showed how effective their strategies were, at least on impressionable minds; so, I'd say my intuition turned out to be right. So much so it became a meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbAMrNpMrg8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbAMrNpMrg8 I guess when I saw how underwhelming something like Factorio is when it ends it made me realize I need to cut my losses and focus on something that actually enhances my quality of Life? Facrorio seemed more like a distraction to me, then and now. Factorio was mildly amusing at best, it reminded me of a more intricate look at what the building up resources portion of RTS games could be; by contrast I'm looking forward and prepared to sinking tons of hours on Cyberpunk 2077 and AoE 4, but that's mainly because they've been in development for so long and I've followed them closely since the beginning. But, in practice I'm fairly sure that my initial excitement will fizzle out to my other hobbies, as I have so many. Another anecdote to support this observation: I bought Watch Dogs 1 and 2 for PS4 when 2 came out to support the genre/studio, but I hadn't owned a console since PS2. They sat in their shrink wrap for years. I recently got the time/chance to play and got a friend to lend me his PS4 when he went on vacation. I played 1 and it was fun in a GTA kind of way and I got to the last mission in about 2 weeks, which I couldn't beat so I went youtube saw the ending(s) and was satisfied enough to then start 2. I must have gotten 4 hours into it before I lost all interest and just watched the no commentary 'cut-scene movie' someone uploaded in the background while I went back to working on other stuff. I can't even remember how it ends now, which goes to show how much I was paying attention. The plot was solid, and entertaining, I just preferred to do other stuff instead.