5 ms·

For those who wondered like me who this software was built for, the answer is in the full article: > The operators at the refinery sometimes had trouble gettin

by cm2187 6y ago

For those who wondered like me who this software was built for, the answer is in the full article: > The operators at the refinery sometimes had trouble getting a big picture for what was happening at the plant beyond their particular area of focus. “The whole goal if this was to teach operators that they are part of a bigger system,” Skidmore said. “Their concern at the time was that operators tended to be very focused on their one plant, and their one thing they do, and so [they] weren’t keeping in mind that what they do affected other parts of the plant. So they wanted a training tool that allowed operators to manipulate inputs and outputs of the various pieces of the refinery process to see how they impact.” > The non-technical staff at the Richmond refinery needed to know how it worked too. The people in human resources and accounting weren’t chemical engineers, but it would help their work to see how the different areas of the plant were networked together, how one department affected another department. https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/ https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/

JCharante 6y ago
Just recently there was this article on the front page of HN that covered SimRefinery. Here's the discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23236132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23236132 I'm really glad to hear that the game was recovered because of this!
wodenokoto 6y ago
In business school you’re told similar stories about (in my case at least it was) Nike factories moving workers around so that they regularly work at each station and appreciate that what happens at one station affects other people’s work
- jdhawk 6y ago
  And how everyone who works at Lincoln Electric starts out welding.
- Moru 6y ago
  Yes, this actually happens in real life now and then too. As long as there is no special drivers license or education involved ofcourse. Nothing more mind numbing than to stand at the same machine year after year.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  I think this is a post-hoc justification that pretends it's about caring for personnel. People become bored and [hence] less productive doing the exact same work -- moving them to other areas of the line improves productivity. There's an ancillary benefit in reducing friendships which can be a productivity sink, profit-focused businesses want people to be friendly - committed to their colleagues - but not spending all day chatting. Also moving people improves "bus factors".
  - zdragnar 6y ago
    Having worked in a factory where we constantly rotated positions (rarely same position two shifts in a row), this all sounds like utter, cynical nonsense except for the very last line. Having people better trained to do more things is better for everyone- employees and company. People are going to form friendships regardless of whether you rotate or not, and you're going to be bored doing factory work, hands down, no doubt about it. Different people have different methods for getting through it, but you can't not be bored even with a different position every day.
cosmodisk 6y ago
We urgently need OfficeSim version of this.
- julienfr112 6y ago
  Do you work at Wework ?
  - cosmodisk 6y ago
    Of course not,but I do think that a lot of people would benefit from having a better understanding of how a company, especially a large one works,as for a lot of people it's very similar to what those in the refinery were feeling like.
- nimrody 6y ago
  Office-Politics-Sim. Along with an ML training pipeline where you can train the figures in the sim to behave similarly to certain people in the office and a prediction phase where you can ask "what if"-s type of questions :)
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Job Simulator is a thing actually, VR game. There's also Human Resource Machine if you like programming games. And Shenzen I/O gets you that dank working-in-an-office vibe with e-mails, Solitaire, and an employee handbook.
  - Wowfunhappy 6y ago
    Those examples are very very different types of games than what is being discussed here.
  - neotek 6y ago
    I've been playing the shit out of Human Resource Machine and its sequel-of-sorts 7 Billion Humans recently, they're really fantastic games. Basically ASM with cute graphics.
- hammock 6y ago
amyjess 6y ago
For what it's worth, the parts of SimRefinery that were intended for non-technical staff were never implemented. I got to watch Phil's livestream last night, and the game as it was implemented was just completely impenetrable unless you're a chemical engineer. Lots of jargon, buzzwords, and abbreviations, and very little documentation explaining what they mean. It's possible that had Chevron continued their partnership with Maxis, SimRefinery would've included a mode, or at least improved documentation, that introduced these concepts to non-technical staff in a way that could be understood, but that never happened.
- mikehollinger 6y ago
  Ha. Have you ever played SimTower[1]? On the surface of it, you build a high-rise mixed-use building (complete with basement levels). If you click around most things in the game can be tuned a little bit (oh, you don't have enough housekeeping staff, so your hotel will become infested with bugs). A major piece of the game is moving people from point A to point B, usually via elevators. If you happen to click into the control panels behind the elevators you find a whole, very different, complex control panel with its own UI. That turns out to be because SimTower was built around a pre-existing elevator sim[2] that's complex enough to have its own guidebooks on the web. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20090916193335/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041018/adams_01.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20090916193335/http://www.gamasu...
  - cortesoft 6y ago
    oh man, i still play SimTower.... keep my OS9 emulator running for it!
    - jdofaz 6y ago
      Have you tried Yoot Tower? It was made by someone who worked on Sim Tower. I never played Sim Tower but Yoot Tower was a lot of fun.
  - creamyhorror 6y ago

by cm2187 6y ago

JCharante 6y ago

Just recently there was this article on the front page of HN that covered SimRefinery. Here's the discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23236132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23236132 I'm really glad to hear that the game was recovered because of this!

wodenokoto 6y ago

In business school you’re told similar stories about (in my case at least it was) Nike factories moving workers around so that they regularly work at each station and appreciate that what happens at one station affects other people’s work

jdhawk 6y ago
And how everyone who works at Lincoln Electric starts out welding.
Moru 6y ago
Yes, this actually happens in real life now and then too. As long as there is no special drivers license or education involved ofcourse. Nothing more mind numbing than to stand at the same machine year after year.
pbhjpbhj 6y ago
I think this is a post-hoc justification that pretends it's about caring for personnel. People become bored and [hence] less productive doing the exact same work -- moving them to other areas of the line improves productivity. There's an ancillary benefit in reducing friendships which can be a productivity sink, profit-focused businesses want people to be friendly - committed to their colleagues - but not spending all day chatting. Also moving people improves "bus factors".
- zdragnar 6y ago
  Having worked in a factory where we constantly rotated positions (rarely same position two shifts in a row), this all sounds like utter, cynical nonsense except for the very last line. Having people better trained to do more things is better for everyone- employees and company. People are going to form friendships regardless of whether you rotate or not, and you're going to be bored doing factory work, hands down, no doubt about it. Different people have different methods for getting through it, but you can't not be bored even with a different position every day.

cosmodisk 6y ago

We urgently need OfficeSim version of this.

julienfr112 6y ago
Do you work at Wework ?
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  Of course not,but I do think that a lot of people would benefit from having a better understanding of how a company, especially a large one works,as for a lot of people it's very similar to what those in the refinery were feeling like.
nimrody 6y ago
Office-Politics-Sim. Along with an ML training pipeline where you can train the figures in the sim to behave similarly to certain people in the office and a prediction phase where you can ask "what if"-s type of questions :)
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Job Simulator is a thing actually, VR game. There's also Human Resource Machine if you like programming games. And Shenzen I/O gets you that dank working-in-an-office vibe with e-mails, Solitaire, and an employee handbook.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  Those examples are very very different types of games than what is being discussed here.
- neotek 6y ago
  I've been playing the shit out of Human Resource Machine and its sequel-of-sorts 7 Billion Humans recently, they're really fantastic games. Basically ASM with cute graphics.
hammock 6y ago

amyjess 6y ago

For what it's worth, the parts of SimRefinery that were intended for non-technical staff were never implemented. I got to watch Phil's livestream last night, and the game as it was implemented was just completely impenetrable unless you're a chemical engineer. Lots of jargon, buzzwords, and abbreviations, and very little documentation explaining what they mean. It's possible that had Chevron continued their partnership with Maxis, SimRefinery would've included a mode, or at least improved documentation, that introduced these concepts to non-technical staff in a way that could be understood, but that never happened.

mikehollinger 6y ago
Ha. Have you ever played SimTower[1]? On the surface of it, you build a high-rise mixed-use building (complete with basement levels). If you click around most things in the game can be tuned a little bit (oh, you don't have enough housekeeping staff, so your hotel will become infested with bugs). A major piece of the game is moving people from point A to point B, usually via elevators. If you happen to click into the control panels behind the elevators you find a whole, very different, complex control panel with its own UI. That turns out to be because SimTower was built around a pre-existing elevator sim[2] that's complex enough to have its own guidebooks on the web. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimTower [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20090916193335/http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041018/adams_01.shtml https://web.archive.org/web/20090916193335/http://www.gamasu...
- cortesoft 6y ago
  oh man, i still play SimTower.... keep my OS9 emulator running for it!
  - jdofaz 6y ago
    Have you tried Yoot Tower? It was made by someone who worked on Sim Tower. I never played Sim Tower but Yoot Tower was a lot of fun.
- creamyhorror 6y ago