5 ms·

would be interesting to learn the nature (or psychological tricks) the game uses to become so addictive

• simias 6y ago
  You always have a next step, a next upgrade to look forward to. It's an uninterrupted treadmill from building your first mine to building you hundredth mega-factory. That's how even quasi non-games like Cookie Clicker can become addictive. It's effectively a Skinner's box. Gameplay-wise Factorio is a lot more interesting that Cookie Clicker of course.
  • sbennettmcleish 6y ago
    It's an uninterrupted treadmill cos you just spent 3 hours extra doing seventeen other things and realise you still haven't actually "fixed the copper" or whatever the heck it was you were meant to be doing :) 1600+hrs in ... still pushin' all my buttons.
  • sbennettmcleish 6y ago
    oh ... and the only game where i've regularly hit 2am and thought "one more thing..."
• rgoulter 6y ago
  Yes. I don't think the developers intend it to suck up so much time. I think they want to make something that's fun. But I don't think there's anything to the game that malicious developers don't already know. I think, insofar as it's fair to call Factorio addictive, it's because there's a constant feeling of "just one more thing" (or "just one more game"). There's is constant and continuous frontier of optimization opportunities. But, at the same time, there's also effort/delay in getting the rewards of the effort. -- I think that feedback loop is what people loved about the 2012 XCom Enemy Unknown. I think it's possible to play in a healthy way. But, I guess if the feeling of "my factory isn't good" and "I suck" drives the behaviour, then that'd be unhealthy.