4 ms·

The comments here along the lines of "there's already a game like that" are a bit annoying. I'm pretty sure that you can say the same about just about any game

The comments here along the lines of "there's already a game like that" are a bit annoying. I'm pretty sure that you can say the same about just about any game created today, and somehow people still make new ones and sometimes they get lucky and have their game become popular. What's the point of dumping on someone's work like this?

KMnO4 5y ago
There's something about the article that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it sounds too much like an ad, maybe it's the hyperbole, like the author is suggesting he single-handedly "saved" this game from "certain death". It's not hard to imagine the criticism if the situation were different. Imagine the headline "How my startup will save millions of companies on the brink of death by providing a way to have meetings remotely". The expected response would be "What about Zoom?".
- esrauch 5y ago
  I feel like the "I saved a silly game my friends play from certain death during the lockdown period" is just a priori such a fun and light hearted claim that it's ridiculous to respond to it the same way you'd respond to "I saved the global economy"
tantalor 5y ago
The writing is easily confused: > The game that almost died The author meant: "The game my friends and I had to stop playing because of social distancing" To the reader sounds like: "The game that everybody in the world stopped playing" > my friends and I used to love playing a nameless pen-and-paper game Meant: "my friend and I did not use/know/have a name for this game, we just call it 'the game'" Sounds like: "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" > I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." > proved good enough to spread organically through friends for the next few months Meant: "My friends liked it" Sounds like: "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" > Writey Drawey might not have existed without the digital shift we’ve made over the last year Meant: "If not for pandemic, I would not have made this thing" Sounds like: "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms"
- danparsonson 5y ago
  Sure, everything sounds worse if you read it in a cynical frame of mind.
  - cbsks 5y ago
    And that’s the main issue with comments on the Internet :) Being cynical is much easier than being insightful.
  - tantalor 5y ago
    It's about being a critical and alert reader, not cynical. That's how we protect ourselves from directly injecting nonsense into our brains. People don't do it enough. The difference between good and bad writing is that good writing can anticipate and withstand a critical reading. Bad writing just falls apart and the point is lost.
    - danparsonson 5y ago
      Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your original post - I agree with everything you've just written in your reply to me - but to pick up an example from the original: >> I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. (a) >Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" (b) >Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." (c) I don't know how you got from (a) to (c) if not through cynicism. How is that critical thinking? You appear to be painting a worst-case interpretation and adding your own detail to make it sounds worse. Let's try an alternative version of the same construction: "I think building a table might be a good creative outlet" Does that sound more like "I like building things and making my own table would be fun" or "I did not bother to check <local_furniture_store>, so I had to build one myself" To me it's very clearly the former; how can you know whether I did or did not investigate alternatives from that sentence? I could do the same with "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" - air quotes implies they're not really friends "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms" - that sentence is a contradiction in terms, but if you mean 'I was...' then the original specifically mentions the game by name - therefore obviously his/her version of it which clearly did not previously exist "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" - how can anyone with any certainty ever assert that no-one else in the whole world does something? I'm confused, have I totally misread you? What am I missing?

KMnO4 5y ago

There's something about the article that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it sounds too much like an ad, maybe it's the hyperbole, like the author is suggesting he single-handedly "saved" this game from "certain death". It's not hard to imagine the criticism if the situation were different. Imagine the headline "How my startup will save millions of companies on the brink of death by providing a way to have meetings remotely". The expected response would be "What about Zoom?".

esrauch 5y ago
I feel like the "I saved a silly game my friends play from certain death during the lockdown period" is just a priori such a fun and light hearted claim that it's ridiculous to respond to it the same way you'd respond to "I saved the global economy"

tantalor 5y ago

The writing is easily confused: > The game that almost died The author meant: "The game my friends and I had to stop playing because of social distancing" To the reader sounds like: "The game that everybody in the world stopped playing" > my friends and I used to love playing a nameless pen-and-paper game Meant: "my friend and I did not use/know/have a name for this game, we just call it 'the game'" Sounds like: "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" > I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." > proved good enough to spread organically through friends for the next few months Meant: "My friends liked it" Sounds like: "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" > Writey Drawey might not have existed without the digital shift we’ve made over the last year Meant: "If not for pandemic, I would not have made this thing" Sounds like: "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms"

danparsonson 5y ago
Sure, everything sounds worse if you read it in a cynical frame of mind.
- cbsks 5y ago
  And that’s the main issue with comments on the Internet :) Being cynical is much easier than being insightful.
- tantalor 5y ago
  It's about being a critical and alert reader, not cynical. That's how we protect ourselves from directly injecting nonsense into our brains. People don't do it enough. The difference between good and bad writing is that good writing can anticipate and withstand a critical reading. Bad writing just falls apart and the point is lost.
  - danparsonson 5y ago
    Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your original post - I agree with everything you've just written in your reply to me - but to pick up an example from the original: >> I thought building a version of the game might be a good creative outlet. (a) >Meant: "I like building games and making a clone of this would be fun!" (b) >Sounds like: "I did not bother to check google, so I had to build one myself." (c) I don't know how you got from (a) to (c) if not through cynicism. How is that critical thinking? You appear to be painting a worst-case interpretation and adding your own detail to make it sounds worse. Let's try an alternative version of the same construction: "I think building a table might be a good creative outlet" Does that sound more like "I like building things and making my own table would be fun" or "I did not bother to check <local_furniture_store>, so I had to build one myself" To me it's very clearly the former; how can you know whether I did or did not investigate alternatives from that sentence? I could do the same with "None of my 'friends' told me I copied a well known game" - air quotes implies they're not really friends "I am unaware this game already existed in many forms" - that sentence is a contradiction in terms, but if you mean 'I was...' then the original specifically mentions the game by name - therefore obviously his/her version of it which clearly did not previously exist "this game has no name; nobody else in the whole world plays it" - how can anyone with any certainty ever assert that no-one else in the whole world does something? I'm confused, have I totally misread you? What am I missing?