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> What cozy games are showing us is that a world with tons of “free stuff” — universal basic income, universal health care, free education, free housing — will

> What cozy games are showing us is that a world with tons of “free stuff” — universal basic income, universal health care, free education, free housing — will not result in a breakdown of our society because “no one wants to work”. People love to work. The difference is that Dark Souls and Factorio can synthesize the mental feeling of work and success without anything being provided to others. I could work on a construction site all day and still count down the hours until I can get home and play Powerwashing Simulator. A lot of our hobbies have become pornographic versions of work. I'm not morally opposed to a world of "free stuff", but while we still need bread and cars and QC on airplane door plugs we still need people who are motivated to do menial and boring jobs.

tivert 3y ago
> The difference is that Dark Souls and Factorio can synthesize the mental feeling of work and success without anything being provided to others. ... A lot of our hobbies have become pornographic versions of work. Or pornographic versions of skill or learning. The entire point of Guitar Hero was to provide a simulated feeling of competence and skill. You set the difficulty level, spend a small amount of time learning to mash some buttons just so, and all the sudden you're a guitar god, perfectly playing some famous rock song. It felt awesome. I think it's super suspect to try to determine how people could behave in the real world based on how they behave in twisted-to-be-fun worlds of video games. So while I agree with the OP's criticism of the "hardcore capitalist bootstrap grindset ideologues," I don't think that observations from cozy games can be applied without literally making the real world a cozy game, which would require a lot of "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" shit.
- no_wizard 3y ago
  >The entire point of Guitar Hero was to provide a simulated feeling of competence and skill. You set the difficulty level, spend a small amount of time learning to mash some buttons just so, and all the sudden you're a guitar god, perfectly playing some famous rock song. It felt awesome. I vividly recall how some percentage of people who were excellent at Guitar Hero went on to try and learn the real guitar, buying them and everything, to be completely deflated quite quickly. I sometimes wonder if the height of Guitar Hero had any real impact on guitar sales, as I can only provide anecdotes but I don't think I'm alone in witnessing this phenomenon

tivert 3y ago

> The difference is that Dark Souls and Factorio can synthesize the mental feeling of work and success without anything being provided to others. ... A lot of our hobbies have become pornographic versions of work. Or pornographic versions of skill or learning. The entire point of Guitar Hero was to provide a simulated feeling of competence and skill. You set the difficulty level, spend a small amount of time learning to mash some buttons just so, and all the sudden you're a guitar god, perfectly playing some famous rock song. It felt awesome. I think it's super suspect to try to determine how people could behave in the real world based on how they behave in twisted-to-be-fun worlds of video games. So while I agree with the OP's criticism of the "hardcore capitalist bootstrap grindset ideologues," I don't think that observations from cozy games can be applied without literally making the real world a cozy game, which would require a lot of "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" shit.

no_wizard 3y ago
>The entire point of Guitar Hero was to provide a simulated feeling of competence and skill. You set the difficulty level, spend a small amount of time learning to mash some buttons just so, and all the sudden you're a guitar god, perfectly playing some famous rock song. It felt awesome. I vividly recall how some percentage of people who were excellent at Guitar Hero went on to try and learn the real guitar, buying them and everything, to be completely deflated quite quickly. I sometimes wonder if the height of Guitar Hero had any real impact on guitar sales, as I can only provide anecdotes but I don't think I'm alone in witnessing this phenomenon