I'm sorry to say that I have very little experience with Factorio beyond secondary exposure and some experience with games and mods that strike me as "Factorio-like": automation simulators and production/resource management on a macro scale. I've played a good deal of GregTech (Minecraft mod), if you're familiar with that, but I think I played it "wrong" because I was always using the factory elements as a means to progression, and not as an exercise in factory/automation design in itself. I do, however, have some friends who have played a lot of Factorio. The ones who have played it seem to love it. I respect it deeply, even though I'm not into it, because it's not afraid to exist unconditionally. That is, the Factorio team made a game specifically to appeal to people who like automation design, and that's basically all the game is. It's so straightforward. As an aspiring game dev myself, that's the kind of confidence I want my own artwork to demonstrate.
I've been playing FFXIV again lately. XIV kinda touches on that same essence of confidence as something like Factorio. It's not afraid to ask you to play through 200 hours of cutscenes and story quests before you get to the end. Because of that big ask, or perhaps in service to it, the developers ensures that the entire game - as gigantic as it is - is at least tolerable for new players. I didn't mind it at all when I was starting out, and I still don't. I got invested in the story pretty quickly, and going through all the side content with a couple friends was huge fun. We had our own little "content respecter" squad that would hit all the important sidequests and raids and such. It took ages, but it was fulfilling, too, because we got to explore every little nook and cranny of this massive game, and the developers seemed to have put some kind of love and attention into nearly all of it. Being able to share the experience with friends definitely contributed to our enjoyment, too.
Now I play to abuse gil, level the rest of my classes, try out new content and hang with friends. We aren't always on all the time, but that's how it should be. It's a great keystone experience that my small friend group can come back to from time to time and hang out around. Plus, I really like my character. No shame - I did a damn fine job making my character, and trying out new gear sets after I earn them is a reward in itself.
Honestly, though, I've been looking for another "real" game to play. The last one I played that I wouldn't consider to be some kind of MMO or MMO-like would have been either Cataclysm:DDA (which is a great game that's being continually run into the dirt by a terrible team of contributors) or Crystal Project (which is an amazing indie JRPG with an excellent developer). I have a lot of stuff on my radar, but I haven't been able to commit to one yet because I don't want to get too distracted from working on my own gamedev stuff. I have a terrible habit of one-tracking things and losing sight of whatever I was previously pursuing.
p
I'm sorry to say that I have very little experience with Factorio beyond secondary exposure and some experience with games and mods that strike me as "Factorio-like": automation simulators and production/resource management on a macro scale. I've played a good deal of GregTech (Minecraft mod), if you're familiar with that, but I think I played it "wrong" because I was always using the factory elements as a means to progression, and not as an exercise in factory/automation design in itself. I do, however, have some friends who have played a lot of Factorio. The ones who have played it seem to love it. I respect it deeply, even though I'm not into it, because it's not afraid to exist unconditionally. That is, the Factorio team made a game specifically to appeal to people who like automation design, and that's basically all the game is. It's so straightforward. As an aspiring game dev myself, that's the kind of confidence I want my own artwork to demonstrate.
I've been playing FFXIV again lately. XIV kinda touches on that same essence of confidence as something like Factorio. It's not afraid to ask you to play through 200 hours of cutscenes and story quests before you get to the end. Because of that big ask, or perhaps in service to it, the developers ensures that the entire game - as gigantic as it is - is at least tolerable for new players. I didn't mind it at all when I was starting out, and I still don't. I got invested in the story pretty quickly, and going through all the side content with a couple friends was huge fun. We had our own little "content respecter" squad that would hit all the important sidequests and raids and such. It took ages, but it was fulfilling, too, because we got to explore every little nook and cranny of this massive game, and the developers seemed to have put some kind of love and attention into nearly all of it. Being able to share the experience with friends definitely contributed to our enjoyment, too.
Now I play to abuse gil, level the rest of my classes, try out new content and hang with friends. We aren't always on all the time, but that's how it should be. It's a great keystone experience that my small friend group can come back to from time to time and hang out around. Plus, I really like my character. No shame - I did a damn fine job making my character, and trying out new gear sets after I earn them is a reward in itself.
Honestly, though, I've been looking for another "real" game to play. The last one I played that I wouldn't consider to be some kind of MMO or MMO-like would have been either Cataclysm:DDA (which is a great game that's being continually run into the dirt by a terrible team of contributors) or Crystal Project (which is an amazing indie JRPG with an excellent developer). I have a lot of stuff on my radar, but I haven't been able to commit to one yet because I don't want to get too distracted from working on my own gamedev stuff. I have a terrible habit of one-tracking things and losing sight of whatever I was previously pursuing.
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