The theme of the game is “destroy and pollute the environment of an entire planet just so you can leave”, somehow I am not surprised.
I don’t get why the disinterest in the theme of factorio exploring the planet or seeing the planet as anything but hostile doesn’t sit weird with more people.
If the game explicitly recognized you are the villain I would be fine with it but factorio is oblivious to this and it makes the whole thing feel hollow to me.
A buddy of mine has been messing around for the last couple of years with the idea of a game that’s almost the opposite of factorio. Take a planet that’s crazy polluted and clean out up / help nature heal. I hope he actually does it some day.
I mean… At risk of sounding like I’m defending a fucking pedo, and also having never played Factorio, doing terrible things and being mostly evil is something that happens in quite a few games. I don’t think that alone points to anything. Otherwise fuck that guy and I hope his life crumbles
Like I specifically said, I have no problem with playing a fictional villain my issue is the massive unaddressed blindspot inherent to the context of the Factorio’s framing.
I don’t know why people always respond like this by thinking I have an issue with villain roleplay, that isn’t what I am saying at all.
The problem is the lack of self awareness not the make believe evilness.
While I understand where you’re coming from, you’re trying to project a story and moral philosophy onto a game that is completely bereft of a plot line. The entire plot is “you crashed on a planet. Survive and escape.” No more, no less. The plot literally doesn’t have room for moral philosophy or “you were really the bad guy all along” plot twists, because there is no plot to contain those themes. If you want to role-play that in your world, feel free to do so. The game is a sandbox with simple cause>effect consequences, not an A>B>C storyline.
The meaning behind that cause and effect is left up to the individual players to interpret however they’d like. You say that the lack of self-awareness is what makes the game problematic, but I would argue that the individual players are the ones responsible for that. Because the game doesn’t assign good or evil to the individual actions. The player’s actions simply change the world in some way, (like adding pollution to the air), and the player is left to deal with the consequences of those changes, (like being attacked by natives as the pollution spreads and causes them to multiply).
Saying that the game is bad because it’s missing those themes is like saying that Gary’s Mod is bad because it doesn’t force players to grapple with the realities of being a god that is able to make, unmake, and manipulate reality at will. The game is a sandbox meant for creative thinking within the rules of the game, not a narrative meant to inspire moral philosophy.
I dunno how much more explicit it really needs to be, the biters attack you and get stronger directly because of the pollution you cause. The more you destroy their world the more they try to get you off it. I always felt like that made it pretty clear that you’re the villain.
maybe it’s just because I don’t really find the biters disgusting then. They are benign, there’s just nothing that helps the player because the player is evil.
Going Eco friendly in factorio is rewarded though. I think throughout the game you also realize that you are the bad person because the biters don’t attack as long as you aren’t polluting and destroying the environment.
The theme of the game is “destroy and pollute the environment of an entire planet just so you can leave”, somehow I am not surprised.
I don’t get why the disinterest in the theme of factorio exploring the planet or seeing the planet as anything but hostile doesn’t sit weird with more people.
If the game explicitly recognized you are the villain I would be fine with it but factorio is oblivious to this and it makes the whole thing feel hollow to me.
A buddy of mine has been messing around for the last couple of years with the idea of a game that’s almost the opposite of factorio. Take a planet that’s crazy polluted and clean out up / help nature heal. I hope he actually does it some day.
That game already exists, it’s called Terra Nil and is on sale right now.
Very cool, I’ll have to check it out.
I mean… At risk of sounding like I’m defending a fucking pedo, and also having never played Factorio, doing terrible things and being mostly evil is something that happens in quite a few games. I don’t think that alone points to anything. Otherwise fuck that guy and I hope his life crumbles
Like I specifically said, I have no problem with playing a fictional villain my issue is the massive unaddressed blindspot inherent to the context of the Factorio’s framing.
I don’t know why people always respond like this by thinking I have an issue with villain roleplay, that isn’t what I am saying at all.
The problem is the lack of self awareness not the make believe evilness.
While I understand where you’re coming from, you’re trying to project a story and moral philosophy onto a game that is completely bereft of a plot line. The entire plot is “you crashed on a planet. Survive and escape.” No more, no less. The plot literally doesn’t have room for moral philosophy or “you were really the bad guy all along” plot twists, because there is no plot to contain those themes. If you want to role-play that in your world, feel free to do so. The game is a sandbox with simple cause>effect consequences, not an A>B>C storyline.
The meaning behind that cause and effect is left up to the individual players to interpret however they’d like. You say that the lack of self-awareness is what makes the game problematic, but I would argue that the individual players are the ones responsible for that. Because the game doesn’t assign good or evil to the individual actions. The player’s actions simply change the world in some way, (like adding pollution to the air), and the player is left to deal with the consequences of those changes, (like being attacked by natives as the pollution spreads and causes them to multiply).
Saying that the game is bad because it’s missing those themes is like saying that Gary’s Mod is bad because it doesn’t force players to grapple with the realities of being a god that is able to make, unmake, and manipulate reality at will. The game is a sandbox meant for creative thinking within the rules of the game, not a narrative meant to inspire moral philosophy.
I dunno how much more explicit it really needs to be, the biters attack you and get stronger directly because of the pollution you cause. The more you destroy their world the more they try to get you off it. I always felt like that made it pretty clear that you’re the villain.
Really? Why are there no benign animals? Why are all the alien creatures designed to evoke an easy disgust reaction from the player?
I am fine blasting alien bugs, what I wanted from Factorio was a more tongue in cheek awareness of the fundamental selfish brutality to the plot.
There are benign animals. There are fish.
maybe it’s just because I don’t really find the biters disgusting then. They are benign, there’s just nothing that helps the player because the player is evil.
Going Eco friendly in factorio is rewarded though. I think throughout the game you also realize that you are the bad person because the biters don’t attack as long as you aren’t polluting and destroying the environment.
Dev is still an asshole though