I like the sound of this! The Starfield coffee article was funny. $7 a month miiiight be a little bit much for me - but I’ll keep an eye on this and if the journalism is decent and they put out a fair number of articles I’ll definitely consider it. I guess I used to spend around that amount on gaming magazines…

I think that’s the bug they put in Neo in the first Matrix film

Yeah, they changed too much unnecessarily whilst keeping the rest of the game identical. The addition of first person shooting really broke it in some ways because the original game wasn’t designed that way. I think they’d need to redesign it from the ground up to make the more modern mechanics work properly. Something like RE2 Remake.

Thanks for this perspective. I wonder if a lot of this isn’t so much an issue with attention span, but more a reluctance to put the work in?

That said, it does sound like it’s the environment itself that’s causing it. If the schools are encouraging ‘brain breaks’, I assume there’s good reason behind it? Does that improve learning/retention?

Yes the karma system here is way better! It definitely reduces the hive mind mentality.

I don’t think we need any kind of algorithm though. That would only serve to make the popular stuff more popular and the niche stuff gets buried. Maybe if I could personally filter out communities that I’m not interested in?

I find myself researching movies, books etc. before I read them so I can see if they’ll suit my tastes. Then, even if they start slow I know generally I’ll enjoy them and it’ll be worth the initial investment. I think that helps improve my attention span because my patience is then rewarded.

An older film I really recommend is Twelve Angry Men. No special effects or camera work. Just twelve jurors in a room discussing a murder case - and I was hooked throughout! Perfectly paced.

What older forms of media are you referring to here?

Yes I think you’re right. People haven’t changed, but the environment has changed - it’s continually getting better at manipulating us.

Lemmy does have a limited amount of content, but what it does have seems to be of higher quality. Which is perfect! We don’t need constant, cheap content.

I do agree with your points for the most part. But I wonder - do films need to be constantly grabbing our attention? Sometimes a bit of downtime can enhance the subsequent action.

And boredom isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can push us to try new things and be creative, to consider our thoughts. If we have short form content available to fill every last second of our free time, it begins to feel like we have to fill those moments, otherwise we’re wasting our time.

I think delayed gratification is a good thing, regardless of whether the delay conveys any benefit. Constant reward feels less meaningful. But yes it’s a cost/benefit analysis - I wouldn’t watch three seasons of a show in order to get to the good bit.

Some great points! So you think that people’s capacity for attention hasn’t changed, but the types of media we’re exposed nowadays to can encourage us to change our behaviour toward consuming short form content? But if that content wasn’t available, they could happily move back toward longer form content?

I do agree that short dopamine hits do make me feel good in the moment, but hollow after the fact. Longer, informative content does lodge itself more into my brain and provide longer lasting feelings of reward.

Why do these people hold a position of power?

I agree with Analogy’s take on this. I don’t think it’s based on ‘needs’. Selfish people are, and have always been selfish regardless of the situation. Stress does exacerbate it of course. And it’s unfortunately the case that we live in a world that doesn’t reward kindness. But despite this there are a lot of people that are kind because they want to be, because it’s rewarding for it’s own sake.

The first two games that came to mind are unfortunately only available on PS4. I’ll mention them anyway, just in case they come to PC in future or someone else that has a PS4 is interested: Tearaway Unfolded is a really sweet game in a paper craft world. You manipulate paper scenery to help with platforming and really customise your character in creative ways. Just a unique and charming game. And Gravity Rush 1&2. These games let you alter gravity to fly around a beautiful open world - I’ve never played something with a traversal and combat system like this.

I agree with Obra Dinn and the Witness as mentioned by others!

This is probably a weird suggestion, but you could emulate Metal Gear Ac!d 2 (PSP game). It’s a stealth game (like the rest of the MGS series) mixed with a deck builder, so your actions are dictated by the cards that you play. The second one in particular perfects the formula IMO. It’s super satisfying and I’d love to see more games of this type!

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I did this for the Witness - it really helped to think out some of the puzzles if scribbled possible solutions down. Oh and Obra Dinn to an extent - mostly things like ‘I saw this guy hanging around in this memory - could he be X’?

Thanks - I wasn’t aware of either of those before! Is VS still the best of the lot?

It’s interesting that this has now become its own genre! I haven’t actually played any - what games are there besides Vampire Survivors and Brotato?

You might want to look specifically at rogue ‘lites’ which tend to have some form of upgrade system outside of the main gameplay loop. In Hades for example, you pick up certain items during a run which you can use to upgrade your character after you die. Other ones that spring to mind are Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, Monster Train and Rogue Legacy. All of these have generally quite short sessions and each run lets you improve your character for subsequent runs.

What exactly does it mean for a game to ‘launch on the Blockchain’? Is that a fancy way of saying that weapons/clothing in-game will be NFTs?