How does Factorio appeal to people with ADHD?

[Zeroic (Reiic)]

So I have been playing this game on and off for over a year and have enjoyed this game plenty.

I recently gotten a friend into Factorio who has told me they think they have ADHD and so far he gets glued onto the game and is fixated on it, losing hours without realising.
From reviews and the general vibe from browsing, this seems like a normal thing, though it is odd for him to have this type of behaviour as staying focused on a task isn't common for him.

My question is this, how exactly does Factorio effect a person with ADHD?
I am curious and eager to listen to what people have to say.

[Fel]

You'll need a specialized psychiatrist for a real answer.

Still, factorio is pretty much a simulation of attention disorder for many of us.
You start with a goal and end up spending hours doing many other things that have very little to do with your initial goal.

The great thing about this game is that each bit of progress is very simple to do and takes very little time or effort on its own, and there are always many different small tasks you can do.
It's rarely big tasks that require a long time to complete but instead a succession of many small ones and there are always problems popping up all over the place for you to fix, usually leading to other shortages and so on.

As a result, the game doesn't really require your full attention on a specific thing (or on all of them at once all the time).

Maybe you have heard of the "just one more turn" for civ games and other similar turn-based games, this is similar except with tasks that only take a few seconds to a few minutes each at most.

[PunCrathod]

ADHD isn't a simple thing. How a game like factorio affects people with ADHD varies just as much as those without ADHD. I don't have personal experience but having watched a few streamer who have talked about their experience with ADHD and video games I would say that videogames are a great coping mechanism(As in relieving the symptoms and stress ADHD can cause and the effect can last from minutes to days depending on the person) as long as you are careful to not completely neglect the real world.

[Zeroic (Reiic)]

Fel eredeti hozzászólása:

You'll need a specialized psychiatrist for a real answer.

Still, factorio is pretty much a simulation of attention disorder for many of us.
You start with a goal and end up spending hours doing many other things that have very little to do with your initial goal.

The great thing about this game is that each bit of progress is very simple to do and takes very little time or effort on its own, and there are always many different small tasks you can do.
It's rarely big tasks that require a long time to complete but instead a succession of many small ones and there are always problems popping up all over the place for you to fix, usually leading to other shortages and so on.
Maybe you have heard of the "just one more turn" for civ games and other similar turn-based games, this is similar except with tasks that only take a few seconds to a few minutes each at most.

Thank you for answering, here's an award ^^ (first time I used this feature)

[Zeroic (Reiic)]

PunCrathod eredeti hozzászólása:

ADHD isn't a simple thing. How a game like factorio affects people with ADHD varies just as much as those without ADHD. I don't have personal experience but having watched a few streamer who have talked about their experience with ADHD and video games I would say that videogames are a great coping mechanism(As in relieving the symptoms and stress ADHD can cause and the effect can last from minutes to days depending on the person) as long as you are careful to not completely neglect the real world.

So as a way of coping? That is interesting.
Tbh, I half expected there to have been a study out there about Factorio considering the dedication of the fanbase.
(if anyone could point me to some research, that would be handy ^^)

[Cheesepizza2]

it's because factorio is a good autism game, there are many games that cater specifically to autists (dwarf fortress, space station 13, etc) and factorio is one

[knighttemplar1960]

It can kind of be an ADHD safety valve. you can throw your ADHD and OCD into the game and except for the time you use defusing it doesn't take anything away from the real world. You might even be able to cope a little better by defusing your ADHD into the game.

My wife and I are both retired and are border line ADHD people. The first time we played this game we played for what felt like 30 minutes and when we looked at the clock 4 hours had passed.

[Level 9 Hamslayer]

Because of the non linear and automation mechanics. Unlike traditional gameplay like an RPG you have to do something because BBEG wants to dominate the world and to do that you gotta go find some dumb researcher elf with a crystal or something save them from a goblin cave they should have been smart enough to avoid or manage, you save them and now you gotta do something for them before they help you and the main story just devolves into a long walking sim fetch quest.

Whereas Factorio it sets the precedence of what the game is about. Mining and hand crafting. You then can figure out how to automate that and not have to do that. Giving a sense of satisfaction and pride you figured this out and set it up leading to equilibrium/homeostasis. Which is basically just being okay. Like being hungry is not equilibrium but eating lets you reach it.

by the nature of factorio you're not in equilibrium and never will be. so you set out to do so and basically "microdose" euphoria by building, expanding, and doing maintenance on your factory like increasing throughput. optimizing builds, keep the place from burning down to the ground and getting "real doses" of euphoria, pride and satisfaction when you say, automate a new science and get to reap the benefits and production of that tier, and creating a good blueprint that makes your life so much easier and semi automates the automation.

Other games want the euphoria to be an end of quest/end game/having to win. Which there's nothing wrong with that, but the gameplay can get stale or isn't the "best" and can lead to a hollow experience that just runs out once the story is done. or is a one and done deal. You know how the story ends.

Factorio avoids this by one, simple yet alluring gameplay, and not relying a player's will to continue for the sake of winning, completion, or 'Hey. I put down $60 I'm gonna use $60.' Playing factorio, is the reward. and 2. you don't have to invest in things or gameplay you don't care about. No annoying NPCs or call to a greater good that inexplicably forces you to follow the story or take certain actions.

Also the freeform of it. No required to talk to this person wait until this point in game to do this. no follow this quest line to get this item to go do this quest line. Do you like trains? Build a base around them. tired of trying to get nuclear to work? Build a solar array. Whatever you want whenever you want. Which while I don't have ADHD what I think your friend enjoys. The only thing you "must" do is make the factory grow. Don't matter how you do it. just that it does. Friend starts automating black science getting euphoria of getting it done, walks by their oil rig starts working on that optimizes that, gets euphoria from that, realizes Iron needs to be set back up go does that. Euphoria. Doesn't matter where or how they work they're growing the factory. They don't have to sit on one thing until it's done never to be seen again. Factorio essentially found "good part" about gaming refined it a little bit (although story or comp multiplayer are still good they just have more stuff to it) refined the extra stuff away and built a game off of it. We're basically like injecting the euphoria straight into our veins. Which is why Factorio is called Cracktorio.

Autistic people are kinda in the same boat I believe. From what I understand it's like being sensitive to stimulus, and in Factorio you are in complete control of how much you want to be involved and you don't have to do a metric ♥♥♥♥ ton of stuffrightnoworyou'regonnadieandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!' just one thing at a time. Just make a bot move your engines.

I think gaming in general has "psychological" effects on people. Back in the day World of Warcraft had a boss that had a blood plague mechanic and due to an accident/dev oversight the plague got out of the raid and literally created a pandemic across the world and scientists said 'hey this might be valuable research into human behavior in a pandemic setting. Sure enough when covid hit there were striking resemblances. Very Interesting read. I personally can't wait for a more scientific research into not only Factorio's impact on human nature and data on how people work/ possible treatment on things like ADHD and autism.

Escape From Tarkov also is a similar thing. NO ONE thinks Tarkov is fun. NO ONE. It's incredibly stressful you can get killed as you spawn in before you can do anything and lose all of your stuff. The game in some regards goes past realism and tries to makes things harder for the sake of it. it's vile. But when you barely survive a firefight, broken arms leaking blood and water out of your stomach like a cartoon character, the only thing you got on this raid was a phone and you hear some Russians yelling at you and running towards you, you're low on ammo maybe half a mag across 3 mags you're not sure. All you know is the enemy is coming your arms and one leg are broken, you can't aim straight, you can't run, you just injected some drug into your veins it could be crack for all you know. Your vision is blurry you can't see straight and all you know is someone is gonna die over this phone.

Also this phone is broken and doesn't work.

[Ages]

Google ADD and hyperfocus

[robfilrhijar]

There really is something special about this game. A hint of adventure mixed in with some early combat, exploration,planning and the feeling of going somewhere with what you are doing. Surely a movie in there somewhere. Oh and the music is top notch let alone the game play.

[Zeroic (Reiic)]

Level 9 Hamslayer eredeti hozzászólása:

Because of the non linear and automation mechanics. Unlike traditional gameplay like an RPG you have to do something because BBEG wants to dominate the world and to do that you gotta go find some dumb researcher elf with a crystal or something save them from a goblin cave they should have been smart enough to avoid or manage, you save them and now you gotta do something for them before they help you and the main story just devolves into a long walking sim fetch quest.

Whereas Factorio it sets the precedence of what the game is about. Mining and hand crafting. You then can figure out how to automate that and not have to do that. Giving a sense of satisfaction and pride you figured this out and set it up leading to equilibrium/homeostasis. Which is basically just being okay. Like being hungry is not equilibrium but eating lets you reach it.

by the nature of factorio you're not in equilibrium and never will be. so you set out to do so and basically "microdose" euphoria by building, expanding, and doing maintenance on your factory like increasing throughput. optimizing builds, keep the place from burning down to the ground and getting "real doses" of euphoria, pride and satisfaction when you say, automate a new science and get to reap the benefits and production of that tier, and creating a good blueprint that makes your life so much easier and semi automates the automation.

Other games want the euphoria to be an end of quest/end game/having to win. Which there's nothing wrong with that, but the gameplay can get stale or isn't the "best" and can lead to a hollow experience that just runs out once the story is done. or is a one and done deal. You know how the story ends.

Factorio avoids this by one, simple yet alluring gameplay, and not relying a player's will to continue for the sake of winning, completion, or 'Hey. I put down $60 I'm gonna use $60.' Playing factorio, is the reward. and 2. you don't have to invest in things or gameplay you don't care about. No annoying NPCs or call to a greater good that inexplicably forces you to follow the story or take certain actions.

Also the freeform of it. No required to talk to this person wait until this point in game to do this. no follow this quest line to get this item to go do this quest line. Do you like trains? Build a base around them. tired of trying to get nuclear to work? Build a solar array. Whatever you want whenever you want. Which while I don't have ADHD what I think your friend enjoys. The only thing you "must" do is make the factory grow. Don't matter how you do it. just that it does. Friend starts automating black science getting euphoria of getting it done, walks by their oil rig starts working on that optimizes that, gets euphoria from that, realizes Iron needs to be set back up go does that. Euphoria. Doesn't matter where or how they work they're growing the factory. They don't have to sit on one thing until it's done never to be seen again. Factorio essentially found "good part" about gaming refined it a little bit (although story or comp multiplayer are still good they just have more stuff to it) refined the extra stuff away and built a game off of it. We're basically like injecting the euphoria straight into our veins. Which is why Factorio is called Cracktorio.

Autistic people are kinda in the same boat I believe. From what I understand it's like being sensitive to stimulus, and in Factorio you are in complete control of how much you want to be .

Thanks for the reply, it was well worth the read. There is a lot to talk about it, though I do need to digest it.

[Zeroic (Reiic)]

robfilrhijar eredeti hozzászólása:

There really is something special about this game. A hint of adventure mixed in with some early combat, exploration,planning and the feeling of going somewhere with what you are doing. Surely a movie in there somewhere. Oh and the music is top notch let alone the game play.

It is quite entertaining as it feels like each playthrough is unique due to the seeds of the map and settings specified.
Setting your own goals and small rewards for progressing in any direction is quite important. It is up to each person to decide what they want to do and in what order.

[fractalgem]

There's ALWAYS something new to fiddle with. As your attention drifts South, there's circuits there that could use a fixing and tuneup, and over there to the north OH THE COAL PATCH IS RUNNING LOW WHEEEEE

At least, that's kinda my personal experience.

And yet there's enough coherency and logic that you can actually plan things out, appealing to the hyperfocus aspect of adhd as well.

I'm not sure I can fully explain but perhaps that makes sense?