This is what I came here to say. Ars is the highest quality science/technology site I read on a regular basis. Title suggestion: "Squashing bugs and scaling up"starholme wrote: โFri May 03, 2019 10:24 pmI second this! Ars Technica is the ONLY news site I've ever paid a subscription for. I check it at least every couple hours when I'm awake. They do some good reviews, and have a large audience that would be right up your alley.geomod87 wrote: โFri May 03, 2019 9:10 pm A popular news outlet you should look into would be Arstechnica.com. They do a "war stories" series about the challenges of game development. They also cater to the exact content you mentioned in the blog post. Definitely could be a valuable partner in getting the factorio story out there.
I would love to see Factorio featured in some education magazines or blogs as well. I think there is an untapped opportunity in how well Factorio teaches programming fundamentals. You start with defined inputs/outputs, work within constraints (power, space, throughput, biters), develop optimizations, and then you are naturally pushed towards modular/interchangeable and scalable designs (the game's "code"). The people who fit the traditional gamer/programming student audience have probably been exposed to the game at some point. There is still a wide audience of hands-on learners and tech savvy educators who try to find new teaching methods. These are passionate people who would look under the surface and appreciate the learning opportunities of the game. I hope someday my kids will have assignments to solve a problem creatively in a game like Factorio and we can discuss it at the dinner table
Regarding paid streamers - I think the type of content that is lacking is very early game concepts for individuals who have never even seen the game before. There is a lot of content for intermediate or expert players but I think any expansion to new audiences is going to have to be at the level of someone who has never even played the style of game before, like a console player who has never held an xbox controller in their hands. The new demo is good, but having someone spend a few hours getting their first few labs set up may be needed to make the viewers feel comfortable with all the concepts of the game. Rushing through the early game to show off the "fun" parts like trains and fluids is entertaining for intermediate players but could be intimidating or confusing for someone who only tunes in for an hour or two each night. I think one or two nights of content from a *completely* new player could be helpful but I don't think someone who has played in the past is going to go through fundamentals at such a low level. I'm not sure if doing a lot of streamers at once or one or two each week over a longer time would be a better strategy.
. I was going to buy a second copy I could give to a friend when I realized literally every friend I have owns it already! Honestly I'd buy pretty much anything (within reason of course) just to support you all a little more, but it would be fun if it was something that got players excited too.
