A Satisfactory Perspective of Life
Video Games have taught me so much about my life. If you think that I use that as an excuse to play more games, you are only 70% right. Yes, I do love playing games, they bring a wealth of joy that is unrivaled by any other form of entertainment. They also bring wisdom and insight.
The game that I want to focus on is Satisfactory, created by Coffee Stain Studios. In this game you land on an alien planet as an engineer and your job is to harvest its resources and supply FICSIT Inc. with various parts. You can construct the parts by hand, but it is far more efficient to set up automated operations that will mine, build, and transport them for you.
Progression in this game is indicated by accomplishing milestones, which are missions that require parts to complete. With each completed milestone you unlock new technologies and crafting recipes.
The progression in this game is well paced and firmly builds off previous milestones.
Your first job is to create a HUB, your base. Doing so will allow you to access the Hub Terminal, a computer that allows you to select your next milestone. Your HUB also serves as a respawn point for when you die.
Lessons
Enjoy yourself
“Life is short and unpredictable. Eat the dessert first!” — Helen Keller
When I first started playing this game I wanted to know what was the “correct” way to play. Going from a game that you know the ins and outs of to one that you know absolutely nothing about is humbling. An innate need for competence drives you to “get good”.
I found myself asking questions like this:
- How am I supposed to correctly transport coal?
- Do I need to use foundations?
- How many generators should I have?
Within the first couple of hours of playing this game the sheer number of questions was overwhelming and I decided to “just play the game”. I progress more quickly thru the game just by doing things my way, instead of looking up the best way to do something.
After spending a good amount of time playing this game using my curiosity I decided to watch some let’s plays so that I can learn something from others. Turns out there are all sorts of styles to playing this game. Some folk never improved their transportation methods, yet they had fun playing the game and they were proud of the things that they created.
IRL (In Real Life)
Your first time trying anything will be full of mistakes. This isn’t said to discourage you, but it is to encourage you to embrace the learning process. Learning something new is just as fun as doing something you already know. The discovery process feeds your curiosity and your initial solutions feeds your creativity.
Planning
“Proper preparation prevents poor performance.” -Charlie Batch
After the novelty of playing the game wore off I still had massive interest not only in playing it but playing it more efficiently. As you progress through the game the parts that you need to build increase in number and complexity. Trying to build structures without planning them can lead to power problems, and other issues that can be time consuming to find and fix.
Planning allows me to be more proactive especially when it comes to power management. I now lay my power lines in a way that allows me to group machines together. In the instance I blow a fuse, I am ready to systematically disconnect power in a way that will lead me to finding the problem more quickly.
Taking the time to do calculations of my production process has increased, and in some cases doubled and tripled my output.
IRL
Time is one of the most valuable resources that we have in life; it is limited and precious. Taking the time to plan out your actions can save you massive time and increase your productivity.
Iteration
“Ever tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.” — Samuel Beckett
When playing video games like this I tend to start a new game immediately after I learn something new. Oftentimes I find the initial survival portion very exciting. This game is different because survival isn’t its selling point. Satisfactory really takes off when you are expanding across the map and unlocking new milestones
Restarting to get that new game rush is futile. This game doesn’t build hype off of killing creatures, there is very little that you can do with the resources that you obtain from them. The bulk of the excitement is from as you would of guessed building factories.
Another reason somebody would restart is to rebuild a structure. In this game they make it really essay to dismantle a group of buildings. Just rebuild on top of what you already have. This game supports it especially when you destroy a building you receive all the resources that it took to build back
IRL
Humanity has a well recorded record of the things that we tried. We log our accomplishments so future generations won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Instead of starting over. Work with what you have already built . Also, work on top of the knowledge and resources of others. In doing so you will add height to your starting position, thus giving you an advantage.
Research
“The standard library saves programmers from having to reinvent the wheel.” -Bjarne Stroustrup
Finding out how to play the game on my own it’s a joy. I love the learning process.
However, playing this game by trial and error would be a real headache. You would have to experiment with different play methods that come to mind and determine which is really the best one. There would be an absurd amount of reconstruction and time put into improving things. Naturally after doing this for a while you will go seeking help.
Efficiency is one of the selling points of the game. Searching for resources that would help me improve production output and reduce power consumption seems like a time saving move. Satisfactory calculator is a resource that I came across that tremendously helped me to create better production lines. It did the tedious production math for me. All I had to do was come up with a floor plan for bringing it to fruition.
IRL
Accepting help and using resources is not cheating. In business this is how you gain a competitive advantage. Knowing what your weaknesses are and bridging them is vital to success.
It would be awesome if we knew everything, but the fact is that we don’t know. History has been recorded for thousands of years, and we must take advantage of that. There are also people with specific specializations that spend their time working on solutions from perspectives that we can’t imagine. When they come up with solutions it becomes advantageous to take advantage of them.
To ensure our success in any endeavor we must draw upon the wealth of information that is out there. That from experts and from history.
In The End
The lessons that I learned in this game are priceless. Video games are like tiny episodes of life that you can use to draw insight and practice applying various lessons over and over again. This repetition gives them a value that life can’t replicate.
If you already play Satisfactory, then you know the joys of the game. If you never played it, I strongly recommend that you get into it. This game will cause you to rethink what you know about efficiency and management.
