from the I-was-wondering-what-to-do-next dept.
Anonymous Coward writes:
"2048, the most addictive game since Tetris, was recently released. Its origin has been traced back as far as Threes!, which inspired 1024, which inspired 2048. Finally, an improved version, with animations, was written by Gabriele Cirulli, 19 year old from Italy.
The game has enthralled many, and led directly to the waste of countless potentially productive hours. A variety of permutations have since surfaced: 2048 in 3D, 2048 in 4D, and 9007199254740992.
Some ask why it's so addictive. I say, it attacks our pleasure centers in ways that Wesley Crusher already warned us about."
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In Ars Technica's latest Unsolved Mysteries video, Pajitnov and Rogers went all the way back to the game's earliest origins. That includes the origin of "the Tetris song," aka Korobeiniki, which Game Boy Tetris fans have had stuck in their heads for decades now.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by hybristic on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:11PM
I have an app for it on my phone, and usually there is always a tab open on my computer for it.
Its addicting, but I don't think it's nearly as hard as Tetris. I can win a solid 85% of the time, its those few times I wasn't looking far enough ahead, or got a 4 instead of a 2 that stops me from winning 100%.
SPOILER ALERT: the basis of what I do is decide in 1 direction I will never move, usually up, and then keep all of my high numbers collected at the bottom. I have been able to get 2 collections of 2048 before losing.
(Score: 2) by d on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:51PM
Awesome, thanks! I didn't win yet using your advice, but my scores got MUCH higher.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:03PM
You know what other game is addictive? Cocaine.
*Snnnerrrrkkkk* *Sniff*
Aaaahhhhhi'm fucking GOD! Time to rape that OLD LADY down the street and beat the shit out of a few COPS.
(Score: 1) by hybristic on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:27PM
Yeah, it takes some fiddling to get it right, and you cant win every time but it evens out your odds. It took me a while to figure this strategy out, I was getting screwed before getting to 1024 consistently, but once I did it this way I was able to get 1024 almost every time. Another thing you might want to work towards is making sure your numbers at the bottom are in descending order. I go bottom left to right where left is the highest I have gotten, and the right is the lowest number. You want to try and keep your bottom 4 wide and never let that bottom move, easier said than done. This is just how I play, I imagine there are more effective methods to winning.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:19PM
Why is it all the directions about How to Play the game describe only movements, and no strategy, and, oddest of all, no objective?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by scruffybeard on Wednesday March 19 2014, @12:11PM
I was confused by that too. I played one time and got to level 5 with 3356 points. Unless I am missing something, the objective is to get higher than 2048. Fun game nonetheless.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:13PM
Congratulations on your successful slashvertizement! You've successfully gotten a blog to post a link to your "improved" version of an existing game, and in a way that makes it seem like some random stranger did it!
Or, at least, that's what I assume happened. Seriously, editors? Where's the news here? That someone skinned an existing game to add animations? There's not even a TFA here. There's no one citing a launch announcement. This IS the launch announcement. Even the "why I find the game addictive..." article isn't referencing the "new" version. Just the existing version.
Oh, and it's by an AC. So well done there as well.
Yes, I get it - editors are all new, we're still learning. Please, please take this as an object lesson in what NOT to do. You let some AC submit content, including a breathless headline, didn't really read it or check it, didn't realize this is basically just a plug of someone's pet project (quite probably the submitters), and posted it anyways. What effort was put in by the editor here?
(Score: 1) by janrinok on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:26PM
I didn't (and still don't) see it that way, but you could be right - so I'll hold my hands up and apologise.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:28PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Dunbal on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:52PM
They mix in some soylent red with the soylent green nowadays.
(Score: 3, Funny) by JeanCroix on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:24PM
(Score: 2, Funny) by xyzzyyzzyx on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:29PM
Just say 'No!' to AC submitted content, folks....
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:34PM
MrGuy is just buttmad that he Googled "Gabriele Cirulli" expecting to find a young, foreign, hot nerdchick like LadyAda to beat off to and found a dude instead.
Meanwhile, Gabriele takes pleasure in that fact and backs away slowly into the shadows grinning, his nose being the last part of him to fade into the darkness.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:47PM
So he found what he was looking for.
(Score: 3, Informative) by cwix on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:26PM
I have to agree with the parent poster here, this is not news. It reads like an advertisement, it also does not explain in the summary why this is such a great game.
In fact I just went and played the game and if this level of game gets a front page article, then I can think of a hundred games that should get the same treatment. Should I start to post articles about my favorite games, even if there is nothing new or ground breaking in them?
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday March 19 2014, @02:09AM
SCNR, but look, we've all played our share of Larry, no need to get all upset about it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by bucc5062 on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:33PM
Wow, dude, where's all the negative energy coming from. Like chill and just play the game. it is really cool, I mean addictive man.
In one way I don't see the complaint. There are links to other games, there is no payment required and the game, while not so addictive (yet) is fun to play (okay I played it just once, but it kept my interest). I don't mind having SN articles be fun, humorous; light shall we say mixed in with the mind bending stuff (still trying to grok gravity waves) or the economic trolling from Bill Gates.
Back in the old country we use to say, you don't have to read the summary, the links or the comments. For some it is "Nothing to see here, move along". Chill bra /grin
In my first playing I could not figure out the end game (d'oh) till the end when it became clear...2048. Here's my geek card (sigh)
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1) by SleazyRidr on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:59PM
I guess we don't need every article to be something ground breaking, but there are things like this happening every day. This is really just a slight change to an old game. They come about every 20 minutes or so.
(Score: 1) by ticho on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:35PM
As soon as the RSS feed will contain something more than just a bare link to the article, you will have a point. Until then, it can be hard to decide whether an article is worth reading.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Blackmoore on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:56PM
then get off your ass and locate some real content.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:54PM
OK, how about we hijack this thread and its now a complain (sometimes) about "addictive games" thread.
Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, TOME, Don't Starve, FTL
If someone wants to advertise their game, well, I'd rather talk about currently playing Avadon II and that TOME port to steam (aka Tales Of M-something E-something).
Avadon 2 is pretty awesome, like all zillion previous Spiderweb games. Still haven't figured out what happened to that scout that got knocked out at the start. Will get there eventually.
I played minecraft mods until I got tired of "scheme #24312 to turn ore into more metal than default" and once it becomes a game of what boils down to material transport systems it gets dull. Too flexible. Oh, you can "draw" anything now? Well, just use a real CAD program. I had a lot of fun experiences along the way, building power stations (that are meaningless once you make solar panels) and giant railroad empires (meaningless once you have teleports)
DF is epic although too frustrating. "Oh its so fun to watch the dorfs fail" no it isn't its Fing annoying to have to go all that grunt work slightly better this time. Just got sick of architecting apartment buildings for whiney dorfs.
FTL was fun till I beat it a couple times and ... now what? Well heres a mod (essentially) that forces you to change your play style. But I liked my play style, and it worked! Bye. Some storyline is amusing.
Same fail mechanic with don't starve other than my play style sucking in the opinion of the authors so I continually wiped out before I could do something "cool". So DS got old real fast. Really, I have to click my mouse a million times to chop enough wood to get back to where I was before I wiped out? F that.
TOME is pretty awesome but being a roguelike its super frustrating once you get into a cool position and then ... oh no, now I have to go thru all THAT again? I appreciate the steam port has a mode to abstract away the roguelike aspect by providing infinite lives. The story and gameplay is pretty good, not seeing the point of grinding to get there over and over.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:29PM
Is the TOME you're talking about called Tales of Maj'Eyal? I'll check it out. Here are some of my current favorite but under-appreciated games.
FPS: Natural Selection 2
4X: StarDrive
RTS-like: Majesty 2
Rogue-like: Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
Masochism/Sadism: Rust and DayZ
It sounds like you enjoy painful games but don't like the complete restart on death. Rust might be fun for you there. You lose all your possessions on death however you still retain all the knowledge needed to build them. I'm a fan of DF as well. Really excited for this new version : )
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:04PM
Yes Tales of Maj'Eyal
They're not painful until you have to retrace steps one thru one million.
the first time I set up a dorf apartment building with about a hundred little rooms I thought it was awesome... the first time...
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday March 19 2014, @03:54AM
I recently got addicted to Kerbal Space Program...
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cwix on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:34PM
Maybe I have submitted better content in the past just to have it denied and then see it posted the next day by another user. Maybe you can get off your ass and fix that. In the mean time I'd rather see nothing then this advertisement.
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Thursday March 20 2014, @01:48AM
it happens, 3 of my submissions so far were accepted when offered by someone else.
frankly - i'm not the least bit surprised my writeup was awful - i'm no journalist
but i'll keep trying
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:51PM
I wrote the story and I have no connection to the game other than playing it and seeing it on other news sites. Get off your idiotic high horse you dimwit.
Ad for a money- and ad- free game? That mentions earlier games and later games based on the same design? What nefarious plan did you see in my blatant attempt to bring a little culture to your sad little life?
(Score: 3, Funny) by d on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:23PM
http://doge2048.com/ [doge2048.com]
(Score: 2) by d on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:25PM
Also see: https://joppi.github.io/2048-3D/ [github.io]
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:32PM
What is the point of the game? Instead let's just throw a pastel, rounded-corner sudoku-alike at my eyeballs and gibber about how awesome it is, in an article with excessively large text and paragraph breaks consisting of partial game "screenshots" that mean nothing to me because you never explain what they mean!
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ken_g6 on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:35PM
This is nothing like Sudoku. But it could be played manually, with some difficulty.
Take a quarter of a checkerboard, and a lot of checkers. Let the red checkers represent 2 and the black checkers represent 64 (32 2's) so the stacks don't get too high, but you still need 512 of each color of checkers, theoretically. You need some way to randomly specify which spot to add checkers to, and whether to add one or two checkers. (Got a 16- or 32-sided die?) Then stack like neighboring piles when you move everything up, down, left, or right at each move, and swap in one black checker for 32 red checkers.
The goal would be to get a 32-black-checker-high stack.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by neagix on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:11PM
Welcome visitor from the past!
Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy content that you are either too much stupid or too much smart to appreciate; in case of sickness feel free to puke from the window, other passengers will not notice the difference.
Please patiently wait for their extinction and then take control of the ship.
[I think I am too much stupid, since I don't like it at all]
(Score: 1, Informative) by crutchy on Tuesday March 18 2014, @08:52PM
never heard of it
(Score: 1) by evilviper on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:15PM
You know... it MIGHT just be a "Game". YMMV
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Dragon on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:01PM
Mod me down all you want, but how again is this site any different from the greener one? I'm not seeing it at the moment. We get the same articles, the same discussions what is newsworthy and derailments into stuff that is neither news nor really nerdy per se, and, cough, the same fucking slashvertisments (sorry, soyvertisments) for stupid things that are not special at all (but get advertised as such). "The hot new " is in 99% a silly slashvertisment and you should not post it.
I seriously come here to find a better alternative, yet what I often find is the same - with fewer comments. So I ask you to please explain to someone as dumb as me how this is a) supposed to be different (I am not really seeing it) and b) actually working different (I'm also not - yet? - seeing it).
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:08PM
The other site is greener.
But it's true - different URLs, the same dorky nerd herd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:28PM
Which was supposed to be the point, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:40PM
Well, beside the beta thing, I thought maybe the "editors" would restrain from playing the trolls-in-chief, instead give a half fuck about what/how stuff get posted... ish?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by rts008 on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:38PM
How about a 'people analogy' instead of a car analogy, since "SoylentNews" is about people:
Picture a baby transitioning to a 'toddler', then into adulthood...now, SoylentNews is at the 'transitioning to a toddler' stage.
It's really young, and growing, and it depends on the community(us) to guide it and help it grow in the 'right direction'.
If you don't like what you see, get more active and help guide it in a 'better' direction.
We're trying stuff to see how it works, and there will be some surprises, setbacks, and stumbling around until we learn to walk, then we can work on running and jumping.
Then again, if you just want to lurk and leech, or are expecting it to automagically work like you want, then I question the validity of your criticism.
(Score: 1) by Dragon on Wednesday March 19 2014, @05:37AM
Yes, that is what I attempt by pointing out I'm not getting how this is supposed in theory and how it works differently in practice... "This is totally not moving where I hoped it would, it's just moving to be a copy of what I started to dislike". We need some "Basic Guidelines" of what this is supposed to be.
(Score: 1) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday March 19 2014, @10:42PM
This is a warning from an old beard: I'm afraid transitioning from car analogies to people analogies is going to excite every single "troll" on the internet in the most obscene ways possible. Multiple times every time :|
That was a people analogy right there. The meta, it never stops.
Yes it might make internet history as well as define "trollnip" forever more. No it is still not a good idea :3
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @10:56PM
I posted the fucking article because the game was fun and it's on other sites and I thought people would want to play the stupid fucking thing. If you have such a problem with this article - a news article about a new game that you might want to play - then you and I have different ideas about what we want to see here. Except I submit stories and you bitch about them.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 18 2014, @11:34PM
You submitted an advertisement for a not original game. I most certainly don't want to see the same thing that you obviously want to see.
(Score: 1) by LowID on Wednesday March 19 2014, @09:42AM
Trying to offer some constructive criticism- your submission would have been a good one if you had offered some background info about what the game is, and what makes it nerdy. You could write those yourself, or link to an article that provided such analysis.
This would establish a setting for discussion, which is what this site is about. For discovering random links to cool stuff without context, we already have reddit.
(Score: 1) by blackest_k on Wednesday March 19 2014, @12:09AM
Generally a better class of comment here, not there are not great comments at the other site but there is such a large quantity of comments that were never worth reading in the first place.
I just hope that American that is republican / democrat politics doesn't get a foothold here. Current international events has political tones but can be interesting.
comments threads here are a lot shorter but fresher. subjects are more diverse too.
(Score: 2) by combatserver on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:08AM
I just looked at your profile and noticed you haven't made one article submission--perhaps you should submit something yourself.
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mmcmonster on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:30PM
Whoever decided to submit and post this story, I just have two words:
Fuck You!
Because of you I've just found a new highly addictive game that I bookmarked and will likely be playing for the rest of the night and beyond. Sigh! Just when I was getting over Sudoku.....
(Score: 1) by samwichse on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:21AM
Seriously. Wife just got pissed at me for not listening.
THANKS INTERNET!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by scruffybeard on Wednesday March 19 2014, @03:58PM
Your lucky. I just got fired. At least I have more time to play.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by unitron on Tuesday March 18 2014, @09:32PM
...except for Tetris, so for me it is a "news" article.
Which I didn't have to read if I didn't want to.
When I figured out the article below it was about Popcorn Hour, I already had seen other articles about that so I decided not to bother to read that one, but I'm not going to have a hissy fit about it being on the main page.
The difference between here and the other place is, so far, the other place has decided you're getting Beta sooner or later whether you want it or not, and that the important thing is not the conversation that occurs in the comments (so it's okay if Beta borks the comment handling) but replacing us with an "audience" better suited to consuming the ads they plan to sell.
So, Slashington Post is coming, like it or not, but we aren't, that I can tell, in danger of Soylington Post any time soon.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by umafuckitt on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:08AM
When I figured out the article below it was about Popcorn Hour, I already had seen other articles about that so I decided not to bother to read that one,
Popcorn time.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Wednesday March 19 2014, @01:27AM
One's a set top box, one's software, with neither of which I have any first hand experience, and I thought I remembered which was which.
Apparently not.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheSage on Wednesday March 19 2014, @11:07AM
To all Soylentils who commented on the obscurity of the game: it just was the topic of an XKCD [xkcd.com]. It is now officially nerd-worthy.