Thread by @visakanv

you know what's a thing i've wanted for a long time – and maybe this exists, but I think probably not in the way that I'd like:

a "game" in a browser tab that feels like a video game "dashboard" / "war room".

A GTD app designed by a game company, like Firaxis games, or Blizzard

There's this "build your city" or "build your skill tree" dynamic in a lot of fun video games that I've never quite seen beautifully explored in a non-gaming context

In Heroes 3, you start out with a simple city (left) then you upgrade it bit by bit (right). very satisfying

In games like Diablo or World of Warcraft, you start with a character that's "underdressed", and you level them up – you learn new skills, get new gear – and your character visibly reflects your progression. Very satisfying

In Cookie Clicker, you start out with one big cookie to click and nothing else. As the game progresses, you build tonnes of auto-click factories of all kinds. Again, very satisfying!! It's nice to make things happen and see things grow

At a super basic, pen-and-paper level – a game I'm playing with myself is "write one million words", at @1000wordvomits. I'm doing that in 1000 sets of 1000. Watching this arbitrary DIY meter get filled up has been, you guessed it... very satisfying

@1000wordvomits I'd like to spend some time thinking about this. Currently, this is my "new tab" window. It's a Chrome extension called Momentum, and mainly I like it because it shows me nice pictures. I don't use any of the features. What features do I actually even want...?

@1000wordvomits so I'm trying out the todo app in the bottom right corner just to see what the experience is like. it's a moderately nice experience for small tasks... but I already have a much more powerful/comprehensive todo list app that I paid for (Things), so why would I use this...?

@1000wordvomits Thinking now about the browser games I used to play as a kid. Neopets was one. Netropolis was another. I think the really appealing thing is a sense of continuity – a sense that you have a "digital garden" that is "alive" independent of you, but responsive to your actions

@1000wordvomits I also used to play this game called Vagabond's Quest (any chance anybody here's played it before?) – and it was this text-based MUD, with multiplayer PvP, and the Dungeons of Despair

wow, blast from the past. I used to play as a Tracer

anyway...

@1000wordvomits I think the simple fact that there used to be text-based online RPGs that were super addictive and compelling is something to reflect on. I had so much more fun on those games than with either Mass Effect: Andromeda or Diablo 3.

Utopia and Earth 2025 were fun as hell; pure text

@1000wordvomits against all of this, it's worth mentioning that in my entire experience online – blogging, facebook-ing, whatever – nothing has been more addictive and compelling to me than twitter – even in single player mode

In 2013 I had a blogpost go to the top of HN, titled “productivity apps should be lighting fires, not filling buckets”. I wanted... high-functioning friends bombarding me with great questions and reminders. I get quite a lot of this from twitter now. I had like 300 followers then

On retrospect, it's interesting that I was hoping an app was going to save me. I suppose it had something to do with my love for video games. But the solution doesn't need to be constrained by a form, like an app. The prosthetic could be anything, the solution is a state of mind

I remember thinking though, well what if you can't focus? if you're bad at focusing, are you just condemned to never achieving anything? because you need focus to focus on getting better at focusing, it's one of the cruelest of paradoxes IMO