Hacker News: Pifanjr

New comment by Pifanjr in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

Pifanjr — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:56:54 +0000

I made this point earlier in the comments, but I think the main difference between Minecraft and No Man's Sky is that Minecraft does not push the players towards specific gameplay systems, while No Man's Sky does, making No Man's Sky feel much less like a box of legos and more like a collection of specific tasks/activities.

New comment by Pifanjr in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

Pifanjr — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:23:36 +0000

I think one thing that Minecraft does very well is that it does not push the player towards any of its game systems, which allows the player to make up their own fun. No Man's Sky on the other hand throws a lot of different game systems at you. Just having points of interests pushes the player into just going from one to the other instead of them exploring what might make the game fun for them.

New comment by Pifanjr in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

Pifanjr — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:18:10 +0000

I think the main difference in Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld is that the world happens to you, you have to respond to the events the game generates, while in No Man's Sky you happen to the world, you choose how to interact with it.

No Man's Sky is much more like Minecraft in that way, you have to make up your own goals, the game doesn't really prompt you in any way to do anything.

New comment by Pifanjr in "No Man's Sky Cosmos"

Pifanjr — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:09:09 +0000

The procedurally generated planets and moons from Starfield are a bit like the radiant quests of Skyrim, they just pad the game time a bit with procedurally generated content. The main difference is that the radiant quests in Skyrim typically sent you to locations you hadn't visited yet within a hand-crafted world, while in Starfield the world around the locations isn't interesting and the locations themselves start repeating way too quickly.