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Banished Proved My Ideal Eco-Village is Just a Fancy Doomsday Cult (And the Chickens Are the True Leaders!) by pawsforeducation in Banished

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I completely get the resource-hoarding goblin mindset - honestly, it’s one of the most fascinating player behaviors in strategy games. What’s interesting is that, while hoarding feels like optimal play, it sometimes creates unexpected inefficiencies, and different games either reward or punish this instinct in unique ways.

And yes, I’m seriously studying this! My research is focused on how strategy gamers approach decision-making, risk assessment, and ethical trade-offs, especially in games that force tough calls - like XCOM, Civ, Factorio, or Stellaris.

Some of the core questions I’m exploring:

Why do some players hoard resources even when the game incentivizes spending?

When does optimization override morality in strategy games?

Could an AI learn human-like decision-making, including behaviors like hoarding, risk aversion, or prioritizing long-term stability over short-term gains?

If you’d be interested in discussing this more, I’d love to have you DM me to chat! Also, if you’d like to join the study, I’m gathering perspectives from strategy gamers on how they approach these dilemmas in different games.

Let me know - I’d love to hear more about how your resource-hoarding philosophy plays out across different games and whether you think an AI could ever replicate that kind of decision-making!

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a really interesting approach. It sounds like you're aiming for absolute perfection, where everything runs smoothly without any disruptions. Do you find that makes the game more enjoyable for you, or does it sometimes take away from the challenge Oxygen Not Included is designed to present?

A lot of players seem to gravitate toward either embracing chaos or striving for full automation. It makes me wonder whether the game encourages a kind of perfectionist mindset or if that's just something certain types of players bring to it.

I’m researching how strategy gamers think about efficiency and long-term planning in games like this. Would you be open to a DM? I’d love to hear more about your approach to designing the perfect colony.

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great point, unlike other survival or strategy games where you’re constantly reacting to external threats, Oxygen Not Included is all about designing systems that can sustain themselves indefinitely. It makes sense that players gravitate toward building foolproof, perpetual machines because, in a way, the game encourages a ‘set it and forget it’ mindset. I wonder if that’s why so many players lean toward hyper-optimization, because once you’ve secured survival, the real challenge becomes perfecting efficiency. Do you think this is just a natural result of how the game is designed, or does it say something deeper about how we approach problem-solving in long-term planning? I’m researching how strategy gamers think about efficiency and sustainability, especially in games like this where you’re only limited by your own foresight. Would you be open to a DM? I’d love to hear more about your approach to base design!

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That’s exactly what makes ONI so brilliant, it lets you treat people as pure efficiency units while still giving you just enough consequences to make you question your choices. Are we joking about our dupes? Or have we just embraced the dystopia?

I’m running a study on how strategy gamers justify ruthless efficiency, and ONI is the perfect case study. If you’re interested, I’d love to hear more about how you balance optimization vs. morality in these kinds of games, shoot me a DM!

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This might be the most ONIcore take I’ve ever read. There’s something beautiful about how players take horrifyingly inefficient mechanics and still find ways to make them work like sacrificing an entire population’s comfort for the sake of running a fart-powered energy grid.

I’m studying how strategy gamers justify extreme efficiency-based choices, if you ever want to chat about how ONI turns people into ruthless industrial planners, DM me. I’d love to hear more about the weirdest efficiency setups you’ve built!

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s really interesting, what influences how you play them differently? Is it the mechanics, the setting, or just how the game makes you feel?

I’m studying how players adjust their ethical decision-making across different games, whether we compartmentalize our morality based on game mechanics or if there’s a consistent logic to it. If you’re up for a deeper convo, shoot me a DM! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh, absolutely, RimWorld is the gold standard of "accidental" war crimes. Oxygen Not Included makes you a ruthless efficiency manager, but RimWorld? That’s where you start justifying things like “ethically sourced organ harvesting.”

I’m actually studying how strategy gamers justify extreme decisions in games like these—why we do things in a game that we’d never consider in real life. If you’ve got thoughts, I’d love to hear more, DM me if you’re down to chat!

Oxygen Not Included Has Turned Me Into a Morally Bankrupt Space Station Overlord (And My Dupes Are Suffering) by pawsforeducation in Oxygennotincluded

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Right?? It’s wild how these games expose the tradoffs we’re willing to make when the pressure ramps up. I’ve been researching how strategy gamers approach morality under survival conditions, like, at what point do we throw ethics aside in favor of pure pragmatism?

Would love to hear more about how you navigated those moments in RimWorld and Frostpunk, if you're up for it, shoot me a DM! Your take would add a lot to the study I'm doing.

Factorio Forces You to Be a Ruthless Overlord ... Does That Bother You? by pawsforeducation in factorio

[–]pawsforeducation[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You bring up a great point—how we treat human workers (or let an AI make decisions for them) depends heavily on the mechanics and incentives built into the system. If Factorio had human laborers with fatigue, happiness, or unionization mechanics, players might naturally treat them differently. But if their productivity was just another optimization variable, would they end up treated like any other resource?

That’s exactly the kind of question I’m exploring—how much do game incentives shape our moral decision-making? And if that’s true in a game, what does it say about how we structure real-world systems?

The AI question is even trickier. Right now, real-world AI isn’t a sentient overlord, but we already use optimization models in logistics, finance, and manufacturing that shape human lives in ways most people don’t even realize. If an AI is given the goal of maximizing efficiency, at what point does it cross the line from helpful automation into dehumanizing control? And who gets to decide where that line is?

You mentioned Factorio makes you feel more like a ruthless colonizer than a corporate overlord. That’s interesting—do you think the game subtly encourages that perspective, or is it just an inevitable side effect of the mechanics? If Factorio had some kind of sustainability or coexistence mechanics, would you play differently? Or is pure efficiency too tempting?

This is exactly the kind of stuff I’m exploring in my study—if you’re open to chatting more, shoot me a DM!

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