TrotimFeb 13
Martijn Frazer

Learned about the "Wuselfaktor" yesterday when talking about Settlers II for @dosgameclub

It's a German concept that describes how interesting and nice a game is to look at without the player doing anything in particular.

It's especially relevant for simulation type games, where your screen is filled with a bunch of characters that are each working on their own task.

Settlers II has a very high Wuselfaktor, but so do games like Lemmings or Transport Tycoon.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuselfaktor

Wuselfaktor – Wikipedia

Feb 12 at 8:12pmWeb
Show threadmaxFeb 12
@Tijn @dosgameclub that's really cool. it's interesting to think of other examples of this. Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital are especially good for it. even Sim City 2000 has a few little cars driving around on the roads and stuff
Show threadMartijn FrazerFeb 12
@tinybird Yeah that's exactly it!
Show threadAndreas ScherbaumFeb 12

@Tijn @dosgameclub One of the best games ever. Even later Settler games did not reach that factor.

In fact, the online version was terrible

https://andreas.scherbaum.la/post/2011-12-26_die-siedler-online-ein-weiteres-unnuetzes-browserspiel/

Die Siedler Online - ein weiteres unnützes Browserspiel

a place to store my stuff

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Show threadPixel Prophecy 🇵🇸🇺🇦🇪🇺Feb 12
@Tijn @dosgameclub Welcome to the club! It's been a staple in German strategy game reviews for 20+ years. "It's a good game, but what about its Wuselfaktor? Glad you asked!" 😅
Show threadBernd KilgaFeb 12

@Tijn @dosgameclub

There's even a Black Mirror episode that showcases how dangerous the Wuselfaktor can be.

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/42009-black-mirror/season/7/episode/4

Show threadEdwin GroothuisFeb 12
@Tijn @dosgameclub @hischeekiness unlike games as “idle champions” which are just a waste of time to look at.
Show threadvga256Feb 12

@Tijn what a *great* word. i vote for a mandatory corruption of in the english language, because it's 100% what i want out of games

at one point i made a website where it was nothing but recordings of game scenes with high wuselfaktor:

https://vga256.com

it still works in safari. not sure about chrome/firefox anymore

256 worlds

Show threadEvelyn EstelleFeb 13
@vga256 @Tijn This is an amazing website! I might use it for ambience. ❤️
Show threadvga256Feb 13
@dragonfi 😄
Show threadMartin SeegerFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub We have so many great words that are worth explaining. Yesterday I thought about making a post about the word „Erklärbär“
Show threadDaniël Franke Feb 13
@masek @Tijn @dosgameclub Words like that are my favourite thing about the German language.
Show threadJulianWgsFeb 13

@Tijn @dosgameclub Checkout Widelands, which is an open source reimagination of the Settlers 2 with an even higher Wuselfaktor as the original. (It also has a lot more depth and fixes many annoyances.) https://www.widelands.org

PS: Works great on my Steam Deck, which provides more than 6h of Wuselfaktor on the go

Widelands.org

Show threadPhilFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub Always makes me a little happy when people discover that German does have its nice sides. 
Show threadroot42Feb 13

@Tijn Probably closely related to the concept of Wimmelbild, the closest US equivalent would probably be "Where's Waldo", but is more broad than that. There are quite a lot of German children's books like that:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimmelbild

Wimmelbild – Wikipedia

Show threadMatt LaceyFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub What a great word. Watching full blown train networks in TTD never gets old.
Show threaddwardoricFeb 13
@dosgameclub @Tijn Greatest game from the series IMHO. Still has this "let's see if my Siedler2.sh file is still working... ups where are the last six hours?" effect. =)
Show threadSeiðrFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub This is tremendously interesting also on its intersection with the visual and tactile aspects in board games, because even though there is no idle actions of the pieces and components, one of the factors it usuallly drives interestin a game is how aesthetically pleasing and compelling it looks deployed on the table.
Show threadJanek @ IndieDev.siteFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub I love it! In the end all city builders are about seeing tiny folks living their lives
Show threadEvelyn EstelleFeb 13

@Tijn @dosgameclub

If I understand it correctly, this is one specific type of game juiciness.

While devoid of people, I feel that Factorio also has a high Wuselfaktor: even a spaghetti layout is very pleasing, all the moving belts, working assemblers and drones make it quite lively.

(That being said, I need virtual people to care for, so I kind of got bored of the loneliness of the game.)

Show threadStevezFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub Oh yeah...
Show threadsibakuFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub When the genre was at its height the word definitely accompanied many of the articles about these games :D I definitely remember it up to like Settlers 4 and the lack of the Wuselfactor in Settlers 5, where the style changed and many were not happy about it
Show threadsotolfFeb 13
@Tijn @dosgameclub I loved Settlers II as a kid, never was much into the fighting/militairy, but I loved building up the chains to get gold and stuff, Transport Tycoon was another one that was one of my favourites, I loved the wuselige games :)
Show threadJ.A. MacheteMar 30
@Tijn @dosgameclub always learning new stuff. Love it. Might Dwarf Fortress qualify? Simutrans for sure.
Show threadMartijn FrazerMar 30
@josemachete79 Seems definitely like a game with a huge Wuselfaktor!
Show threadJ.A. MacheteMar 30
@Tijn aye, that is what came to my mind paired with the meaning of the word, (I'm Spanish and German has me in awe when it comes to construct words like that one)
Lots of times I fire up DF and just got lost while watching the pure, raw, uncooked ASCII magic unfold in my screen.