Posted by terabytest 10/24/2024
Even after all these years, that experience still feels a bit surreal to me. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who connected with the game, whether in small or significant ways, and for the stories shared along the way. Some people expressed how they were going through tough times and found some comfort, however small, in playing 2048.
At the start of last year, I wanted to breathe new life into the game as it was starting to show its age. I quit my job last October to work on 2048 full time and spent a year building this new version (the original took just 5 days!). I wanted to pay tribute to what made 2048 great while modernizing and polishing the experience.
The idea of adding powerups came when Prime Gaming and I connected to see if we could create a special version of 2048 for their members, with some exclusive extras. Some of those powerups made it into the main game, though there’s still a Classic[3] mode just like the original for those who prefer a more hardcore experience. The old site is also still online[4].
2048 is now my full-time focus, and I’m excited about the ways it can keep improving. I wanted to share this update with the community where it all began, both for a bit of nostalgia and to hear your thoughts and feedback!
Thank you all so much!
— Gabriele
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7373566
[2]: https://medium.com/@gabrielecirulli/2048-success-and-me-7dc6...
How? How does that game pay anywhere nearly enough to allow that?
Why do you need to share tracking data with many hundreds of shady organisations.
Consent + Develop and improve services ( 379 partners included )
Legitimate Interest Consent + Use limited data to select content ( 101 partners included )
Legitimate Interest Consent + Use limited data to select advertising ( 472 partners included )
Legitimate Interest Consent + Create profiles for personalised advertising ( 529 partners included )
Use precise geolocation data ( 547 partners included )
Consent + Actively scan device characteristics for identification ( 551 partners included )
If this doesn't describe the modern internet I don't know what else does.
FWIW, on desktop Firefox, between uBlock Origin, EFF's Privacy Badger, and Ghostery "Never Consent" cookie dismissal, I got no trackers, no cookies, no ads, and full site functionality.
You could heed your own advice and just not use the site, yet you're keen to stay and whine. Curious!
Crazy, I know.
But they post here and are dogpiled on by people saying they ripped off another game and should feel like a scumbag. That's wrong, let's be kind to each other instead of exhibiting rude behavior that discourages people from pursuing their projects because "it's a ripoff of xyz". This started as an experiment, and is now this person's full time career. Can we instead encourage others to follow?
We're not talking about a 1:1 ripoff, we're talking about a game whose gameplay is adjacent to another game. Is Call of Duty a rip-off of Medal of Honor because they're both WWII FPS games?
There are some bilious and excessive responses but that's inevitable when a thread is large. We do our best to moderate the site so that they don't dominate.
People commonly overgeneralize-then-anthropomorphize the data points that rub them the wrong way. There are cognitive biases that we all have which make this an easy trap to fall into ([1], [2], [3]), but it's important that we all try to avoid it.
If you (I don't mean you personally, of course, but all of us) allow the negative tail of the spectrum to form your picture of the community, that's bad—because your picture of the community influences how you participate in it and this will cause harmful secondary effects that can, in the worst case, turn into doom loops.
I don't think the primary harmful effects (e.g. bilious comments and upvotes for indignation) of running a large internet forum like HN are avoidable, but I do think the secondary ones are. At least I hope so!
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error
I genuinely don't get how people here can say "Oh it's just like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor" or say that Triple Town and Threes were similar. Obviously there's a spectrum from inspiration to cloning, but 2048 is so far on the cloning end of that spectrum that the whole comparison seems like a joke.
They're all in the same general genre.
That matt guy that's posted like 100 times in this thread doesn't want to hear it, but I've literally only ever heard Threes brought up in comparison to 2048 and Triple Town. No one brings up Threes on their own organically.
I'm sure that you, a connoisseur, greatly prefer Threes, which is great. It can be fun to have a taste which is that of a very small minority.
But, to state the nearly tautological, the difference in popularity is because 2048 is better, in the view of the vast majority. It's more fun to play, and that's what makes a game good.
Furthermore, the author didn't know Threes existed when they made it, so calling it a "blatant rip" is rudely false. Let's lift each other up instead of pushing each other down.
The frustration is completely understandable, as Threes is definitely where the concept originated. Due to the chain of derivative games that led to the creation of 2048, I had not seen or heard of Threes until after it went viral. I think the inspiration Threes provided, although valid, is somewhat indirect in the case of 2048. I did try my best to reflect this in the about page and when I talked about my experience here[2].
I noticed there's no mention of it on GitHub, so I'll add it there. I am happy to do better given the feedback, but I'm not sure what kind of improvement I could make here. Let me know
[1]: https://play2048.co/about
[2]: https://medium.com/@gabrielecirulli/2048-success-and-me-7dc6...