Like Tetris, but chain-y December 1, 2007 8:54 PM Subscribe
Chain Factor- a disappearing-piece Flash puzzle game that may also cause your time to disappear. I am trying to treat my addiction by passing it onto you.
posted by aaronetc (24 comments total)
27 users marked this as a favorite
Cool. I guess I'm crack resistant. It was fun for a time, but it didn't snood me or anything. posted by cashman at 9:16 PM on December 1, 2007
I honestly don't understand the pattern. Can someone explain this to me? posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:59 PM on December 1, 2007
I've seen in mentioned a half dozen times now as the next big addictive game, but it didn't really taken hold of me. I played for an hour or so and didn't really find any deeper structure to suck me in. It is worth a try, though posted by recursion at 10:01 PM on December 1, 2007
the circles disappear if the number of circles in their row or column is the same as the number in the circle:
if you have a row like so:
5332 67
and drop a 4 in the gap, the 7 will go, then the 6, then the 5 on the end, then the 4, then the 3s until you're left with a 2. posted by empath at 10:06 PM on December 1, 2007 [2 favorites]
I honestly don't understand the pattern.
Neither did I, but thankfully there's a FAQ. posted by tepidmonkey at 10:06 PM on December 1, 2007
Sunday evening quality time with my girlfriend ruined. She isn't happy. aaronetc I wouldn't come over for a while... posted by Samuel Farrow at 10:21 PM on December 1, 2007 [2 favorites]
The music is strangely crack-like as well. posted by esome at 10:33 PM on December 1, 2007
Woo-hoo! This game took a boring evening of watching SNL and turned it into a distracted evening of watching SNL while playing an online game!
And here I thought I was going to work on my taxes tonight... posted by salvia at 12:43 AM on December 2, 2007
75416? This okay? posted by Samizdata at 2:15 AM on December 2, 2007
The first game I thought it was kind of pointless, but I am getting the hang of it now. The strategy is quite interesting, but I don't think I will be persevering enough to reach the ridiculous high scores posted on the page. posted by AndrewStephens at 3:39 AM on December 2, 2007
Cool. Took me a bit to start working out a strategy, but I like. posted by Zinger at 7:56 AM on December 2, 2007
84556.
I realized too late that the problem are not the high numbers but the low ones. posted by Memo at 9:09 AM on December 2, 2007
207,078.
Longest chain: 8x.
Damn you. posted by CitrusFreak12 at 9:10 AM on December 2, 2007
It's starting to suck me in now... the powers liven it up a lot.
Oh curse you, aaronetc. Curse you! posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:39 PM on December 2, 2007
Wow, and two hours later I came up for air. Thanks aaronetc :) posted by doctor_negative at 1:41 PM on December 2, 2007
Needs fewer numbers, more grunting. posted by seanmpuckett at 2:55 PM on December 2, 2007
At some point in my last game I ended up with 1111111 along a row, with at least one row of grey tiles under it. Don't be like me. posted by Johnny Assay at 3:48 PM on December 2, 2007
This game continues to fascinate me. I'm getting the hang of the strategy, but still, every once in a while I trigger some massive domino of erasures without even the slightest idea how it even got started. Now if only I could plan that shit ahead of time. posted by salvia at 4:30 PM on December 2, 2007
Level 46, yeah!
Also, curse you aaronetc. posted by sour cream at 2:05 AM on December 3, 2007
This game is actually tied to the television show Numb3rs: it's got a plot!
Basically, playing the game is supposed to bring down capitalism. Check out the wiki:
Congratulations, you solved The Twelve Zombies, the final lock for Chain
Factor.
You have triggered the final Chain Factor sequence. Thanks to your
efforts a specific string of instructions will soon be executed by
automated trading software around the globe.
These programs, whose brittle algorithms now guide the turbulent path of
the world's wealth through the circuit maze of decadence, oppression,
and alienation that we erroneously call the global economy, are linked
together by patterns of call and response, move and countermove,
predator and prey. The machines listen and react to each other in a
language of their own, sometimes flocking together, sometimes
scattering, but always circling each other in complex orbits of hide and
seek among the options and futures of a universe of money become pure
information.
But this machine language is a crude parody of the cooperation and
competition of a true economy. These machines are not true players, they
are only rules. Their complex dance is just a game, and like any game it
can be broken.
And who broke it? Who carefully extracted the millions of digits needed
to map out the resonant frequency of this mechanical language, the
sequence that would trigger a recursive spiral, that would destroy the
entire corrupt system and allow us to begin again?
You did.
All day, every day. Millions upon millions of linked micro-decisions.
Drop, click. Drop, click. My beautiful army of tireless calculators,
seeking nothing but a momentary escape from the prisonhouse of work,
responsibility, and reality. I gave you the hardest problem I could
imagine, the gravest responsibility, and the harshest reality, and you
devoured it like a forest fire. Good game.
This game continues to fascinate me. I'm getting the hang of the strategy, but still, every once in a while I trigger some massive domino of erasures without even the slightest idea how it even got started. Now if only I could plan that shit ahead of time.
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posted by flatluigi at 9:14 PM on December 1, 2007