Factorio

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About

Factorio is an open world simulation management and construction video game released in 2020 by Wube Software for PC, Mac, and Linux. It was first released in early access in 2016. The game focuses on building fully automated factories on alien worlds by gathering resources and building various machines to survives the local alien life. The game has a significant fanbase online, resulting in many memes, pieces of fan art, and mods.

History

Development of Factorio began in 2012 by Czech video game developers Wube Software, originally consisting of only one man, Michal Kovarik, or "Kovarex" online. The game went into crowdfunding on IndieGoGo^[1] in 2013, surpassing its goal of €17,000 and raising €21,626.^[2] On April 30th, 2014, a trailer for the game was released, garnering over 930,000 views in seven years (shown below).

In August 2014, Kovarex said on Reddit^[3] that the Minecraft mods Industrialcraft and Buildcraft were inspirations for the game. Wube Software began selling early access versions of Factorio starting in 2016. On August 14th, 2020, Factorio released in full (2020 tralier shown below).

On September 17th of that year, Elon Musk tweeted,^[17] "Speedrunning Factorio in real life …" garnering over 109,000 likes and 6,200 retweets in nine months (shown below).

Michal "Kovarex" Kovarik Uncle Bob Controversy

On June 18th, 2021, u/FactorioTeam made the 366th "Friday Facts" post to /r/Factorio^[5] linking to the Factorio blog.^[6] In the post, Kovarex recommends game developer Uncle Bob's YouTube^[7] series on project management and programming. Uncle Bob has previously come under fire for sexist comments, as well as quoting Donald Trump in a tweet^[8] talking about far-left facism. A Redditor commented advising Kovarex against recommending Uncle Bob, to which he responded, "Take the cancel culture mentality and shove it up your ass," (shown below). The exchange has since been deleted, but was reshared on Twitter^[9] by @cigsender that day in a tweet thread starting, "wait til kovarex finds out a good chunk of the game’s fan base is trans."

Before the Reddit^[10] thread was locked, Kovarex responded again talking against cancel culture and denying being a "right wing bigot," claiming he didn't know Uncle Bob's controversies beforehand but that it shouldn't matter anyways (shown below). The controversy divided fans, with many seeing it as an unfair cancelation attempt and others accusing Kovarex of transphobia and bigotry because of it.

Kovarex later responded to another comment arguing that supporting someone with harmful views is harmful, responding in part, "I'm not defending that women shouldn't be senior software engeneers, but if someone would defend that, it doesn't make him a bigot" (full comment shown below).^[14]

On that day, a Steam^[11] user made a post to the Factorio community board stating Kovarex is transphobic because of this, to which they were criticized heavily by the game's fanbase. The post has since been removed. The cancelation attempt gained support on Twitter,^[12] including in one post made on June 18th showing that a user's post about a "trans train" in Factorio was deleted as to not spark further discussion about the controversy (shown below, left), garnering over 6,600 likes and 860 retweets in five days. A similar tweet^[13] on that day garnered over 2,200 likes and 440 retweets in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Online Presence

Factorio gained a significant fanbase over the course of its roughly nine-year development cycle.

On November 20th, 2016, YouTuber^[18] DaveMcW posted a video recreating the "Standstorm" music video in Factorio, garnering over 1.2 million views in five years (shown below). The also provided a tutorial on how it was made on the Factorio forums.^[19]

/r/Factorio Subreddit

The Factorio subreddit, /r/Factorio,^[15]^[16] was opened in February 2013 and has gained over 200,000 members as of June 2021. The subreddit works as an official community for the game, and is modderated heavily by the game's developers, including Kovarex. The subreddit is often used to share memes about the game (examples shown below, left and right) as well as showcase playthroughs, mods, and share tips.