Quick thread on apophenia and meaning-making in blaseball's procgen patterns, because it's the weekend and I have time for once.

I've written in my newsletter before about how users tend to pick up on repetition in a simulation, and how they create stories about what those patterns mean. That's apophenia. And apophenia is one of a narrative system designer's best tools. https://catacalypto.substack.com/ 

Because blaseball has a *ton* of individual actions we can focus in on at multiple levels--each team plays 99 games per season--our eyes will inevitably get caught by certain patterns.

For some people, those will be players over/underperforming their reported stars.

For others--like me--it's a particular player's general pattern of behavior when on the field.

It's important to note that this is a vague pattern, not how they behave every at-bat. But once we start noticing patterns, we often focus on what fits more than on what doesn't.

After enough of this, what you tell yourself about those names on a screen has more weight than just the name itself.

Sometimes the stories the community tells about a player (the lore) reinforce these patterns (or vice versa); and sometimes they don't, or they contradict them.

Paula Mason has a habit (that I've noticed) of doing what the Tigers need. She'll hit a sacrifice fly, a double, etc. depending on the situation. This fits with lore's take on her as a tough, cool, heavy-metal-loving older woman.

Is that why I notice times she just gets it done?

But mostly I find myself evaluating tidbits of lore that friends tell me through an apophenic lens. Is the story told what I'm seeing in the simulation?

If it's not, those pieces of lore tend not to stick in my head for very long, and other narratives arise based on what I see.

But when something clicks, it's satisfying. Theodore Duende seems to be captain-by-default of the Seattle Garages, & (I'm told) the most responsible member. He drives the van.

Theodore Duende has the 3rd highest batting average with runners in scoring position on the Garages.

That to me is a story about a captain who feels a responsibility to his team and is just going to get it done. And it's one that I only know because I'm now primed to see the threads that will either support it or debunk it, and I've found enough that I feel it rings true.

Apophenia is incredibly powerful, and there are enough small moments in blaseball that you can tell a number of different stories about them. (Think about the Shoe Thieves' Flinch modification, gained after fighting a god, tanking their 3rd game against the Crabs.)

And interestingly, blaseball has *so much* to sift through that different viewers can have different sorts of apophenic experiences. The fact that blaseball's canon is multiple is supported and reinforced by how its systems intersect and produce a cacophony of meaning.

As a procgen designer, you want to lean into apophenia as much as possible. Blaseball has, to an almost absurd degree. I think some feel pressure, maybe from a feeling of needing to see all the threads: but apophenia means you'll see the ones you care about regardless.

As a designer, you want to be thinking about where the most fruitful places are for those intersections between your systems, and the stories that can emerge from them. Do you find those sorts of stories interesting? Do you think your players will?
/fin