What are your thoughts on Simulator Games?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Hello everyone 

Farming simulator, Lawn Mowing Simulator, Bus Driver Simulator, VG Collect Moderator Simulator, Ripping the pages out of a 1976 sears roebuck catelog to show your dearest mother the fridge you want for your first apartment on your dads Amex he got from working steel trades for 17 years while saying "aint it a doozie folks?...... simulator, Grassy Gnowl simulator.

Point is it seems they have a simulator for everything. As I am typing this they probably have a simulator where you can play as me and partake in my thought proccess of making the post to begin with.


My main question. Is do you ever enjoy any of the simulation games?


JOB GAMES


Games that have you play the role of a minimum wage jon. Although Job Simulator is the popular one it is perhaps the least zaney. I'm talking bus simulator. I played for about 4 hours before realizing i'm paying to do something that a middle aged anglosaxon protestant grandfather dreads doing every day for work. Mowing lawns? The grind of these games is astronomical. When I say it takes 45 minutes to mow an old ladies lawn. I mean it.  So why not? Idk... go out and mow an old ladies lawn? I feel like yeah theirs some start up costs. But just for sanity sake.


I know some say these games are theraputic to them. I guess in the way crosswords or asmr can be. It's not so much to play a game but to zone out and live a double life.


But in general. What is your opinion on the simulator game genre?

[peggysturtle]

For me it's a winding down thing. I like to play Power Wash and watch old sitcoms when I get home at night. I'm a full-time college student and between school and work, it's nice to come home, relax and do something satisfying. I actually think that's the appeal of these games- the satisfaction. At least with Power Wash and Lawn Mowing.

[sworddude]

Unless ages of empires II counts as some form a simulator It just ain't the genre for me.

It's boring af I'd rather watch paint dry

Most simulator games tend to be super realistic with regular themings such as flight, driving trains or worse mundane tasks 

Never been that into games like the sims either that have more stuff happening to make it less realistic but even there 

In terms of simulation in racing or sports



If it's arcade esk instead

[dhaabi]

It's boring af I'd rather watch paint dry

Ask, and you shall receive. Here is a thrilling let's play video completing it.

[sworddude]

It's boring af I'd rather watch paint dry

Ask, and you shall receive. Here is a thrilling let's play video completing it.

You are a different kind of evil

[alligo]

I'm not a fan of this type of game... I tried euro truck simulator and I don't understand the fun.

Now there are simulators for anything, like homeless drunk. 

[snyderec3]

This was one of my favourite games as a kid, but I was a weird kid.

[sly345]

I tried euro truck simulator and I don't understand the fun.

I try to explain:
- The driving is fun if you have a FF-Wheel. It's definitely not a lot of fun with KB/M or a Controller.
- In American Truck Simulator i just enjoy driving through the US, listening to US radio stations (altough their censorship on classic songs like Money for Nothing gets a bit annoying)
- It's relaxing. Not a game i play every day or every week but every week as a change of pace from all the fast paced action games basically.
- There are multiplayer mods/it has some mp  and driving around with friends is fun but then again, every game is more fun with friends.

As for the job simulator genre:
The only one i play is House Flipper 1 and 2. At least you can be creative there, yes, in a way it's basically like Sims, without the annoying Sims and their life simulation, but the first perspective adds a lot. Designing houses can be fun. Again, it's also relaxing.
On the other hand i don't really understand the more mundane Simulators like Gras Mowing Sim (you do that in House Flipper too and it's the more annoying part) or Power Wash (again, you can do that in House Flipper as well), they are too limited in their scope.
I don't get why that is fun, then again, even the Simpsons made fun of that when Bart & Lisa refused to mow the grass in their back yard but went crazy over the VR Gras Mowing Game...and that was a episode from the 90s before the Simulatore craze!

[turf]

This was one of my favourite games as a kid, but I was a weird kid.

I had it for PC. I played the heck out of it!  I loved that you could take control of the spider and eat all the red ants

[betelgeuse]

I played the power wash sim. There is a certain level of odd satisfaction I get by watching the YouTube vids of power washing. This game just gave me some bad anxiety though. It goes sooooo much slower than in real life. The various angles you need to hit and constant nozzle switching seemed to irritate me.

[randomstranger]

I don't even have any interest in commercial/civilian flight sims and MS Flight Sim was a huge hit. These other budget minimum wage job sims are outright beyond my comprehension why someone would pay to play them. They look/sound relentlessly boring.

But there is the sub-genre of meme games like Goat Simulator, I am bread, Surgeon Simulator and Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage. I think these can be fun short term, but they are mainly made for streamers/gaming youtubers who in turn make them go viral.

[pzeke]

There was a dude that became a pilot after having played a flight simulator, and not only that, but he then ended up studying archaeology, citing Total War and Assassin's Creed as inspiration. Then there are the countless people who've joined the armed forces after having played whatever military game was the flavor of the day. If only taking on plumbing meant I could traverse drainpipes to reach a different world and go on wild escapades, that'd be swell. Granted, I'm aware that just taking a few psi-shrooms will do the trick, but taking on a prehistoric bipedal creature atop a flying fortress sounds adventurous.

Anyway, they're definitely not my cup of tea, or any other type of beverage for that matter, but they certainly have their audience. I do know the military has been using video games, including simulators, as part of their training for years, and there are certain work fields that benefit from them, so they do have their use; I'm sure you can do a simple search and find plenty of info on it. In fact, here's a good write-up that tries to reason their appeal, which in short basically sees simulator games as a form of cathartic cathexis, juxtaposing the two—a placebo of sorts, I guess—or at least that's what I gathered. The article is quite old but still holds up, I believe. That there are a bunch of dumb "simulators" available to the public is a whole different story.

[wartoy]

The only simulation games I played were a flight sim like ace combat or driving sim like grand turismo or forza i never played any job sims.

[pzeke]

Wait. Now that you mention those, yeah, I guess I've played some simulation games, then.

But then again, in the grand scheme of things, aren't all games simulators? Use all the knowledge you acquired playing all those zombie games for when the undead rise from their graves. Take everything you learned from playing Earth Defense Force for when alien creepy crawlers invade Earth. Or make Ryu and Ken your senseis and learn how to fight so that you can get your ass beat in style. The possibilities are endless.

[oliver21]

Simulator games have a unique charm. I enjoy the realistic environment and gameplay, especially in games like Bus Simulator Indonesia, which offers an immersive driving experience. Also, I really liked your blog and this thread’s topic—it’s great to see discussions on simulator games!