Rise of the Simulations: Why We Play At Hard Work
Rise of the Simulations: Why We Play At Hard Work
Rise of the Simulations: Why We Play At Hard Work
By Ian Williams
March 04, 2021
Summary
The hobbyist simulations tended to shave off the connections to work involved with piloting big vehicles in favor of focusing exclusively on their mechanical workings.
More interesting, and in stark contrast to their predecessors, the current crop is inextricably tied up in notions of work.
Work sims are still niche in the sense that there's not a massive movement in gaming culture clamoring for them, as you see with RPGs, turn-based strategy games, and the like.
In it, players drive old Soviet era work vehicles around expansive, dark forests.
There's a minor phenomenon surrounding ironic videos of work simulations.
There's something about the sudden spikes of popularity when a good work sim, like Spintires or Euro Truck Simulator 2, hits which speaks to a craving for the tangible mundaneness of work we can touch and feel.
We live in a post-industrial America, one where old notions of alienation of labor have been made to seem not radical enough by half through the increasing abstraction of our work.
As bad as many of our cities are, the spaces between them are crippled by a calculated abandonment of available work outside of Wal-Mart clerking and fast food assembly.
Or maybe the work simulations and their simple, blue collar vision of work which is increasingly vanishing in large sections of the country speak to a deep dissatisfaction in how and why we work.
None of which is to say that there is an impending flood of work simulations poised to rule the PC sales charts.
Reference
Williams, I. (2021, March 04). Rise of the simulations: Why we play at hard work. Retrieved June 03, 2021, from https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/simulation-games/rise-of-the-simulations-why-we-play-at-hard-work-1/