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My partner absolutely adores House Flipper a game where you clean up, repair, and decorate derelict houses. She, like the people in this article, really loves
by asciimov 4y ago
My partner absolutely adores House Flipper a game where you clean up, repair, and decorate derelict houses.
She, like the people in this article, really loves this style of game because there is no direct competition. Sure there are tasks to complete and achieve but there is no clock, no angry mobs of people yelling obscenities at you, and no enemies getting in your way while you try and do your thing.
These games are good to veg out with, they give you some of the satisfaction of doing a good job, while keeping you from doing all the hard work.
No it's not my kind of game, but House Flipper is now one of my top three games played on steam (for game time) because my partner uses my steam account for gaming.
- frozenlettuce 4y agoit also seems funnier than passively watching Property Brothers
- asciimov 4y agoOnce you've watched an episode or two of the Property Brothers, you have really seen them all. Their style, along with the rest of the HGTV style, is starting to look tired and dated.
- vorpalhex 4y agoMy game library falls into two categories - very engaging active games (Battlefield, Tarkov, etc) and very passive games like Keplerth or The Hunter. Sometimes you want to feel an adrenaline rush. Sometimes you just want to tend a garden or walk a forest.
- ishjoh 4y ago> Sometimes you just want to tend a garden or walk a forest I do both of these things a fair amount IRL, I'm not trying to single you out I just want to understand motivations for playing these games, is there a reason you do these activities in a game as opposed to IRL?
- ohwellhere 4y agoDo you sometimes like to eat apples and sometimes like to eat oranges?
- RC_ITR 4y agoIf the goal is visual evidence of accomplishment, then one gives you that while relaxing the other gives you that while bending over and tiring out your core/upper body. I won’t make moralistic judgements on which is better, but I will say all else equal, a lot of people prefer physical passivity.
- LizardsAreCute 4y agoWhile I do go for walks here, the nature in the Netherlands is mostly very boring.
- corrral 4y agoTrue in very large stretches of the US, as well. Though we also have a bunch of huge regions with beautiful, varied, striking natural environments, of course.
- ljp_206 4y agoA few potential reasons: In games the rewards are much more immediate, even if we play a game that requires waiting. Gardens and forests may not be near, available, or accessible when gamers are ready to relax. Gamers may not be physically able to partake in such activities. You might need to pay or buy something (shoes, a car, a park pass, garden mulch, tools...) to participate.
- aaaaaaaaaaab 4y agoTicks.
- corrral 4y agoYou can start a game instantly. No travel. No travel expense, either. No packing. No un-packing. No arranging for someone to watch your pets if it's going to be long enough for that to matter. No dealing with taking the kids with you, or finding some other place for them to be. Your spouse doesn't have to want to go. No spiderwebs on your face. No biting and/or disease-carrying insects. No oppressive humidity. No getting soaked by a sudden rainstorm. No sunburns. No twisting an ankle and having a horrible time getting back out. No taking a wrong turn and ending up having to go much farther than you'd counted on, to get back. Much or all of the game world may be crafted to be interesting. Even very nice natural areas have boring bits, and you can't fast-travel past them. You can do it even if you're injured, or tired. If the game has tasks, they usually have far faster reward loops than their real-life equivalents. The real-life versions might have more clean-up or mess. You have to actually physically do a bunch of stuff where the game might have a button press. You also have to know how to do it, and have the tools (if any) to do it. This is why obsessive players of games that feature gardening or farming usually don't become avid hobby-gardeners in real-life.
- therein 4y ago> Sometimes you want to feel an adrenaline rush. Sometimes you just want to tend a garden or walk a forest. And that's where Rust comes in. You're tending your garden, keeping your base in order and then people come with rockets and C4.
- capableweb 4y agoThe only difference between that and what GP said, is that in Rust you don't have any player agency in deciding when people come after you or not. Switching between adrenaline/calm single-player games, you get to decide at your own pleasure :)
- vogt 4y agoSame exact deal here. I LOVE powerwash simulator mentioned in the article. Also love sweating out hours in payday 2 getting raided by horde after horde of enemies.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- RC_ITR 4y agoOne of the major criticisms of contemporary digital work is that there’s very little tangible/ non-abstract evidence of work product. Even if you just dig ditches, at least you can say “hey I dig these ditches that I now see” at the end of the day. This is very satisfying to our brains. I predict a lot of future recreation will look like “visual evidence of accomplishment without needing the tedious labor required to do the same thing in the physical world.” You can kind of see why Zuck cares so much about the meta verse from that angle, it’s just too bad that he’s so nuerodivergant he’s getting the details wrong.
- m463 4y agoMakes me think of unpacking - a low key game to unpack boxes with a gentle story behind it.
- asciimov 4y agoDang, I'm gonna have to try that soon, after I'm done packing, moving, and unpacking...