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I don't play Farming Simulator (though an older copy of it is sitting in my steam library)... I do play American Truck Simulator. For ATS, there's a certain re

by shagie 4y ago

I don't play Farming Simulator (though an older copy of it is sitting in my steam library)... I do play American Truck Simulator. For ATS, there's a certain relaxing of "just driving". You've got a goal, and simple, well defined tasks - go here, pick up the load, go there, deliver the load. The 'go there' part is largely an autopilot of a few decades of driving experience with a bit of "ok, this is different" when dealing with something that has a large trailer. For the most part, its something I can play without needing to do any deeper problem solving. To that end, the game is relaxing. With the nature of the game, its also something that one can "do" - there are few impossible tasks unlike what one encounters with a day job. The consequences for not completing something is a few points however they are measured - but rarely game ending (and in many cases, that's resolved with a save file). It is about getting something 'realistic' done in today's world of ever increasing demands. (very late edit) My current gaming binge is Hardspace Ship Breaker - which is a game about being a shipbreaker for space ships. Its got the "this can be routine" (though if you mess up the reactor it can get very interesting very fast). Ship breaking ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_breaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_breaking ) is in the category of most dangerous jobs and space ships are obviously not realistic. But it's the game that you can just get into the grove and do. One of the best things about the game (for me) is that it is 15 minute shifts. So you can easily say "I'll play this game for 15 minutes on lunch break" and as long as you stick to one shift, that's 15 minutes. The shift ends and its done.

bm3719 4y ago
I feel the same about ATS. In fact, I wish it was even more boring, like real driving is. ATS has an unrealistic amount of curves and shortens the distances between cities that in real life would take many hours to travel between. It also is devoid of any of the (often catastrophic) downsides of making a mistake in real life. Turns out driving can be relaxing and fun if you remove anxiety involving death, injury, and property damage. Perhaps the same applies to farming sims.
- mr_cyborg 4y ago
  You need to check out Desert Bus.
  - m463 4y ago
    lol > The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). The feat requires eight hours of continuous play in real time to complete. > If the player makes it to Las Vegas, one point is scored. The player has the option to make the return trip to Tucson for another point, a decision which must be made in a few seconds or the game ends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_...
    - int_19h 4y ago
      For a more playable experience: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1017180/The_Long_Drive/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1017180/The_Long_Drive/
- jackcosgrove 4y ago
  > In fact, I wish it was even more boring, like real driving A realistic driving simulator from Omaha to Cheyenne would be pretty boring, I'll give you that.
  - Tade0 4y ago
    How about from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada?
    - tialaramex 4y ago
      Note that in reality this is probably rather less boring than Desert Bus makes it look because the game deliberately over-simplifies the route. For a start Phoenix is in between Tucson and Las Vegas, but if you head that way you're also going over the Hoover Dam which is a bit more interesting than Desert Bus. Now, you could head south of Phoenix, and mostly avoid anything interesting, but you still have a few intersections and so on, this is not one endless road into the desert. Which isn't to say it'd be a compelling experience, even the Hoover Dam route would be extremely boring for most of the duration.
      - Tade0 4y ago
        Well, I sure hope it's more interesting than the game portrays because this an item on my bucket list.
  - kurupt213 4y ago
    What I can’t believe is that people will fly commercial routes from NY to Australia in real time in MS flight simulator…and that other people set up ATC, and pass the jets from ATC to ATC.
Teknoman117 4y ago
Its obviously not as light on the problem solving, but this is why I keep playing Kerbal Space Program. I'll admit, I play with the Mechjeb autopilot for doing most maneuvers because they get so repetitive. But it's fun to have an alarm clock full of different missions and switching between the different things you have in progress. Then I ran out of places to go so I wrote (and eventually handed off) the Kopernicus mod to allow for more planets to be added and the community keeps making more interesting places to go!
- ok_dad 4y ago
  One of my favorite things in KSP a while back used to be building whole communications systems to slowly blanket the system with automated rovers and ships. I would program flight computers using mods on them and never actually controlled any of them directly at all. It was pretty easy to program missions where you did standard "take off, go into orbit, transfer to another body, land, detach rover..." etc. I miss that, and perhaps I need to invest in a gaming PC again and sell my console before PS5's are ubiquitous in stores.
Animats 4y ago
> The shift ends and its done. The main good feature of blue-collar work.
- shagie 4y ago
  Part of the plot background is about unionization. And you don't need to be blue collar. When I was working tech support, I got in, signed in and that's when I started. At the end of the day, I signed out and that was the end. I worked the "east" shift at SGI in '98. East covered the phones from 5am to 9am with each person taking 2h in that range (mine was 7am to 9am) and then we did callbacks from 9am to 1pm or so (depending on when you started). Central picked up the new calls at 9am and covered the new calls from 9am to 1pm and then west picked up live calls from 1pm to 5pm - I'm not sure how the different teams did their coverage. Anyways, the thing was at 3pm when I signed out I was done done. I didn't have niggling problems of tech support haunting my mind (compare to being a SDE) or trying to get ahead of the curve of technologies that management will ask about. And the "not worrying about those things" - that was my most productive personal programming time that I've ever had. I have gotten better over the decades at coding - both in the code itself and the use of larger systems... but in terms of quantity and satisfaction of things done, that was the best time.
blarg1 4y ago
The only games I want to play nowadays are games that I can relax on, though I'm not really sure what makes a game relaxing. Those games who's primary purpose is to be relaxing look quite boring. As for driving I been playing dirt rally 2, where I drive at a comfortable pace.

by shagie 4y ago

bm3719 4y ago

I feel the same about ATS. In fact, I wish it was even more boring, like real driving is. ATS has an unrealistic amount of curves and shortens the distances between cities that in real life would take many hours to travel between. It also is devoid of any of the (often catastrophic) downsides of making a mistake in real life. Turns out driving can be relaxing and fun if you remove anxiety involving death, injury, and property damage. Perhaps the same applies to farming sims.

mr_cyborg 4y ago
You need to check out Desert Bus.
- m463 4y ago
  lol > The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). The feat requires eight hours of continuous play in real time to complete. > If the player makes it to Las Vegas, one point is scored. The player has the option to make the return trip to Tucson for another point, a decision which must be made in a few seconds or the game ends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_...
  - int_19h 4y ago
    For a more playable experience: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1017180/The_Long_Drive/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1017180/The_Long_Drive/
jackcosgrove 4y ago
> In fact, I wish it was even more boring, like real driving A realistic driving simulator from Omaha to Cheyenne would be pretty boring, I'll give you that.
- Tade0 4y ago
  How about from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada?
  - tialaramex 4y ago
    Note that in reality this is probably rather less boring than Desert Bus makes it look because the game deliberately over-simplifies the route. For a start Phoenix is in between Tucson and Las Vegas, but if you head that way you're also going over the Hoover Dam which is a bit more interesting than Desert Bus. Now, you could head south of Phoenix, and mostly avoid anything interesting, but you still have a few intersections and so on, this is not one endless road into the desert. Which isn't to say it'd be a compelling experience, even the Hoover Dam route would be extremely boring for most of the duration.
    - Tade0 4y ago
      Well, I sure hope it's more interesting than the game portrays because this an item on my bucket list.
- kurupt213 4y ago
  What I can’t believe is that people will fly commercial routes from NY to Australia in real time in MS flight simulator…and that other people set up ATC, and pass the jets from ATC to ATC.

Teknoman117 4y ago

Its obviously not as light on the problem solving, but this is why I keep playing Kerbal Space Program. I'll admit, I play with the Mechjeb autopilot for doing most maneuvers because they get so repetitive. But it's fun to have an alarm clock full of different missions and switching between the different things you have in progress. Then I ran out of places to go so I wrote (and eventually handed off) the Kopernicus mod to allow for more planets to be added and the community keeps making more interesting places to go!

ok_dad 4y ago
One of my favorite things in KSP a while back used to be building whole communications systems to slowly blanket the system with automated rovers and ships. I would program flight computers using mods on them and never actually controlled any of them directly at all. It was pretty easy to program missions where you did standard "take off, go into orbit, transfer to another body, land, detach rover..." etc. I miss that, and perhaps I need to invest in a gaming PC again and sell my console before PS5's are ubiquitous in stores.

Animats 4y ago

> The shift ends and its done. The main good feature of blue-collar work.

shagie 4y ago
Part of the plot background is about unionization. And you don't need to be blue collar. When I was working tech support, I got in, signed in and that's when I started. At the end of the day, I signed out and that was the end. I worked the "east" shift at SGI in '98. East covered the phones from 5am to 9am with each person taking 2h in that range (mine was 7am to 9am) and then we did callbacks from 9am to 1pm or so (depending on when you started). Central picked up the new calls at 9am and covered the new calls from 9am to 1pm and then west picked up live calls from 1pm to 5pm - I'm not sure how the different teams did their coverage. Anyways, the thing was at 3pm when I signed out I was done done. I didn't have niggling problems of tech support haunting my mind (compare to being a SDE) or trying to get ahead of the curve of technologies that management will ask about. And the "not worrying about those things" - that was my most productive personal programming time that I've ever had. I have gotten better over the decades at coding - both in the code itself and the use of larger systems... but in terms of quantity and satisfaction of things done, that was the best time.

blarg1 4y ago

The only games I want to play nowadays are games that I can relax on, though I'm not really sure what makes a game relaxing. Those games who's primary purpose is to be relaxing look quite boring. As for driving I been playing dirt rally 2, where I drive at a comfortable pace.