so there was a post a little bit ago which i can't find again (or rather, i THINK i found it but it looks like it might've been deleted, so i don't want to link to the author in case they deleted it for a good reason) which was about, like, "job simulation games," like car mechanic simulator or power wash simulator. I didn't agree with a few of its points, enough that I didnt bother reposting it at the time, but i've been chewing on it since, bc it got at something that bugs me about these kind of games despite me constantly falling for them, which is that they don't actually simulate anything.
like, they're "simulators" but often the simulation is abstracted to the point where you're literally just pointing your mouse in a direction and clicking, or dragging across the screen, or holding down until a meter holds up. Any upgrades you can get to this generally just make it take less time or require less repetitive motion. and this SUCKS, because the reason i keep falling for it and buying these is because i really like the concept of a simulation game! but specifically what i want is stuff that will TEACH me about the thing its simulating-- even if i can't necessarily get a 1:1 experience, games offer a unique experience in that they let you impart what can generally be very dry technical knowledge in the form of puzzles, or with a story to make things interesting, and you can parcel things out in chunks and test ppl before letting them go forward and and and etc!
instead it feels like educational games split into two genres: "simulation" games which are basically just reskins of the same upgrade treadmill, and "educational" apps that use gamification to attempt to pull you back with predatory game design while being of dubious use for actual learning.
this is why dark souls was such a revelation in game design to people when it came out, not (just) because of the lore or the difficulty but because the friction was there specifically to teach you about the mechanics and make sure you knew what you were doing-- not necessarily a new thing in video games, but one which most major AAA games had been moving away from more and more in order to appeal to broader groups of people.
the fact that some of the original sim games were used explicitly as teaching tools in classrooms, like microsoft flight simulator or simant, that's amazing and its something i DESPERATELY would love games to move towards again, because there's SO many things i'd love to learn about when i'm not working and my brain mostly wants to rest but i know i can trick it into learning stuff if its fun.
(note before anyone brings up zachtronics: i love zachtronics games, i want more games like that)
