this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023
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If you're talking video (not board) games, I think most the games I played were kind of a mix of good and bad. I mean they usually start out pretty well but then end up being repetitive and boring. If I ever have to play another farm sim where I'm required to craft things in some convoluted way that makes no sense, I'll chuck my game system out the nearest window. Why does "Stardew Valley" get it totally right, and the rest not get it right at all? OK yes I play mostly casual games, but the real "gems" are few and far between. Still waiting for another good sim that isn't more work than it is fun.
You say that like it's something to be ashamed of. "Casual" is an underrated genre, because sometimes, it's nice to just take your time and enjoy the experience. Life has enough complexities that escaping to a world of simplicity and calm can be truly rewarding.
Well to be truthful, it feels like people DO put casual gaming in sort of a "not really serious" category. And that's somewhat true; I don't like overly complicated games that have tons of drop down menus you can't even read onscreen (tiny fonts). I've always been more into puzzle or even sim games because there is no platforming usually (I SUCK SO MUCH AT PLATFORMING!). I love casual games because they usually are easy going, I can play for 20 minutes or an hour, it's up to me.
Oh, for sure. But so what if it's "not really serious?" Isn't that kind of the point of the Casual genre? Play the games you like; don't listen to a bunch of tryhard, self-important gatekeepers.
That's a good point. I mean, why should games not be as unserious as possible? That's one thing that always kind of bothered me about video game evolution. At first, it was this little square dot you swatted with a white "paddle"; my family bought that system and I was about eighteen.
I've been a video game addict since and probably have owned every system at one time. But I really hoped to see it grow in the direction of fun but other the top sim games and casual but engrossing puzzle games, not so much in the direction of let's go shoot people and kill as many other sim-humans as we can.
Not that's there's anything wrong with that! I mean, I have a special love for the God of War games, but to me those are so crazy with mythological creatures and stuff that it really appeals to me more than, say, GTA type games.
The beauty of it is gaming is all of those things! There's something for everyone, even down to revisiting old formats (see Moonring).
That's so true! It's kind crazy to me how many new games are in the jagged style of old arcade games (pixelated). I think the old and new all have a place in gaming, but -- I can't keep up with all the new consoles. I mean, I really don't want to have to get a PS5. But - i don't want to be left in the pixelated dust of yesteryear either!!
I think it's because Stardew has a lot of RPG elements. Developing relationships with the townspeople (romantic and friendship), figuring out the lore, etc. Lots of games that try to replicate Stardew do the farming / labor stuff and call it quits. I know there are probably some people that go into that game only doing farming, but most people I've met who are fans of it like the lore stuff.
That's one thing Stardew does right. But also, it gets the "labor mechanics" right; there aren't a ton of drop down menus to navigate through, your tools are right there on the bottom tab. And also, amazingly - and astonishingly - it GIVES you the basic farm tools you need right off the bat! You can start a farm without much explanation and zero aggravation. If you need upgrades, you just pay for them and yes, there's some material gathering to make buildings, but someone else does the actual construction. To me that's great because then I can go fight blobs in the mines or fish or visit the other residents.
If you don't want gaming to feel like work, maybe stop playing labor simulators. Like, isn't the point of those games to make you feel like your working whatever job they're "simulating"?
Clearly there are some games that do it better.
Oh sure go and be all logical about it. :/ You're right though, and I do try to stay away from labor simulators (which is a better name for them than gaming simulators, since there's not much fun in them if you ask me). Even Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing get very tedious doing the same chores every day all day long - maybe it's just my adult ADHD acting up.
this is such a mood. i’m still waiting for the next stardew valley.
Me too! And why after all this time, isn't there a Stardew 2? I know he's busy with Haunted Chocolatier, which makes me salivate for many reasons - but I dunno if I'll ever live long enough to see it come out for realsies.
I am not an expert on SDV, but my wife plays basically every HM-like out there, and her take is that Barone focused so heavily on the 'economy' balance in SDV that all of the activities feel like they're worth doing, so it doesn't become "only farming", or "only adventuring", etc, like many others do. Even just picking up wild plants feels worth it when you drop them in the sale bin in the evening.
I think that's true and one reason I like SDV so much. There isn't a lot of time spent on material gathering, and you don't have to craft your own tools or make your own buildings. I think those things COULD be fun if they weren't so complicated in so many sim games - I could not make heads or tails out of the crafting mechanics in "My Time at Portia," for example. I think if you're goingg to task the gamer with those things, they should be very easy to do, because most people don't want to waste time on mundane chores and drawn out searches for rare materials or who knows what the game requires (in many cases I simply have no idea what the game is wanting from me!).
I think MTaP and to a lesser extent MTaS both really carried over a lot of the complexity from Planet Explorers, Pathea's first game they released internationally. It's a survival crafting game, with a LOT of complexity (e.g. manual, voxel-based weapon and vehicle designs). I don't think it worked well in combination with other systems like farming being very underdeveloped (in MTaP especially).
What is MTaP and MTaS? *(sorry for my ignorance). Are they available on Switch? Or just PC? Just curious.
My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock (sequel). They're both on Switch.
Oh OK - sheesh, I shoulda known that. I've seen My Time at Sandrock and it's available on Switch, but I'm afraid to check it out because I hated MTaP so much.
Yeah, if you didn't enjoy MTaP I wouldn't recommend it. :)
Thanks for letting me know, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't. Instead I'll end up wasting my money on something else that looks good and then I end up hating : (