Who's the target audience for bad simulator games?

[teebeeohh]

well the farm games are really popular among German farmers. really. I spoke to some poeple who play it once and they basically said that they like it because it's relaxing and it's an activity they can relate to. And I kinda would get trains, demolition and fire fighter of they were actually good but there is one company that puts out a few not-terrible titles a year and once company that puts out a shitload of terrible games that are frequently broken and only sell because they sound interesting. I guess they make money because the production value is so low that they only need to sell a few thousand copies.
and really nobody gets it here either, those things frequently top the charts of brick and mortar stores, even in cod month. I guess it's a super casual thing.

oh and even more absurd, there quite the active modding scene for some games, which usually means people include more vehicles and stuff.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

Some of them are actually converted virtual training programs (Fuerwehr simulator, for example), released as commercial games for some extra profit.

I am not really that surprised that there is a niche market for it, tbh. There are stranger things in the world.

 

[Fbuh]

Diehard enthusiasts and people ove rthe age fo 50. For instance, my brother likes playing flight simulators, but not really the terrible ones, so nevermind...

 

[Jazoni89]

I dunno, but they sure as hell make great Wubstep montages.

SUPER TRIPLE X RATED!!!


haha, I love it.

I do admit though, I've always wanted the try the Demolition simulator, that actually seems like a load of fun.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

German people buy them unless it's a hunting simulation then people from the USA buy them. In Germany learning a skill or trade is seen as good aspirational thing like as in the USA getting drunk and shooting wild animals is.

As a matter of fact, in the US those games are frowned upon by hunters. It's like how an actual Top Gun pilot views jet combat on BF3.

Also, getting hammered before touching a weapon is VERY frowned upon by gun owners everywhere.

I am an European and at least I don't pretend to know everything about other cultures, so I don't think anyone has the excuse to cling on unfunny stereotypes.

Now excuse me while I call Germans nazis and claim that every British person knows the Queen.

You seem very serious about this so where is your evidence to back up your busting of the stereotype that people who like to shoot guns also like to drink heavily? A quick google search quickly gives me references to studies showing that gun owners in the US are much more likely to be heavy drinkers and that gun incidents are often linked to alcohol.

 

[ElPatron]

that gun incidents are often linked to alcohol.

That's exactly why it is frowned upon. Ask any driver if it's cool to get drunk and then drive.

Compare the number of accidental firearm deaths to the number of estimated gun owners.

 

[Squidbulb]

I remember really liking Roller Coaster Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon as a kid. Or are you talking about different games?

This post is more about games like Train Simulator, not awesome games like Zoo Tycoon. You know, the ones that are realistic and don't have dinosaurs in them.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

that gun incidents are often linked to alcohol.

That's exactly why it is frowned upon. Ask any driver if it's cool to get drunk and then drive.

Compare the number of accidental firearm deaths to the number of estimated gun owners.

I wasn't being positive about it myself but it people getting drunk with guns is something that happens enough in the US for it to be something that happens even if many people frown on it. It's like saying downloading movies from pirate bay doesn't happen because the MPAA frowns on it.

 

[ElPatron]

It's like saying downloading movies from pirate bay doesn't happen because the MPAA frowns on it.

People have pirated the shit out of copyrighted content since the days of cassette tapes. If instead of people who pirated for their whole life we had people that would outright stop talking to you if you were a pirate, you wouldn't do it.

Because that's what happens in the US. Getting hammered/high and shooting can lead to confrontations and people try to avoid that.

Now I'll go to Italy and say they are lazy pricks and have the world's worse cuisine.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

I once played a war simulator game, and it was just awful.

I think it was called Call of Duty.

Ehhh heh... I really hope you aren't serious in thinking Call of Duty is a war simulator. I mean, I actually like CoD, but trust me. Try playing something like Operation Flashpoint, ARMA 2 or hell even Operation Flashpoint 2 (and that one is even berated for being unrealistic in comparison to ARMA and OpFl1) and try to say CoD is a simulator in any shape or form. I dare you...

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OT: Well, believe it or not, there is a market for practically everything these days. If something exists, there will be someone who wants to buy it, no matter how silly said something is...

[small]And, well... I won't lie, ever heard of Euro Truck Simulator [http://www.eurotrucksimulator.com/]?

...

Yeah, I bought it... and as boring as it may sound, it's actually a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. And I don't even like trucks in reality...[/small]

 

[girzwald]

I once played a war simulator game, and it was just awful.

I think it was called Call of Duty.

Ehhh heh... I really hope you aren't serious in thinking Call of Duty is a war simulator. I mean, I actually like CoD, but trust me. Try playing something like Operation Flashpoint, ARMA 2 or hell even Operation Flashpoint 2 (and that one is even berated for being unrealistic in comparison to ARMA and OpFl1) and try to say CoD is a simulator in any shape or form. I dare you...

------

OT: Well, believe it or not, there is a market for practically everything these days. If something exists, there will be someone who wants to buy it, no matter how silly said something is...

[small]And, well... I won't lie, ever heard of Euro Truck Simulator [http://www.eurotrucksimulator.com/]?

...

Yeah, I bought it... and as boring as it may sound, it's actually a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. And I don't even like trucks in reality...[/small]

Just because there is a market for something doesn't mean its a viable one.

 

[templar1138a]

I'd never play those simulators specifically, but games with similar appeal are the Harvest Moon games and the Sims, and I love those.

 

[Captain Booyah]

I would love an answer to this question. Every time I go and have a gander at PC games, there's always a flood of hilariously bad-looking simulators like Garbage Collector or Road Construction, and I always wonder who the hell buys these things. I'd get one a) just for a laugh, and b) because I'm a connoisseur of crap, but £20 is a ridiculous amount to pay for something that's probably worth about £1.50. Especially when you can buy something actually good like the Orange Box for around £15.

I didn't know the Germans were mad on them, but is there actually a viable market for this stuff in places like the UK and the US? Something like that Train Driver one is understandable, given that there are trainspotters and aficionados and whatnot (and autistic kids, I guess?) but Garbage Collector? Really?

 

[Stu35]

I once played a war simulator game, and it was just awful.

I think it was called Call of Duty.

Ehhh heh... I really hope you aren't serious in thinking Call of Duty is a war simulator.

...


I don't know why I get so irked when people can't tell when stuff is tongue-in-cheek on the Internet. I guess it's kinda hard for such things to be properly conveyed in text... But then, sometimes it's so blindingly obvious that...


... never mind.



Anyway, My dad was proper into Microsoft Flight Simulator when I was a wee bit younger (possibly still is, I dunno), I myself used to play Falcon 4.0 with the SP add-on, that was pretty hardcore... Of course, I had the option of throwing nuclear weapons at North Korea in that game, so it's perhaps not the same as 'Train Simulator'.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I know my father's friend is a train driving trainer, and he saw me playing games and insisted on installing this simulator on my PC 'because I was into stuff like that', and it was a DOS based, mainly text thing, with a layout of stations and you had to activate the points to make sure trains got to stations on time and without crashing. Damn it was tedious, yet he said he enjoyed it, which amazed me when you can get stuff like Railworks now, build and create anything, with many real life journeys created. I'm polite, but I had to try SO hard not to actually slip into a coma as he explained about .....everything.

I just don't get why he'd want to be flicking point switches if that's his day job.

Would be like me working as a fork lift driver in a warehouse for 40 hours a week, and my favourite game was Shenmue.

I wonder if part of it is a guilt thing, perhaps they feel like they're not 'wasting time on games' if it feels 'educational' in some way.

I can only assume there's a company that has a basic engine built, and then they just have to pay someone a couple of week's pay to built a few new 3d models and set some objectives and they have a whole new 'Minimum Wage Manual Labour Simulator' to release.

 

[Private Custard]

I'd imagine it's the same sort of people who bought Microsoft Flight Simulator before it went free to play and, ostensibly, casual. That series used to be a hard core, real time simulator of laying in flight plans and flying commercial airplanes from one city to another. And people not only bought it, but spend hundreds or thousands on complicated joystick, rudder, and throttle setups for it.

Right, you can remove the word 'simulator' from your post. Flight's a total abortion!

And yes, I'm a FSX'er. I've always loved aviation and spend a hell of a lot of time creating videos and edited screenshots. I flew around the world in a Lancaster last summer....in real-time!!

I have a friend on YouTube that I got to know through his flight-sim videos, but now spends a lot of his time on train simulators. It doesn't surprise me that there are people willing to play as a garbage truck driver.

 

[tacotrainwreck]

Clearly, not you. Good enough?

 

[Bobic]

The more important question is who is spending over £1000 on the DLC for this simulator?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

 

[ElPatron]

snip

American beer is almost water, you're mistaking American for Irish stereotypes.

But I love how you talk about cultures you don't know anything about.

Also, your name sounds Nazi so you're obviously a nazi. LOGIC!

The more important question is who is spending over £1000 on the DLC for this simulator?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

People do the same with toy trains.

 

[ElPatron]

Oh yea and so what if I am a nazi.

I'm blowing your logic out of proportion, like saying all blond girls are dumb or that all black people have the IQ of apes. A lot of ignorant people still claim that all Germany is a country of Nazis.

And you're ignorant for thinking like them - and I can excuse ignorance, but being so obnoxious to the point of describing a culture you never came in contact with...?

Plus, France and Germany have the highest humber of registered firearms and shooting is a past-time in any culture that isn't mentally immature. And Germans also drink a lot of beer.

Does that make all Germans gun-tooting drunk Nazis?