Love them or hate them, the ubiquitous “Simulator” games continue to go from strength to strength causing a considerable amount of bemusement that baffles most critics. Traditionally these games feel like harmless fun but some games now give the impression that they can train you to do the real thing.
Simulators of the Surgeon, Goat, Rock or even Grass variety offer gimmicky fun for a few hours, but they are ultimately novelty games with little replay value once the joke has outstayed its welcome, but you could argue that they attempt to inject a little fun into the genre and don’t take themselves too seriously.
Being able to let your imagination run wild and be whoever you wanted to be in another universe has always ensured a healthy amount of escapism in gaming, so it’s something of a surprise to see gamers escaping to play games where they perform everyday jobs complete with mundane tasks.
The Game Awards is a show that advertises itself as celebrating the best and the brightest in the gaming industry, but that claim rings a bit hollow when a relevant part of the gaming industry appears to be excluded.
Niche markets rarely get included in big game awards stuff. And, yes, they are niche markets comparatively. I mean, you run a simulation site, so I get your opinion. But that's just not how the industry works nor does it mean that any simulation games are better than the games that were there.
Niche markets compared to what exactly? Euro Truck Simulator 2 has more active players than the overwhelming majority of the nominees. And I mean *all* the nominees, not only the categories that apply.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024 has millions of players as well.
The "niche" is perception, but it has no foundation in reality.
Incidentally, no part of this article speaks of "better" or worse. The point is that The Game Awards should honor the gaming industry as a whole (niches included) instead of excluding whole genres and penalizing others.
None of those games are 2025 releases. People are playing a 2012 game more than other newer simulation games. I can't imagine why those games are still niche or not in the a game awards for mainstream gamers.
And, like all mainstream competitions, TGAs are popularity contests for the popular games. Niche games that are held back by people playing older games just aren't going to make that popularity contest.
Edit: And I'm not sitting here saying people aren't playing Simulation games, but in the mainstream they absolutely are niche games. CSGo is also niche, and that gets more players than most games every year. The fact is that more players are playing more games overall than these games. Those games maintain a base, but we're talking about playing new games.
No Man's Sky isn't a 2025 release. Final Fantasy XIV isn't a 2025 release, etcetera, etcetera.
Besides the silliness of crushing strategy and simulation games in the same award, since they have absolutely nothing to do with each other, the article is about the award categories that are not limited to this year, neither of which was won by a 2025 game.
***No Man's Sky isn't a 2025 release. Final Fantasy XIV isn't a 2025 release, etcetera, etcetera. ***
Bad faith argument. Those are for the 'ongoing games' category, which specifically aren't limited to current year release games but any games receiving ongoing support/content. You chose the one award that isn't based on being released in 2025 to try and make an argument. And I am talking about the entirety of the genre as it is seen by the mainstream, including why it stays niche because it doesn't see popular releases of new games on a regular basis. Sure, there's no content for those games, but it's for the same players that aren't growing or demanding new games to get in front of new people. This can be said of NMS as well, but it's more in the eye of the mainstream than simulation games, even if less people are playing it.
***the article is about the award categories that are not limited to this year***
From the article: "As the headline says, The Game Awards have a simulation problem, and the tip of the iceberg is the absolutely absurd “Best Sim/Strategy Game” category."
Followed by 10 paragraphs talking about this alone. Please don't act like you didn't make this a huge portion of your article, let alone the first portion of it.
Do you know what the "tip of the iceberg" means?
The part about the current category is *exactly* one third of the article, while the part about the ongoing categories is exactly two thirds (and it's not "one award," it's two).
So no. It's not a "huge portion," and even if it was, that does not remove any validity from the argument that simulation and strategy games should not be bunched in the same category.
Not only are neither simulation games nor strategy games really "niche" but they're very prolific genres, and they have very little to do with each other.
Simulation games don't include just simulaTORS. They include a wide variety of games from Flight Simulator to The Sims. Is The Sims "niche" as well? 😂
Simulation games are absolutely less niche in general than games that have their own category, like fighting games.
1/3 is a big portion of an article. C'mon now. Let alone the first part of it.
And I've said my piece on why. You are arguing against mainstream, I'm telling you mainstream isn't listening and The Game Awards is not going to be about equality but the mainstream. Just look at the game trailers shown during it.
I have nothing else to say or defend, so I'll leave it at that.
You say I'm "arguing against the mainstream" like the mainstream shouldn't be argued against.
I beg to differ. It's called "the Game Awards" and not "The Mainstream Awards." I may be old, but I'm not old enough to think that things should not be said just because the other side isn't listening.
Peace.
***You say I'm "arguing against the mainstream" like the mainstream shouldn't be argued against. ***
I didn't say that. I'm saying why it's not happening. You can argue, no one said you couldn't. But, let's be honest, the arguments you make aren't changing the mainstream at all.
Simple question: why didn't a single simulation game have a trailer at TGAs if they want the mainstream to see them?
If the industry of simulation games, which is far spanning, isn't putting in the effort to be seen, arguing is just that and not progress.
Also, I think you're taking my words as if I'm attacking you or your support of simulators in some way. I'm just saying what is what. This is the world we live in. This is how mainstream works. Indies still build the future of gaming in almost every way, which includes a ton of simulators. I mean, we have survival games with intense building mechanics because of simulators. But that doesn't change that mainstream is mainstream and the only way to get into it, IMHO, is to put yourself out there at events like TGA. No Man's Sky has that name recognition because of their association with Sony, and thereby the drama that has unfolded since there and yadda yadda yadda. I'm not seeing the same with the new games out there. And it's harder. But I'm not seeing it.
First of all, Ace Combat 8 was revealed at the TGA, it's a simulator-lite, but still a simulator.
Of course, that's besides the point, unless you're telling me it's ok for The Game Awards to nominate only games that pay them to put trailers on.
That'd also be besides the point, mind you, because the nominations are decided by journalists and influencers in the jury, and if gaming journalists are ignorant about a non-insignificant chunk of the industry, that's on them, not on the developers. Finding out about games is their *job.* Not that most of them do it well, unfortunately, but that's exactly part of my point. The ignorance of the genre displayed by mainstream gaming media is inexcusable.
If simulators are so niche and invisible, how is it that big mainstream IPs work with them? Microsoft Flight Simulator just had an insanely good Stranger Things crossover, and a Jurassic World one just a month or so ago. They also had Dune and Top Gun: Maverick.
I don't know many *mainstream* games out there that line up that kind of high-level collabs.
Ultimately, the problem is simple, and not very nice to say. 99% of mainstream gaming journalism nowadays is SEO-driven trash (and I know this for a fact). It isn't surprising that those who work on it (and get to vote for nominations and awards) don't know what's beyond two inches from their noses.
They don't write about the games they're passionate about. They write what their SEO dude behind the scenes tells them to write, so their industry expertise, if it ever existed, has long been forgotten.
Most of these Oscar winning films are incredibly niche at least these last few years, with only a few hundred thousand to a couple million viewers if they're lucky.
Hmm. I could see a best sim or ongoing sim category. They already have esports and streamer awards, which I couldn’t care less about. Tit for tat!
Best simulation game definitely needs its own category. Grouping it with strategy is a disservice to the developers of both genres.
That's part of it, yes. If you advertise yourself as representing the gaming industry, ignoring and penalizing big chunks of it certainly weakens that claim.
I'm not sure what part of that is unclear.
I'm honestly sure how that's hard to understand.
By mashing together two major genres, their developers have half the chances of being nominated.
Which is ridiculous if one thinks that fighting games, which only have a handful of releases a year, have their own award, so basically *everyone* gets a nomination, including compilations of old rereleased games lol.
Stop acting like such a pretentious condescending weirdo dude
People disagree with you, you realise you're not factually right? That people can understand and also disagree?
Not giving something does not equal penalising
Not giving something that you give to others in excess is the very definition of penalizing.
Some believe that simulators aren't popular, but Euro Truck Simulator 2, among others, certainly proves them wrong.
SCS Software released a new DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2, and it's Forest Machinery, similar to the DLC already available for ATS.
