Oh I've played these for years. I've got ~800 hours in powerwash simulator; 300 in viscera cleanup detail, 500 in house flipper. I've played the arcane library and I just finished octobuster...
Oh I've played these for years. I've got ~800 hours in powerwash simulator; 300 in viscera cleanup detail, 500 in house flipper.
I've played the arcane library and I just finished octobuster (pretty fun, but took me <10 hours so eh.)
The reason you're seeing these mess cleanup games is because they're all clones from the arcane library, which is just a derivative off house flipper, which is just a derivative of the single most played game in history (even if we don't have any records of it I'm still 100% sure of this): The Sims. A few years ago I did a rough estimate of the hours I put in the Sims, which I've been playing since I was 9ish - so 23 years (Jesus I'm old now) - and came to about 15.000 hours. Conservatively. None of them online, so there's not a record of it like there is with WoW or those types of games. That's the case for basically every single woman my age that I know.
Anyway.
A cleanup game is a simulator game is a life sim.
Why is it fun? Same reason gardening can be fun, or the dishes can be fun: Turn off brain + make dirty thing no longer dirty / make cluttered thing no longer cluttered = zen. I usually have a podcast playing in the background while I play. It's the perfect way for me to relax enough to listen to the podcast, but keep my 'hands' engaged enough to enjoy it fully.
The reason you're seeing a bunch of these clones btw so fast is because it's AI slop and they're reverse engineering the arcane library because that one got very successful. Read any of the reviews on some of these (like a shitty rubber duck one and there's a potion one as well) and people are clocking it.
P.S. in full transparency I didn't watch your YouTube video because I'm in bed and it's late and I knew the answer to the question you're posing because I'm 100% the target audience for these games. So apologies if any of the above is kicking in the door you already opened :D
I kinda skipped over the idea that they're probably easy to make compared to a lot of other types of games. I was more interested in why people chose to play them. I think my conclusions line up...
I kinda skipped over the idea that they're probably easy to make compared to a lot of other types of games. I was more interested in why people chose to play them. I think my conclusions line up pretty well with what you're saying.
The real turning point for me was when I was describing this type of game to my father. At first he reacted as I expected, that this was a silly idea and didn't sound very fun. Then he paused and said "well I guess functionally it's not really any different from a jigsaw puzzle."
I find it so interesting that people always act so surprised that people like playing games about chores, as if people don't usually play games that simulate things they wouldn't enjoy in real...
I find it so interesting that people always act so surprised that people like playing games about chores, as if people don't usually play games that simulate things they wouldn't enjoy in real life.
I don't want to be fighting zombies or aliens or fighting for my life in world war 2, or street racing.
When I was a kid playing the sims, my parents would say things like "you could go clean your room right now, why are you pretending to do it?".
And I'd always be like "I pretend to rob banks, shoot people, and drive down the highway at 160 mph too...".
I'd say that the big difference is that you're usually either simulating an activity that is hard/impossible for a random person to do. Or you're simulating an activity with most of the negative...
I'd say that the big difference is that you're usually either simulating an activity that is hard/impossible for a random person to do. Or you're simulating an activity with most of the negative parts removed.
I can't go out an fly a plane or drive a race car. I could technically rob a bank, but there's some big negative consequences for doing so.
Cleaning/ chore games are things that I could do right now in the room I'm sitting in, and the activity would be very similar in the game as doing it in real life.
It feels like almost overnight, I started seeing tons of games where the only goal or gameplay is just tidying up a big mess. But where did they all come from? And Why are they suddenly so popular?
It feels like almost overnight, I started seeing tons of games where the only goal or gameplay is just tidying up a big mess. But where did they all come from? And Why are they suddenly so popular?
There must be something that speaks to humans about bringing order to chaos. I do not like cluttered messes in my personal life and feel the need to organize and arrange things in both my house...
There must be something that speaks to humans about bringing order to chaos. I do not like cluttered messes in my personal life and feel the need to organize and arrange things in both my house and my digital life. Maybe this is also why puzzles are popular?
Puzzles are problem solving, I think. It's different from organizing/tidying up (writing as someone who likes the one but not the other). But I do think different humans enjoy these different...
Puzzles are problem solving, I think. It's different from organizing/tidying up (writing as someone who likes the one but not the other). But I do think different humans enjoy these different constructive skills.
I generally don't play them, but i get the appeal. Using a power washer IRL is incredibly satisfying. It's also wet, dirty, and depending on weather, cold. Playing a game where I got a similar...
I generally don't play them, but i get the appeal. Using a power washer IRL is incredibly satisfying. It's also wet, dirty, and depending on weather, cold. Playing a game where I got a similar satisfying feeling without the physical labor and setup+tear down? Yes, I get it.
I think that, in a way, the two best-selling games of all time are essentially clean-up/bring-order-to-chaos style games: Tetris and Minecraft. Tetris is a game where you try to keep your board...
I think that, in a way, the two best-selling games of all time are essentially clean-up/bring-order-to-chaos style games: Tetris and Minecraft.
Tetris is a game where you try to keep your board clear by sorting and matching shapes to stack neatly, with bonuses for clearing a lot at a time. It's (to a certain point of view) like a cleaning game that gives bonuses for completing batches of tasks.
Meanwhile, depending heavily on how you play it, Minecraft can be a straight-up material sorting game as well. Of course, there's the occasional monster in your way, and a quest here or there, but most of my playtime was spent digging a mine and sorting out the spoils.
People just like bringing order to chaos.
Also, there's something to be said for the vicarious enjoyment to be had in completing concrete tasks with clear objectives to a scorable standard with little nuance and a clear end, versus real life where energy levels can be hard to manage, where attrition and scope creep make goals really hard to meet, and where the work is never really done and messing it up can have real-life consequences.
I'm a neat freak who likes my stuff very well organized and tidy. My house is a mess, my garage a disaster area. Why? I'm often too tired and overwhelmed to complete the seemingly neverending series of tasks it takes to fix those problems, all while maintaining what I have fixed. Much easier and more satisfying in some ways to reorganize my chests and tidy up my farms in Minecraft instead.
Oh I've played these for years. I've got ~800 hours in powerwash simulator; 300 in viscera cleanup detail, 500 in house flipper.
I've played the arcane library and I just finished octobuster (pretty fun, but took me <10 hours so eh.)
The reason you're seeing these mess cleanup games is because they're all clones from the arcane library, which is just a derivative off house flipper, which is just a derivative of the single most played game in history (even if we don't have any records of it I'm still 100% sure of this): The Sims. A few years ago I did a rough estimate of the hours I put in the Sims, which I've been playing since I was 9ish - so 23 years (Jesus I'm old now) - and came to about 15.000 hours. Conservatively. None of them online, so there's not a record of it like there is with WoW or those types of games. That's the case for basically every single woman my age that I know.
Anyway.
A cleanup game is a simulator game is a life sim.
Why is it fun? Same reason gardening can be fun, or the dishes can be fun: Turn off brain + make dirty thing no longer dirty / make cluttered thing no longer cluttered = zen. I usually have a podcast playing in the background while I play. It's the perfect way for me to relax enough to listen to the podcast, but keep my 'hands' engaged enough to enjoy it fully.
The reason you're seeing a bunch of these clones btw so fast is because it's AI slop and they're reverse engineering the arcane library because that one got very successful. Read any of the reviews on some of these (like a shitty rubber duck one and there's a potion one as well) and people are clocking it.
P.S. in full transparency I didn't watch your YouTube video because I'm in bed and it's late and I knew the answer to the question you're posing because I'm 100% the target audience for these games. So apologies if any of the above is kicking in the door you already opened :D
I kinda skipped over the idea that they're probably easy to make compared to a lot of other types of games. I was more interested in why people chose to play them. I think my conclusions line up pretty well with what you're saying.
The real turning point for me was when I was describing this type of game to my father. At first he reacted as I expected, that this was a silly idea and didn't sound very fun. Then he paused and said "well I guess functionally it's not really any different from a jigsaw puzzle."
I find it so interesting that people always act so surprised that people like playing games about chores, as if people don't usually play games that simulate things they wouldn't enjoy in real life.
I don't want to be fighting zombies or aliens or fighting for my life in world war 2, or street racing.
When I was a kid playing the sims, my parents would say things like "you could go clean your room right now, why are you pretending to do it?".
And I'd always be like "I pretend to rob banks, shoot people, and drive down the highway at 160 mph too...".
Well? Have you robbed your first bank yet? How much longer will we have to wait?
for GTA6
I'd say that the big difference is that you're usually either simulating an activity that is hard/impossible for a random person to do. Or you're simulating an activity with most of the negative parts removed.
I can't go out an fly a plane or drive a race car. I could technically rob a bank, but there's some big negative consequences for doing so.
Cleaning/ chore games are things that I could do right now in the room I'm sitting in, and the activity would be very similar in the game as doing it in real life.
It feels like almost overnight, I started seeing tons of games where the only goal or gameplay is just tidying up a big mess. But where did they all come from? And Why are they suddenly so popular?
There must be something that speaks to humans about bringing order to chaos. I do not like cluttered messes in my personal life and feel the need to organize and arrange things in both my house and my digital life. Maybe this is also why puzzles are popular?
Puzzles are problem solving, I think. It's different from organizing/tidying up (writing as someone who likes the one but not the other). But I do think different humans enjoy these different constructive skills.
I generally don't play them, but i get the appeal. Using a power washer IRL is incredibly satisfying. It's also wet, dirty, and depending on weather, cold. Playing a game where I got a similar satisfying feeling without the physical labor and setup+tear down? Yes, I get it.
I think that, in a way, the two best-selling games of all time are essentially clean-up/bring-order-to-chaos style games: Tetris and Minecraft.
Tetris is a game where you try to keep your board clear by sorting and matching shapes to stack neatly, with bonuses for clearing a lot at a time. It's (to a certain point of view) like a cleaning game that gives bonuses for completing batches of tasks.
Meanwhile, depending heavily on how you play it, Minecraft can be a straight-up material sorting game as well. Of course, there's the occasional monster in your way, and a quest here or there, but most of my playtime was spent digging a mine and sorting out the spoils.
People just like bringing order to chaos.
Also, there's something to be said for the vicarious enjoyment to be had in completing concrete tasks with clear objectives to a scorable standard with little nuance and a clear end, versus real life where energy levels can be hard to manage, where attrition and scope creep make goals really hard to meet, and where the work is never really done and messing it up can have real-life consequences.
I'm a neat freak who likes my stuff very well organized and tidy. My house is a mess, my garage a disaster area. Why? I'm often too tired and overwhelmed to complete the seemingly neverending series of tasks it takes to fix those problems, all while maintaining what I have fixed. Much easier and more satisfying in some ways to reorganize my chests and tidy up my farms in Minecraft instead.