Street Sweeper Simulation Is The Epic Fail Of Video Games

The fact that appalling video games are being made should be no surprise -- more or less talented people try their hand at anything, from art to buildings, so as long as we have awful art, awful food, awful clothes, awful cars and awful buildings it would actually be quite surprising if there were no awful video games. In fact, it should be noted that the basic initial investment into creating video games is rather small compared to other products -- you could (and some people actually do) create video games using their own two hands and a computer. Compare that to gadgets for instance (of which quite a lot are dreadful), where you need access to the resources of a factory (e.g. in order to build the gadget's case/keyboard/whatnot). That doesn't come cheap, so you'd think people put a lot of thought into their product before investing into execution -- and yet terrible products are built every day. By comparison, the small initial investment into video games is a reasonable justification for the lack of planning and research.

However, what I do find interesting is the corollary of your observation: being a teenager, I was green with envy thinking about the guys whose day job was reviewing video games. I felt somewhat vindicated reading through the review on Gamespot: the poor reviewer had to actually play through this terrible game in order to describe its shortcomings in detail (and it's obvious that he did play the game -- he describes gameplay details you can't know by reading the manual, e.g. how an undercarriage roller you can purchase at some point during the "campaign" is useless in the game). So yeah, your job can suck even if you're a game reviewer.

There's a rather large community of train simulation geeks...just peruse the simulation list in steam sometime...I would imagine playing with a street sweeper wouldn't be a whole lot less stimulating that cruising along in a train...

Given how many other simulators are out there, 90% of the work has already been done. The investment for making the game is quite small so they only need to sell a small number of copies to make it worthwhile. I suspect that they had the $5 bargain bin next to the checkout in mind when writing it.

The beauty in that link is not Gamespot's review of the game, but the reviews that players have made. There must have been a hyperbole competition. Pretty funny stuff.

Sounds like there'd be more excitement watching prairie dogs ride a Roomba (that does sound familiar). Oh well, at least as far as 'safe for kids' goes, you can't argue about one thing: it's good clean fun :|

Okay, except for the 'good' part. And the 'fun'.

Feodor's comment is superb, thanks to him. My own addition seems feeble now, but I'll just point out that there are dozens of iOS games based on restocking and reordering food, retail goods, services, etc. on some kind of a schedule. Why _not_ cleaning streets?

I think going on about "appalling" video games is probably missing the point.

As you can see, this company makes a lot of these kind of simulation games:

http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/games_sims.htm

I think there's a basic rule that many people's hobbies are going to be incomprehensible to those who aren't into them.

Train buffs like watching trains, for example. You might think that's boring. But even some really gonzo train buffs would scratch their heads at the British hobby of "trainspotting", where you're actually writing down the serial numbers on railroad cars and keeping a log, like someone birdwatching.

So similarly, model railroading might seem incomprehensible to someone who's not into it. But for someone who is, these train simulator programs are probably quite interesting.

Or, say, truck driving simulators. A lot of guys think trucks are cool. They may not ever get a chance to drive an 18-wheeler. But with one of these programs, you can.

These players might be equally mystified why anyone would want to play some 3-D shooter game that involves your character going into a hell dimension and pumping bullets into monsters that burst into gore patterns when shot.

And these players would want a real truck simulator, not something that devolves into GRAND THEFT AUTO mayhem.

And similarly, most of us are never going to drive a bulldozer or operate a giant crane or whatever in real life, so simulators like that could have some appeal.

And even if that doesn't appeal, some of their things like DEMOLITION SIMULATOR, you can probably see the appeal: Get a big old wrecking ball and go to town on some buildings.

Since I've made some simple games myself, I find myself curious about their digging simulator, just from a programming point of view: Making a 3-D environment that you could really go in and start scooping up dirt, sounds pretty complicated.

I note that a lot of these games seem to be European, and specifically German. I think there may be a tendency for these simulations that might seem to be boring things but might appeal to a certain orderly mindset. It might even be meditative to do these sort of ordinary tasks in them.

Even by those standards though, it seems like titles like GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR or STREET CLEANER are pushing it. You might think they're self-parody, but they don't appear to be.

If I were a programmer on them though, I'd think the urge to put in rare Easter Eggs in the game would be overpowering.

You know, the kind of 1 in 10,000 times thing that would cause players to post on messagebases, "I swear, I was playing GARBAGE TRUCK SIMULATOR last night and suddenly this car pulled up in front of the bank and these guys got out and ROBBED THE BANK!"

Only to be roundly derided on these forums, like someone claiming to have seen Bigfoot in the real world.

Wow, I am overwhelmed by the great comments here guys! I really like what you guys have to say, and I guess I hadn't thought about the game from the perspective of a simulation enthusiast. It still sounds awful though, at least according to the gamespot review.

@ algomeysa-great insight, and how great would a crazy easter egg be in an otherwise mundane game?!

@ nick-the game is probably good "clean" fun, but I think most kids would find it boring compared to all the other games on the market. Maybe if this was the first game the kid ever played...

@ feodor-you make some great points, and I agree that having this stinkbomb dropped on your desk would make you rethink your interest in being a professional game reviewer.

@ ted-the player reviews were so funny that I was tempted to check out the game myself! Then I turned on my xbox and forgot all about it...

@ anonymous-i guess i'm just a jaded old gamer, since I enjoy playing games that don't simulate the mundane activities found in real life.

@ jason-i really hope they were planning on ending up in the cheap games bin, because if this was a labor of love then someone's heart was surely broken!

Trainspotters have it easy, their quarry can't even leave the tracks, unlike birds.

The birds are stuck on the tracks, Manticore? That's just cruel.