I have a suspicion most of the people playing these are office workers, wondering what it would feel like to contribute something tangible to society.

[–] 7of9@startrek.website 39 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can't speak for other games, but there's a LOT of former truck drivers who play Snow Runner.

Back when I was working as a forklift driver, when I broke my leg and was stuck at home on the sofa I really enjoyed driving the forklift around in GTA5 and just moving palettes around.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

There are current truckers who play Euro Truck Simulator in their trucks. I've seen it on r/trucksim

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 13 points 9 months ago

Sometimes you just want to do your job without annoying dispatchers, clients or managers, and drivers that actually follow the speed limit.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean, pilots do similar things, although probably not while in the cockpit.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

I think it's fantastic. I love it.

[–] 7of9@startrek.website 5 points 9 months ago

Human being can be oddly obsessive. In other news, I wish American Truck Simulator was available for PS4 :-/

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

I choose to believe the only people who play Euro Train simulator are German train conductors who want to pretend to operate a train while eating pretzels and drinking a responsible amount of beer.

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Can confirm, I’m an it worker and love the farming/trucking/construction/other sims

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I work with kids who are seeking vocational education, and I can tell you that it is definitely not just office workers.

A favorite is euro truck sim 2. Weirdest case I've met though is farming sim. I've talked with 16 year olds who'd play that game for hours daily. Even got a friend of the family who'll come home from driving a tractor for 14 hours straight, and then play farming sim to wind down.

[–] 768@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

I know the farming simulator type of people. I think those people simply have a high professional interest in farming economy, management and agricultural technology.

Even more impressing than those who play every FS 20xx for hours I find those who mod for the games. Year after year they photograph, model, program and share their equipment, which is sometimes decades old.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

Playing ETS2 is just something you do while listening to the radio, the long highway stretches of not having to reverse a trailer into the eye of a needle are superbly relaxing.