So there I was, and still am (at date of writing) playing through SnowRunner, the 3rd of the Spintyres series.
It struck me that it’s almost the complete antithesis of the more popular games on Twitch such as PUBG, Fortnite, CS:GO which are absolutely frenetic, stress inducing nightmares of time limited, time critical micromanagement and tactics. I realised, this is probably why this is a good game for me.
I recently began playing “Playne”, a game based around meditation, mindfulness. You take some time out of your day to run through a period of mindfulness, using a breathing exercise. After repeating this on a regular basis, the environment of the game begins to grow and evolve. It’s a deliberate, purpose built gamification of meditation. I adore it.
It turns out there is actually a Slow Gaming movement of sorts, or rather some supporters of games which take a different approach to the idea of gaming. I actually found the Slow Games Movement Manifesto on itch.io written by Mitch Alexander, and it proposes a slowing down of a lot more than just the games themselves, but of gaming culture, I recommend a quick read (only 4 pages). This article was echoed and referenced in a more recent entry on Gamasutra by Artur Ganszyniec, “In praise of slow games” which is again, worthy of a quick look.
I might write more on this as it fits in with my own thoughts on the overall philosophy of games and gaming (particularly video games, but I also Roleplay and play Board Games) in what it means culturally and spiritually to us as gamers.
I think it’s interesting to look at the idea of “Slow Gaming” in relation to games that I mention above; these games play (I think) to a degree on people’s FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and the general gaming industry taste for the Game of the Moment. On some of my streams I’ve delved into history and played some retro games on an online DOSBox site allowing me to play things like the original Syndicate, platformers like Secret Agent and so on, which while they aren’t “Slow”, they are certainly not a newly released FPS which requires the reaction speed of a 12 year old to be successful at.
OK, sour grapes on that last point, you got me.
One section which spoke to me in Mitch Alexander’s manifesto:
Designing for accessibility and quality of play, such as:
◦ anti-frustration features
◦ more control over difficulty (inc. “story only” difficulty modes
◦ access to advanced character controls
◦ access to debug commands
◦ CHEAT CODES.
This really struck a chord with me. So many games revel in their skill level, or “hardness” and sometimes overdo it. If i spend 40-50 quid on a game, I’d rather I enjoyed it, rather than occasionally consigning another controller to the bin after I snapped it in two with my teeth, fed up with trying to get past an obstacle, or solve a puzzle. The last two Assassin’s Creed games, Odyssey and Origins have difficulty options which include “Easy” which I’ve personally taken advantage of as the length of the game meant I didn’t feel I wasn’t accomplishing anything by using that difficulty level. There are arguments against this, such as this article from Mark Venturelli (also on Gamasutra) “Difficulty Levels and why you should never use them“. but the point of Mitch’s article was that we shouldn’t be playing games to get frustrated, to get annoyed, and to achieve them at the highest levels like everyone else (FOMO, or at least Keeping Up With The Joneses).
I’m not sure I’m even prepared to argue that any game should aim for a balance between feelings of accomplishment and the joy of simply playing. If I’m having a particularly bad time of it mentally, I don’t want to feel pressured into getting to the end of Doom on Nightmare level. Some games have “Story mode” which almost eliminates difficulty levels entirely and allows you to just enjoy the ride.
OK, so when we hit Multiplayer games like PUBG, CS:GO this becomes meaningless as “difficulty” means “how good are the other human beings you’re playing against”, so we might as well discount a lot of games right out of the gate for this discussion, although game speed and requirements for high reaction speed could be worth looking at.
Let’s take SnowRunner as an example. If I’d played it totally vanilla, I think I would have probably given up by now. Why? Because in the vanilla game, to achieve some of the missions I’d say you’d need to put in a heavy amount of grinding to be able to affors some of the vehicles able to successfully complete some of the tasks which are able to traverse some of the more difficult terrain in the game. As it happens, SnowRunner has integration with mod.io so you can open an account on the site, select some Mods you want to apply to the game, and they’re automatically loaded, applied and updated. (similar to the Steam Workshop). So, with a few clicks I was able to source a rather more powerful and configurable Truck, able to get through some of the wilder and more tricky swamps more effectively. I would like to say that at the same time it did not diminish my feelings of accomplishment or joy playing the game. Rather than leaving me fed up and inadequate at the end of 7 or so hours of playing the game, it left me concentrating more on the logistics of the game, the strategy, than worrying about whether i had the vehicles I needed, and worrying how to spend the precious credits I’d earned without leaving myself lacking in other ways.
It’s starting to feel like this article may end up being a more general philosophical wax on gaming, but let’s try and get back to “slow” gaming.
November 2021.
I got to this point in the draft over a year ago in 2020, and since then it’s certainly noticable a clash between players who insist on “hardcore mode” type play versus those who just want to have some fun. Gatekeeping by players who are of the opinion you’re not a “real gamer unless you play X” or “unless you play it in ultra hard mode”. All of which just sucks and is dick swinging by certain individual who can just get bent. It’s definitely noticable when your SO who doesn’t really get into forums or chat or online gaming, but games heavily all the same has felt the edges of the argument creeping up on them.
Steam at the time of writing lists 7,217 games under the tag “relaxing”. Sadly “relaxing” isn’t necessarily the same as “slow”, and flicking through that list there are plenty of games which i’d say are anything but relaxing. Nevertheless, there is at least the idea that players don’t want to spend their lives stressing out.
Coming back to this post after a year, I’m aware I’m not sure how to really end it. Start with the “relaxing” tag on Steam, check out some of the simulator games that are gaining traction, such as restoration or repair games (gas station simulator, train station renovator for example) or other less time critical games (my youtube session on Ship Graveyard Simulator) and let me know how you feel about slow or relaxing games….
Check out Playne as well and let me know if it helps.