Gaming Cycles and the Pandemic: Relaxing Games

Full disclosure that no one asked for, I’ve been writing articles like this since I was 16/17, so around 10-11 years now. I’ve been gaming since I was probably 4 or 5 though, so I’ve had my hand on the pulse of the gaming industry for a while. In that time, I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out how the industry ebbs and flows, and how things evolve and change. The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard for a lot of people and wasn’t ideal for anyone. However, it did cause a specific type of game to rise to prominence: Relaxing/Chill games.

I’m not just talking about games like Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, or Haven Park either. There are action games that I find relaxing, games that don’t ask more of me than I am willing to give. Look at the likes of Hades, Boyfriend Dungeon, Dreamscaper, and even things like Arietta of Spirits. Some of them are long-form experiences, while others are shorter and have a low barrier of entry. All of them, however, offer a varied form of difficulty that lets you either play to the challenge you want or play at a more laid-back pace.

Then you have games like PowerWash Simulator, Lawn Mowing Simulator, and Haven Park. Each one of these does something different, but it is a low-impact, soothing, almost-mindless sort of fun that almost has a meditative quality to it. Sure, in the case of Haven Park you can put a little more brainpower into it in order to do all the side quests and explore the whole island, but you can just as easily play at your own pace.

Why does this matter really, and how does it relate to the cycles of Gaming? Well, let’s start with the Pandemic and work our way around to the second half of that question. I think many people can agree that during the Pandemic a lot of us lacked the emotional or mental bandwidth for anything demanding. Of course, there are folks who needed to be busy and needed to have their minds occupied, but the opposite is also true.

For many of us (myself included) watching the never-ending news cycle, death tolls, dealing with friends or family affected by COVID, and fearing for the lives of the people around us and ourselves…it was exhausting. Sometimes it still is exhausting, to know that while things are better, we still have a ways to go and people are still suffering.

Because of that existential, mental, and emotional exhaustion, there were a lot of us that just didn’t have the same energy or excitement for things that a lot of people play. Hardcore action was great and all, but something else popped up to fill the void. This is one reason why Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and by extension the Nintendo Switch, sold so well during the Pandemic.

This also left an opening for something that a lot of us have been looking for: more diverse experiences. The idea of diverse characters and experiences in gaming has been a long time coming, but all of us in isolation no doubt helped bring these games to life. Some people changed careers and decided to give indie development a shot. Other people chose to become writers or join development teams as animators or art designers.

I can’t say for sure that this is why we’re seeing such a trend toward diverse characters and experiences, but I think it is necessary and important all the same. Now, talking about trends leads us to the idea of cycles in gaming. There are a lot of them really, and it happens at an irregular pace. Some trends build themselves up quickly and then burn out, while other trends build slowly and take a while to die off.

There was a time during the early to mid-2000s that for every single-player game that was advertised, there were at least five MMO’s or online games. I can remember the rise of motion controls, which was very popular for a minute and then died off to a low, dull humming of a few releases a year from (mostly) Nintendo.

For a few E3 showcases there was an emphasis on VR, which still has a few games developed for it here and there, but hasn’t really caught on like a lot of people expected it to in the early days. That is possibly due to motion sickness and other issues with VR’s accessibility to the masses, but I can’t be totally sure, so don’t take my word as gospel on that.

We’re finally getting to a point where the “games as a service” craze is slowing down, mostly because everyone and their brother has tried it and only a few have found success. I wager that it’ll take a while for that trend (like the Battle Royale trend) to die fully because it can be profitable even if it doesn’t have staying power for most development teams.

There’s a reason EA has backed away from it and has focused some of their IPs on single-player games like Dragon Age 4 and Jedi: Fallen Order. Don’t even get me started on the disaster-fire that is Bethesda’s Fallout 76, though I know some people enjoy it.

On a more positive note, Roguelike games have become a sort of gaming trend. Games like Hades, Boyfriend Dungeon, and Dreamscaper have shown how a Roguelike can really be used as a storytelling medium, and not just as a procedurally generated experience. These trends are all bound to slow and stall sooner or later, as people try to find new ways to spice up old formulas.

I don’t think this trend of relaxing, less demanding games is going away anytime soon. I think the industry has started to realize that for every big-budget blockbuster experience, there is room for a smaller experience with a lower price of admission. If the Pandemic and the state of politics has taught us anything, it’s that we all get burnt out and exhausted. Sometimes we just need to slow down and play something that doesn’t ask more of us than we’re willing to give.

I think this is a good thing. This emphasis on calmer, more accessible (in multiple ways), more diverse experiences can only make the industry stronger. Sure, you’ll always have the big franchises, and I’m sure there will be new ones over time. However, giving other experiences a seat at your gaming table is nothing but a good thing.