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Same with "$thing Simulator" (there was a 'gas station simulator' on Steam recently) or (in the 90's) "Sim $something" or "$something Tycoon) (sim city, sim ant, sim skyscraper, sim hospital, apparently there's a huge list [0]). Or "$something Online", because every franchise had to be turned into an MMO; Lord of the Rings Online, The Elder Scrolls Online, Eve Online, you name it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sim_video_games




> sim city > [rollercoaster] Tycoon

Ok, I'm going to have to stop you there. These are two of the greatest games of all time. ALL TIME.


Exactly, but everything else with those names is terrible.

Their argument is that games that use titles like this, tend to be using these names to try to take advantage of the success of other titles with similar names. If your game is named "like another game", then your basically marketing it as "$y is like $x but better", but $y is rarely ever better than $x based on most people's experience. Once you pick up on that, anything marketed as $x tycoon is going to be viewed as "yeah it's probably terrible, like the other $z tycoon I already tried".




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