> What cozy games are showing us is that a world with tons of “free stuff” — universal basic income, universal health care, free education, free housing — will not result in a breakdown of our society because “no one wants to work”. People love to work.
And Grand Theft Auto shows us that there is a bunch of people who would run around stealing cars, beating up and shooting people for the fun of it.
Or else maybe there is very limited information you can take from a computer game people play for enjoyment and generalize to society at large.
>And Grand Theft Auto shows us that there is a bunch of people who would run around stealing cars, beating up and shooting people for the fun of it
I caution over-saturating the metaphor[0]. I think the author (and majority of readers) are smart enough to know that video games aren't 100% accurate representations of reality. They're games after all. However, as a medium, much like fiction novels, it can be used to explain ideas and get points across in a way that people can relate to.
[0]: Not that I sanction such behavior but there is an entire criminal element that more or less does exactly this in society no? There in fact, are people that want to do this on some level. At any rate, you can take any metaphor, and over-saturate its meaning to the point of being meaningless.
It seems Grand Theft Auto fits the author's definition of a "cozy game" quite well. Particularly the open world wandering aspect of the game, where people spend significant amounts of their real-world time completing side quests and accumulating resources and buying fancy houses and cars without any real end goal. Perhaps for some degree of real-world social status among their peers. It's simply fun to participate in the markets of GTA and Animal Crossing - where the article's metaphor holds up regardless of whether time is spent stealing cars or catching butterflies.
This analysis is too surface level IMO. I think you can take away different conclusions from drastically different contexts, even if they’re both video games.
And Grand Theft Auto shows us that there is a bunch of people who would run around stealing cars, beating up and shooting people for the fun of it.
Or else maybe there is very limited information you can take from a computer game people play for enjoyment and generalize to society at large.