okay i never actually comment outside of tags but this genre label frustrates me so much that i should, like, write an essay on it or something. i know some people already have.
“cozy games” are, i suppose, supposed to be games that are relaxing. that you might play while bundled in a blanket on a rainy day while drinking a cup of tea, or might listen to/watch a more chill streamer play through as background noise as you work or sleep.
that’s literally nothing. by that definition, nearly every game on earth is a cozy game to someone. is minecraft a cozy game? sudoku? but no, of course not, that’s not what you’d expect to see if you searched for cozy games on steam or itch.io or something. so, without checking right now, let’s think of some default cozy games off the tops of our heads.
pokopia. the animal crossing franchise. stardew valley. all great games, all unfortunately stuck under this label. so what do they have in common?
building, world customization. i’ve seen very little pokopia so i can’t comment on it but i can say that stardew valley and the newest animal crossing game both have an element of resource farming and crafting involved. they’ve also all got cutesy graphics.
i remember seeing someone else (the source unfortunately escapes me at the moment) make the argument that cozy games typically tend to contain elements that are not cozy at all, but are associated with domestic labor that typically falls on women’s shoulders. this plus the “cute” aesthetic that you rarely see in games targeted towards men places the genre in a pretty uncomfortable spot alongside things like cottagecore with a label of “handle with care, risk of conservative pipeline inside”.
i think it’s also meant to be a departure from the sexist category of “girly games” that was more common when it was assumed that only boys liked “normal” video games, except somehow it feels very backhanded and limiting. like, sure, any gender can be cozy! but why are all these “cozy games” just “girl games” with a new label, and almost exclusively focused on such specific themes/mechanics, too?
is this a harsh criticism? yeah, maybe! but i’m making it because i AM the target of relaxing cutesy games and i absolutely hate farming and resource management, and world customization is only fun for me until it gets frustrating. i’m sick of nearly every cute game that comes out being targeted towards this “cozy game” “genre” for purely selfish reasons.
also because the newest animal crossing game feels like it’s totally departed from the original tone of the series and it makes me upset.
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