Let me answer a soul torture first: How long has it been since you could calm down and read a book seriously, write well, or concentrate on practicing your hobbies? You might say that conditions and circumstances don’t allow it. Well, if you were given a house, a sunny window, a soft single sofa, a radio station, and a period of time at your disposal, would you be able to do it?
Don’t rush to give your answer. Someone has created such conditions in cyberspace. We might as well give it a try.
Just a few days ago, a casual idle game called “Spirit City: Lofi Sessions” (hereinafter referred to as “Spirit City”) was released on Steam. In just a few days, the game has received more than 1,100 reviews, with a favorable rating of 97 % (rave reviews).
“Spirit City” is very simple. In a small space built in the game, you can freely adjust the decoration, time, lighting, and the behavior of the character you control – reading, painting, knitting, browsing the web, resting on the desk bay window sofa… …In short, this game tries to make you calm down in every possible way.
Music that can help players relax their body and mind plays the most important role in “Spirit City”. The game comes with dozens of Lofi-style music (i.e. Low Fidelity, low-fidelity music), and the player has the ability to play music independently. You can choose a song you like by entering the address. But a slight drawback is that currently “Spirit City” can only access YouTube addresses, which is not very friendly to Chinese players (I don’t know if a local music import function can be added in the future).
In addition, the game also comes with common environmental sounds in nature such as rain, wind, thunder, and birdsong, as well as artificial sound effects such as white noise, pink noise, and brown noise that can stabilize the mind.
The “phantoms” that occasionally encounter players as time and house locations change serve as collectible elements to slightly enrich the gameplay. This group of cute animals are the perfect companions to accompany you during this relaxing time.
At this point, you may have understood: Rather than calling “Spirit City” a game, we would rather call it a gamified focus tool. There is almost no gameplay to speak of, and all the functions of the game are designed to allow you to switch out of the game, return to life, and deal with various complicated and trivial matters that need to be faced in the real world in an orderly manner.
Through this virtual character projected by the player into the game, “Spirit City” seems to be trying to tell the player: “Hey man, look back at your life, focus on your inner world, and enjoy it.”
In fact, the vast majority of players who buy “Spirit City” do use it as an office/study software to improve work and reading efficiency.
If you can make good use of the “To-Do List”, “Pomodoro”, “Weekly Habits”, “Diary” and other functions in the game, it will be more helpful to reasonably arrange work and study matters and improve work efficiency.
However, if you break away from the concept of so-called “focus tools”, you will find that many gamification tools have been born in the gaming industry in recent years.
From the immersive desktop tool created by MiHoYo based on the virtual character “Lu Ming” to the “Virtual Desk Pet Simulator” launched by LB Game on the Steam platform last year, which focuses on interactive companionship (over 38,000 reviews, 98% praise rate, Online peak value is nearly 80,000). Desktop tools that are interactive, have IP images, and have certain entertainment functions are becoming the favorites of players. Software that is both entertaining and functional has become indispensable for the cyber life of Internet residents. a part of. In the foreseeable future, such tools with AI functions are bound to appear on user desktops, bringing a more intelligent interactive experience.
The reason is that whether users are using the computer to work and study hard, play fish and relax, or actually sit down to play game masterpieces, watch movies and listen to music, they actually need a free space for them to flirt, play and have fun. Object. Perhaps only in this way can the contemporary “cyber empty nesters” find some precious spiritual sustenance.
The reason why “Spirit City” is so popular among players is probably for the same reason.
In this era where people’s hearts are floating, the pace of life is fast, and everyone is eager to reach out and grab something, it provides players with a “spiritual city” where they can rest their minds and accompany them to read, write, and knit as the name suggests—— No matter how tired, tired, and empty you are in the real world, you can always keep a ray of sunshine by the bay window of this cabin and find some weight of life.
Whether it is a short rest or a futile exercise of self-discipline, that moment of tranquility has truly existed. I think these real effects on players are probably the value of such gamification tools.
