I was playing Power Washer Simulator a few days ago, and upon reaching the patio level, was immediately reminded of the suburban fantasy. The house attached to the patio looks like a suburban house, it’s got a cute pond, some tacky decor, a toy car for the kids, and a lot of grime. Here I am, a member of a generation statistically unlikely to ever live this lifestyle, and I get to fulfill every suburban father’s dream. It got me thinking, why is this so appealing? Why is this both something that people strive for in real life, and fantasized in video games? To do this I must give up the mantle of IPad Baby and enter the mind of a middle aged white suburban father.
I think the core of, well, grillcore is leisure. The suburban home represents material wealth and success for my family, and we’ve got a big backyard for them to play in. The backyard has no purpose other than for me to choose to be out there and spend my time there and is therefore the most leisurely location in the house. (As we learned in Anatomy, all the rooms within the house serve a specific function, a general anatomical purpose.) Sure, powerwashing is hard, and I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’ll clean this patio if it takes me the whole day, damnit. I’m choosing to spend my time to clean up the patio, so that I can sit in it and admire my backyard. There’s the grass that I use the hose to water, and sure, we have sprinklers, but sometimes a man just needs to water his grass. I wouldn’t go as far as to garden, because that’s actual work, and if I don’t do it, the plants will die. Out here, it’s just me, this dirty patio, and the power washer. (Upon writing this, I actually have no idea how middle aged dads think)
On a more serious note, I think the patio level is so evocative of the ordinary/mundaneity of simulators because it represents a lack of real world material pressure. Not only can you choose to take the power washing at your own pace, and put it down and pick it up at any point, but also the setting around you evokes this too. The suburban house, the nice little swing and shed, the GRILL (more on that later), even the silly little pond, are all indicators of having enough monetary income and stability to buy these things. If you were worried about job security, you wouldn’t be buying these things. It is in this way that the game evokes the mundane. There’s nothing in this world except you and the power washer. (I do also want to note that if you do career, you are playing as a “contractor” who is being paid to do this job, but I played the game on free play, and it also lacks any sort of gameplay relevance. There’s no timer, no angry employer who yells at you to hurry up and clean faster, you just clean.)
Now you might be wondering, why is it called Grillcore? This meme from a few years ago perfectly encapsulates the grillcore mindset.
To be able to ignore all of the socioeconomic issues in our society and just grill is a privilege, and to me, is the epitome of the feeling Powerwashing Simulator evokes.
Interesting idea, but it might be a little unclear what makes something “grillcore,” just because video games are so closely linked to the idea of escapism in general. For example, is “The Sims” grillcore, since it allows the player to live out fantasies of how they would live life if they didn’t have to care about society? Is Stardew Valley grillcore for the same reasons?
I would say that grillcore is really just a feeling that life simulators evoke, more than a specific video game genre. It is certainly a liberating feeling though.
I had some similar thoughts regarding how one might define the bounds of grillcore. I think something worth noting is that in a game like Power Washer Simulator, there is no problem or obstacle other than that you’re supposed to do some power washing. I think this is a different type of privilege than in other games, like the Sims or Stardew valley, where there are other problems and obstacles to worry about.