Buttonmasher is Douglas Heaven 's monthly column about video games, and how the way we play is changing

Straight story: the joy of tractor driving can be virtually yours Jerome Courtial/Solent News/REX/Shutterstock

Harvesting takes me an hour. That’s an hour in which I drive at little more than walking pace from one end of a field to the other and back again 20 or 30 times. It’s not the most fun I’ve had in a video game, but then I do need the money.

Farming Simulator 17, released on 25 October, is the latest game in a series made by Giants Software in Schlieren, Switzerland. Players start out with little land and few machines and must plant, tend and harvest crops – or raise livestock – to earn money to buy more land and more machines.

Running a successful farm can get your goat. You need to carefully manage your spending on fields, fuel and fertiliser to make a profit. You have to decide when trading in your beaten up tractor for a new one makes more sense than paying for repairs. There are loans to consider and investments to monitor. But at its heart, Farming Simulator is a game about driving heavy machinery up and down in straight lines. And there’s a zen-like buzz to the monotony.


For many, that’s a bigger draw than the frantic action of a shooter. Most games are all about winning or losing, says Mason, who plays to unwind. “When I play Farming Simulator there is no losing – it’s just me driving a tractor.”

Farming Simulator games often top sales charts in the US and Europe. And they are not the only popular video games about farming. Games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley give players idyllic cartoon farmsteads to run. And at its peak, Zynga’s 2009 Facebook hit FarmVille hooked several million people into a daily routine of tending their crops of carrots, albino pineapples and watermelon babies. But FarmVille never let you spend hours behind the wheel of a Holmer Terra Felis 2 eco sugar-beet loader.

Racing games often let you cruise around in pixel-perfect replicas of real-life vehicles, boasting licensing deals with car makers. Last year’s Forza Motorsport featured hundreds of virtual rides, including supercars like the Aston Martin V12 Zagato and the Lamborghini Veneno.

Down on the farm Farm simulator 17

Farming Simulator is no different. The Holmer Terra Felis 2 is just one of around 250 licensed farm machines you can take for a spin – from the Massey Ferguson 7726 with Joskin Betimax RDS 7500 trailer (capacity: nine pigs) to the Ponsse Buffalo forwarder, a forestry vehicle used for thinning trees.

It’s not always about speed, though. Truck-driving sims such as Euro Truck Simulator and American Truck Simulator have even more fans that Farming Simulator. There are driving sims for everyone, whether buses, trains, tanks or diggers float your boat. All drop you into the cab of a large vehicle and simply let you drive.

“Many people play to relax,” says Mike, who moderates a Reddit forum dedicated to truck sims. “I mostly play to wind down after a hard day’s work,” he says. Put your favourite songs on the truck’s radio and hit the road for the long haul. Turn on the rain for added calm. “It never fails, watching the endless highway roll past.”

“To me these games have always been about reliving a childhood dream,” he says. “I can drive a vehicle that weighs tonnes, without the real-life obligation of being away from home for weeks or being responsible for dozens of tonnes of cargo.”

To heighten the sense of driving a real truck, players use wheel-shaped controllers and gear sticks. Some arrange furniture around their computer to resemble the inside of a cab. “One of the most dedicated set-ups I’ve seen included a mini-fridge beside the driver’s seat to store food and drinks during the longer periods of driving, with a small separate monitor to keep track of job information,” says Mike.

Virtual trucking

The games also support an active social scene. Players have created virtual trucking companies and meet up online to drive as part of a team. Families and friends work together to manage large farms.

The games are also popular with spectators. Now in his 40s, “Squirrel” used to stream videos of himself playing shooters like Call of Duty. A few years ago he tried Euro Truck Simulator and never looked back. He now shares live videos of his trucking and farming adventures with thousands of people several times a week. Parents watch his Sunday Night Truckin’ with their children, as if it were a regular TV show. People tell him they like joining him in the cab for the ride.

Farming Simulator is even popular with farmers themselves. Mason works on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. “At work my boss tells me what he needs me to do and I do it,” he says. “In the game I am the boss, I decide what to buy when I need it.”

Ty’s family farmed in Arkansas until a few years ago. Now at college, he works on neighbouring farms in his free time. “What makes me play this game over others is that it gives me more control than I have in my real job,” he says. “It would be nice if farming were this easy but it isn’t.”

I’ll have to take Ty’s word for that. Because I’ve got a brand new combine harvester and I plan to drive it until the cows come home.