one genre that I have no understanding of is strategy games

I’m not talking about RTSes: I think those are fun because you learn repetitive button-presses and clicking patterns and you get to turn your brain off while your muscle memory takes over. I understand why that’s so satisfying from playing rhythm games

I’m specifically thinking of grand strategy games, 4x games, Paradox megasimulators, the Total War games, etc. to be honest I don’t even know what the moment-to-moment gameplay is like in them because I can never persist long enough to play them, and when people talk about what the games are like it’s like they’re speaking a foreign language. I tried learning Crusader Kings once and even after the tutorial I was left utterly confused, to the point that I wasn’t sure if there were even any actions that my character could take or how to choose those actions

strategy games might actually be the only genre of game that is just unfathomable to me lol. like I don’t even know what they’re about, besides the obvious surface level

I can also somewhat say the same thing about tactics games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Advance Wars, though in that case I think I kinda get it because I’ve played Into The Breach. so I imagine it’s that but much less puzzle-y: it’s about positioning units just right and moving them around a map to gain a tactical advantage, and maybe there are some rock-paper-scissors type effectiveness mechanics too

I was going to say that JRPGs are the same for me but I do think I kinda get them: the combat loop is fun because of the autistic desire to do simple, repetitive actions - especially if there’s some underlying complexity that you need to learn first, and the complexity can subtly shift sometimes so the simple, repetitive actions become a little bit different which creates just enough novelty to keep things interesting. that’s what I like about WoW’s combat and OSRS’s everything so I think I understand that

and I think that the stories of JRPGs are satisfying because in most of them the characters are gradually making the world better, and gradual progress is satisfying. and it’s also nice to meet characters and get attached to them. and the painful parts are satisfying because they’re cathartic: they hurt in a good way by bringing up repressed emotions, which is why very dark JRPGs like Shin Megami Tensei, NieR, and Persona are popular

and then the progression is fun because it satisfies the autistic desire to optimize complex systems. it’s about stacking passives to make certain abilities really strong and then enjoying the difference in the combat loop, I think