I'm an avid player of these mundane "chore" games and I play them because they are fun.
I don't want to be a truck driver, but I want to play Euro Truck Simulator with a complete racing wheel setup. The way I see it, driving a truck across Europe while trying to follow all of the rules to minimize cost is not that much different mentally than driving a race car around a race track trying to minimize lap time. But it is less physically fatiguing.
Even though these games seem dumb (I get poked fun at a lot for playing them), most of the time, their game loops are tight enough that you feel the same fulfillment as if you were playing the latest Mario. They are always adding another challenge to the game with each level, so that by the end, you've developed a repertoire of skills that you can use to tackle a variety of complicated situations.
I don't want to be a truck driver, but I want to play Euro Truck Simulator with a complete racing wheel setup. The way I see it, driving a truck across Europe while trying to follow all of the rules to minimize cost is not that much different mentally than driving a race car around a race track trying to minimize lap time. But it is less physically fatiguing.
Even though these games seem dumb (I get poked fun at a lot for playing them), most of the time, their game loops are tight enough that you feel the same fulfillment as if you were playing the latest Mario. They are always adding another challenge to the game with each level, so that by the end, you've developed a repertoire of skills that you can use to tackle a variety of complicated situations.