Because a well designed game does not include drudgery. “Work-simulators” focus on results and progress and gloss over many of the hours of outright boredom or physical exertion to get there.

For example, truck driving simulator does not include the pain in the ass and boring part of loading or unloading the truck. Farming simulator does not include the painstaking process of removing rocks from the field.

While I grew up on a farm, my first proper career was something called OBC seismic. What it is isn’t as important as the fact that it involved placing a 6km long sensor cable on the seabed with a winch and position it properly. To do this right requires practice, and as the principle is farly easy I wrote a small simulator that our trainees could try out. At first they found it interesting, and even the seniors from other departments enjoyed toying with it. The biggest lack of realism was that it didn’t involve doing it for 12 hours straight, only stopping to unscrew 25 meter sections and replacing them. Barring drudgery and repetitive boredom could’ve probably made it an interesting game similar to other work simulators.

In addition to what others have said already;

• Results are rewarded. If you do something right in-game, you usually get something like “good job!” or an immediate positive rating, useful items etc. as a direct reward. That way you immediatly feel like you accomplished something good. In the real world, you do the task, check out and go home - no positive feedback, no feel of accomplishment. You just completed a menial task, that’s all.

• Virtual customers are easier. If you do your virtual job right, they will be happy and nice. In the real world, you can do everything right and still get yelled at for the most bullshit reasons (I work in customer service so I might be biased a bit here) which makes it hard to maintain a positive attitude. In games, you usually don’t have to deal with someone trying to return clearly worn underwear for a refund and then throwing a loud, childish hissy fit when you tell them that you can’t do that.

• Games ususally don’t randomly throw unexpected setbacks at you at the most inconvenient times. They’re predictable, easier and overall more structured. Someone mentioned Truck Simulator in the comments, for example - I haven’t played that game but I highly doubt that it features 3 hour long traffic jams while your virtual avatar desperately needs to pee, the sudden appearance of an angry hornet or giant spider inside the driver’s cabin, flat tyres, naked methheads trying to climb your truck or your virtual boss calling you ingame to yell at you for something that is out of your control.

• Games ususally omitt the nasty parts and enhance the pleasing parts. Example: the curry cooking minigame in Pokémon SwoSh - you select ingredients, throw them into the pot, stir it for a while and your 'mons will be happy to get a nice meal. What you do NOT have to do: chopping and cleaning the ingredients, sorting out rotten food, cleaning the pots and pans, picking up Pokémon poop after they’re done digesting what they ate, getting IRL back pain from having to carry 427 cans of cream around at all times, setting up and maintaining the fire, disposing of garbage like packaging material or fishbones. You never have any picky eaters refusing to even taste the curry, you never have any ingredients go bad, your utensils will never break and you didn’t have to buy them in the first place as they magically just appeared in your inventory the moment you unlocked the ability to cook curry. and what you cooked always, always looks aesthetically pleasing unless you deliberately fuck up real hard, whereas even the most delicious tasting curry in the real world can look like slop, which just doesn’t feel the same. It is kinda easier to feel satisfied with a virtual steaming hot plate of pretty food.

Games are designed to be fun. Work isn’t.

It’s almost as ‘game’ is supposed to mean something.

Welcome to Lemmy!

You might want to look into getting checked out for ADHD. Someone close to me was diagnosed as an adult a few years ago, and your behavior overlaps somewhat with their behavior. Many hours of making schedules and charting plans, but a strong mental block with putting plans into action to actually get things done. It’s more common than you’d think.

Because with the sim, you feel in control.