i was talking about this on my server earlier but i really think "cozy" is one of the worst genre labels out there in the gaming space. like people dunk on the terms "metroidvania" and "first person shooter" a lot for being uncreative or limiting but at least those are like... falsifiable descriptors. you can look at a game and go "yeah this game's mechanics and core gameplay loop generally operate like metroid/castlevania" or "yeah this game primarily uses a first person camera paired with some sort of projectile weapon" so i don't think they're completely useless. but "cozy" is just nonsense. fully subjective. i see a lot of games popularly labeled as "cozy" that share almost zero mechanical features between them and don't even always match in tone or aesthetic. hearing a game described as "cozy" doesn't tell you anything about what to expect as a player beyond maybe giving you a sort of forewarning about the fanbase and their discomfort tolerance. "cozy" is not a quantifiable metric. like imagine if someone offered to buy you takeout and asked you what kind of food you'd like and you told them fully unironically, and with no further elaboration, "i want to get yummy food." that's what hearing "cozy games" sounds like to me
i especially chafe at the way "cozy games" just seems like a "woke" way to say "girl games" and conflate certain game mechanics or aesthetics with a non-cis/het/male identity (to equally useless effect from a buyer's pov). gender stereotyping by any other name is still gender stereotyping. i'm not cis het or male, but i've spent decades enjoying pvp shooters and feel bored to tears by cutesy cottagecore farming sims. and i find those pvp shooters very "cozy" to play, too! @_@;
Agree with this. I've ended up using the term to describe my games on occasion because I have to begrudgingly admit that at the moment it can be a good way to get The Algorithm on places like Insta and YouTube to show my games to people who might like them, but I have to grit my teeth every time.
I also have to navigate the fact that 'cosy mystery' could be used to describe the genre of my games (ie. it's not focussing on realistic depiction of crimes, there's no blood or violence, there's no hardcore sleuthing or deduction), which makes the phrase 'cosy mystery game' very ambiguous.
I mean a (cosy mystery) game, but it can be read just as easily as a mystery (cosy game).
I have a book coming out that both publisher and agent suggested should be marketed as cozy and I have to admit I'm nervous about how other people perceive that term. I pitched it as a comedic ghostly scifi noir with Queer themes which obviously involves things like death, and I think the "cozy" label is being applied largely because it's funny. I signed off on it ultimately so no shade whatsoever to my amazing team who have been great and passionate and totally get the book--but even though I am being marketed this way I have to admit that I don't fully understand what that term may be conjuring re: what my book is about to other people. Or what expectations a reader will bring in. If those expectations will be upended in ways the reader won't like. It's a confusing term and so this is a really interesting and relevant discussion to me!
