The Cozy Side of Gaming
Hello there! My name is AnnMarie and I am a cozy gamer! Gaming is one of my favorite hobbies, and I think kid me would find that quite surprising!
What is cozy gaming? Up until a few years ago I had no clue that “cozy gaming” was really a thing. Cozy gaming is playing games to unwind, and feel great while playing them. Generally this includes games with a cozy vibe like Animal Crossing, The Sims, and other games that aren’t really combat driven. But that isn’t a hard rule. To me, and to many others, cozy gaming that makes you feel cozy. If that happens to be a combat heavy RPG, then that too is cozy. For me, what makes the cozy gaming space is the community that fills it!
The cozy gaming community is what really, in my opinion, attracts people to cozy gaming. This community is so much more welcoming and approachable than my experience with gaming in the past. I have found a handful of creators who have their own community through the likes of YouTube, Twitch, and Discord where I regularly get to connect with others who love the same games I do, but also make exploring new games approachable.
These communities are also full of nice people like you and me who come from a wide array of backgrounds and come together to get excited about games together!
It wasn’t until 2020, that I feel I fell into the world of cozy gaming. Like most others, 2020 was a hard year, one filled with the challenge of loneliness as normal socialization was not possible. I at that point loved watching YouTube(still do to this day) but I didn’t really have much long videos to watch. I was looking for hours long content to have on while I did school work and art. That is when my more traditional gamer brother introduced me to streaming, specifically to Twitch. This is where I met Crystal from SimplyPressStart! Crystal was really my gateway to cozy gaming! Not only did I find long content to enjoy, I found myself wanting to play games too and with so much more time on my hands, that’s exactly what I did!
Prior to doing more console and PC gaming, I mostly played mobile games. Looking back, it shows me that I always was interested in games, but I didn’t feel there were many console or PC games that were for me. But now I know, it wasn’t that there were none, but that I just didn’t know about them!
When I was a kid, I liked playing games with my brother, but at the time I allowed myself to believe that gaming was more of his thing and not mine. I think I fell into a trap that most little girls have found themselves into, where gaming was for boys and so we grew into women who played less and less games. It was easy to believe that girls don’t play “real” games, or that we play “baby” games. But now, as a young woman I see how wrong that mindset was, but I can also see how I believed it. Gaming has always been marketed more to boys and men, and so growing up in a time where I hardly saw gaming advertised to girls and women, it was easier to believe back then that gaming simply wasn’t for girls. Though gaming has opened some doors in marketing to girls and women, it is still predominantly a male focused view. I believe this is because gaming is still very male dominated of a space in general. Sometimes this can make gaming feel less of a welcoming space and less approachable to get into for those don’t fit into that traditionally male gamer type.
Anyone can feel welcome in the cozy gaming space. It really is a place for anyone who loves games. Sometimes it can be exhausting fighting to be taken seriously by many male gamers in other gaming spaces, and be allowed to enjoy whatever game I am excited about.
But that’s what cozy gaming is all about, is being excited and also sharing that excitement without feeling judged and discouraged from playing my fav games!
Cozy gaming is not only a way to find a place to be happy no matter what you play, but is also a space filled with so many creative people! I actually find many artists and creatives in the spaces I am in! But some of the games many cozy gamers love like Animal Crossing, The Sims, and many farming sims like Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons games have decorating as part of these games, which leads to much creativity exploding through the community!
I along with many others spend hours upon hours just decorating in these games! There are so many talented decorators out there and I love seeing all the designs and decorated spaces in these games online!
If you aren’t yet a part of any cozy gaming spaces but may be interested, I want to share with you some of my fav cozy gaming creators! As I mentioned earlier, Crystal from SimplyPressStart on both YouTube and Twitch was my gateway into the cozy gaming space! She also introduced me to another fav, Wade from WadeLady on both YouTube and Twitch. Crystal and Wade are both variety streamers who play many cozy games!
Crystal constantly has lots of Animal Crossing content, not only the newest entry of Animal Crossing New Horizons, but she also revisits old games! You can currently find her playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on Youtube!
Wade is always cozying up with fun puzzle games, farming sims, and other fun cozy games! She often is joined by her fur baby Finn who often gets treats from chat on stream!
Savannah from MyDayOldTea on Youtube is often streaming Disney Dreamlight Valley! She often is decorating on stream with great concepts in both stream and videos! She also has hours upon hours of Animal Crossing decorating content too! She has a wonderful eye for decor and I am always in awe of her creations!
Ace from PeanutButterBeagle, is a newer find for me on Twitch(with Youtube coming soon I hear!) who I found through both the lovely Crystal and Wade as Ace is one their friends! Ace is also a variety streamer, and she does play some games outside of the “cozy” genre, she makes them feel cozy and fun to watch! She is a great example of how cozy is a vibe and not just a type of game! I am currently binging all her Ace Attorney content and I would not have discovered the games without Ace!
Toph is another fav streamer of mine for cozy games, who often plays Disney Dreamlight Valley and Palia, plus many more! Toph is one of the few male content creators I watch, but he’s truly a welcoming creator in the gaming space! I always look forward to his streams as I never fail to smile, laugh, and have a great time!
Eeowna on both Youtube and Twitch is a great advocate for women in male dominated spaces. She not only rocks in the gaming world, she is also a scientist! She has a PHD and no it’s not in gaming, but it shows how she isn’t afraid to take on male dominated spaces, whether it’s in a chem lab or online gaming. She she is a great guiding hand for us who are maybe a bit uncomfortable with the general gaming space! She plays a variety of games on her channels, often reviewing them for us! She focuses on Nintendo games, and Switch games, but she also plays games that are not on the Switch! She doesn’t shy away from faults of a game and is genuine in all her reviews! She is also a great source for when sales come to the Switch, so you can spend your hard earned money on games best suited to you!
Josh from BringTheParty focuses less on long videos and more on digestible let’s play episodes of a variety of cozy games! He is often playing the newest cozy games, even in early access and often comes back when full releases occur and plays again! He often revisits the Sims and his commentary never fails to make me laugh!
Noah from BigBlueBugGaming is Josh’s twin brother and also creates chill and fun let’s play series on his channel! These two sometimes play games together which is always entertaining to watch!
Kennedy from Cozy K on Youtube and CozyGames on Twitch is not only a cozy gamer but a cozy hobbyist! I think she is like many of us, striving for a cozy life and she shares that with us on her YouTube channel through her vlogs! She also has a long playlist of Stardew Valley content to enjoy, along with other gaming videos where she tries other cozy games! She is often playing Stardew Valley, The Sims, and other games on Twitch while hanging with chat and friends!
Cozy gaming can be for anybody and everybody! I hope if you made it through to this point you realize you may be a cozy gamer! All it takes is an interest. I started with the Sims and mobile games, both of which I still love, but I am happy yo have been welcomed into the cozy gaming space where I found so many new games I love! I think that’s the secret to this community, is that regardless of what you play, you are allowed to feel excited and cozy without the fear of judgment!
Stay cozy my friends,
AnnMarie
