Balancing Simplification and Believability : An Autoethnographic Analysis of Euro Truck Simulator 2 as Leisure-Oriented Simulation Play

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how the leisure-oriented simulation game Euro Truck Simulator 2 balances simplification and believability when transforming long-distance truck driving into play. Using an autoethnographic single-case design analysis grounded in situated gameplay observation, reflective play logs, screenshots, and design-oriented interpretation, the study develops two analytical dimensions: preserved core experiential markers and gameful reconfiguration. The analysis identifies a limited set of embodied, cargo-related, and environmental markers—such as cabin perspective, mirror use, trailer attachment, vehicle weight, and road-following—that made the activity recognizable as truck driving within the researcher’s situated play experience. At the same time, the game simplifies, compresses, or lowers the risk of many other elements through interface-based shortcuts, spatial compression, adjustable penalties, and recoverable failure. This dual strategy constructs a believable version of trucking without reproducing the full labour, danger, duration, or professional responsibility of real truck driving. The thesis concludes that believability in entertainment simulation games depends less on exhaustive realism than on a coherent design relation between what is kept recognizable and what is reshaped for accessible, low-risk, and repeatable leisure play. It also argues that, for non-professional players, such believability may be based as much on culturally recognizable expectations of trucking as on direct fidelity to professional trucking experience.