The algorithm added it to my TikTok feed. It was a teaser for a video game about trucks. I’d have scrolled right past it if it weren’t for a scene from the Corinth Canal catching my eye in the background. It was followed by the Kavala Fortress, the Attiki Odos junction in Metamorfosi, the Rio-Antirrio Bridge and the Thessaloniki waterfront. I didn’t scroll. I watched and wondered how a simulation game became inspired by Greece’s roads and where the thousands of “likes” came from.
The game is Euro Truck Simulator and it was first developed in 2008 by SCS Software. The whole idea is to give the player a realistic experience of driving a truck. The rules are simple: You have to transport a shipment of goods to different parts of Europe, obeying the road safety rules of each country, and making sure that your truck is properly maintained and fueled up.
Digging through my childhood memories and my daily visits to the internet cafe, I was reminded of a similar version of this game on the list of the games that were available on the computer. The concept was the same, only the location changed. In that version, you could pick up a load in San Francisco and take it to any other American city. If you chose New York, of course, you’d have to cough up for around 120 minutes on the computer as trucks are hardly the speediest means of transportation.
The speed of the vehicles is not why people choose this simulation game, however. If they are after thrills, they can always go for action games like Grand Theft Auto, which allows the player free movement across the map representing an American city like Los Angeles, New York or Miami. Many gamers even simulate the driving experience, by buying a wheel or even creating a setting that resembles a car interior. It may sound odd, weird or unlikely, but let’s not forget that a journey, even a digital one, is one of the best escapes from the daily grind.
A faithful re-enactment
The game began with the creation of a series of maps of Central European highways, but its developers later expanded it by adding more countries from the continent. After the Balkans, it was Greece’s turn. The Greek universe of Euro Truck Simulator is pretty basic: The map consists of highways with very few turnoffs and these lead to a specific number of cities. Apart from the big ones, we also see Argostoli on the island of Kefalonia, the northern port city of Kavala and the island of Chios. Things like border controls are even more simplified, because of the nature of the game.
From the enthusiastic comments by Greek streamers on YouTube, we understood that the game delivers a faithful representation of the country’s roads, despite the small flaws that can be attributed to AI. So, I put on my headphones to be treated to the kind of heavy-duty “laika” favored by truckers all across the country and traveled from Patra in the west to northern Greece, being especially wary of potholes. The trip went great and I reached my destination just as the sun was setting on Kavala Port. So I switched off the engine and fell asleep in a content frame of mind.
This article was first published in Kathimerini’s weekend supplement, K.