Tanush Sistla

Tanush Sistla

Coussens

Honors English

1 May 2020

The History and Addictiveness of Idle Games

In the last decade, a new genre of game has come out of nowhere, accidentally reaching incredible levels of popularity and garnering a huge player base (King). This genre has many names. Some call them idle games, others call them clicker games, and few even give them the title of incremental games. In truth, these games have so much variety that no title can encompass all of them. This genre of games is popular and entertaining for certain audiences, but also has a much darker side. Unbeknownst to most people, these games are incredibly addictive. For my capstone project, I have decided to try to create one of these games and to try to replicate the tried and true formula for making these games, while adding my unique twist. At first, I was only interested in this project because of how much I loved these games, but as I learned more and more about this topic, I realized how interesting the psychology and addiction behind these games are. This led to the creation of my main research points. Through my journey of discovery, I want to understand where these games came from, what these games are, and why so many people play them. The goal of my research is to educate people about the history of these games, how they work, and what they do to the human mind.

Although these games have skyrocketed into popularity, they had humble beginnings. The idea of idle games as a genre didn’t come into existence until 2013. Surprisingly, the evolution of idle games started well before the genre was identified and named. The first evidence of idle like mechanics was seen in MMORPG’s, or massively multiplayer online role-playing games, from the early 2000s. These MMORPGs would almost always require players to repeat an action multiple times, specifically actions that improved the power of their character. Incentivized by this, players would repeat these tasks, again and again, to become more powerful, creating these infinite and addictive cycles with no real rewards. Mocking this cycle, Eric Fredrickson, a game developer, decided to create in 2002 what most people agree was the first real idle game. This game was called Progress Quest, a name that was poking fun at the incredibly popular MMORPG of the time, EverQuest. Like many other MMORPGs, progressing through this game would require a player to do more and more repetitive tasks. The idea of Progress Quest was that once a player named their character in-game, they would do nothing but watch their character’s stats go up, without interacting with the game. This made Progress Quest one of the first idle games (King). Six years later, a new idle game was created on the popular flash game hosting site Kongregate. This game was called Anti-Idle and was one of the first games to mix idle and interactive elements (Parkin). Progress Quest and Anti-Idle were both important games in idle history. The mechanics used in these original games is what led to the creation of more idle games in the future.

Though the creation of idle game mechanics happened early in the 2000s, idle games didn’t become popular until 2013. That year, another idle game similar in creation to Progress Quest was released. Instead of mocking MMOs, this game, called Cow Clicker, was made to mock FarmVille. FarmVille was a game on Facebook notorious for requiring players to spend in-game money to progress through the game. Cow Clicker was originally made to be a satirical game, one meant to show the worst parts of video games at the time. The game was designed to show how exploitive games of the time could be. To the surprise of the creator of the game, Ian Bogost, Cow Clicker accidentally became extremely popular. Many players described how alluring the game was, even though they recognized that it was an ironic joke. At its peak, Cow Clicker reached close to 56,000 players (Tanz). Cow clicker was one of the first games to use real idle game mechanics as part of the core game theme, but the game that thrust idle games into the limelight was Cookie Clicker. Made in 2014 by Julien “Orteil” Thiennot, Cookie Clicker was another surprise hit idle game. Originally made as a joke based on a less known idle game, Candy Box, Cookie Clicker by complete accident became an instant hit, becoming so popular that it gained millions of players (Parkin). Orteil has even stated that around 9,000 people are playing the game at any given time (Crescente). From then on, the incremental genre was truly born.

From Cookie Clicker’s success, many new idle games followed. With these new idle games, patterns began to emerge, with the most common mechanics becoming crucial for creating an idle game. Cookie Clicker also caused a slew of developers to begin working on idle games, as the genre became popular with developers (Brad). There are three fundamental aspects of an idle game. The first aspect is that the game requires at least one currency of sorts. Using Cookie Clicker as an example, that would be cookies. The second fundamental aspect is that this currency should increase at a certain rate with little or even no effort. This would be through a mechanic like clicking. The final and most fundamental aspect required for these games is that the currency should be spendable, so one can increase the rate at which it increases. These three base mechanics are the foundation for many idle games (King). Another important mechanic required for most idle games is exponential growth. To make things more interesting and fun, using an exponential curve for certain costs and linear curves for others is necessary. One more common mechanism in idle games is prestige loops, also known as ascension systems. These usually involve a player resetting all of their progress to gain a special currency, which can be used to buy permanent upgrades (Pecorella). Other idle games use systems like offline progress, which hooks players into coming back, again and again, to check on their statistics (Brad). Many idle games usually single out one specific mechanic, but the most successful and popular idle games usually include a cohesive mix of every element.

Other than the core mechanics of the game, there are certain aspects of idle games that need to be well thought out. To stand out from the crowd, originality in a game is almost required. In the sea of Cookie Clicker clones, innovation marks a good game. The game setting and concept is also important, as a cohesive theme brings a game together. Other than originality, visuals are also important for an idle game. Since these games lack interactive mechanics, appealing visuals pull in players to keep them playing. These visuals can be anything from hand-drawn to digitally made, from 2D to 3D, and even as simple as polygons (Varaksina). As long as the art and the mechanics of an idle game are unique and engaging, the game has a good chance of doing well.

While the simple mechanics of idle games can be alluring to game developers, most developers are interested in creating these games because of their relatively low costs and the high chances of profit. To first earn money, a developer has to worry about the costs of creating their game. For most idle games, the creation cost can be anywhere between 5,000 to 40,000 dollars, depending on the production quality. This is a relatively low cost for game developers in comparison to the chances for massive profit. To developers, monetization may be the most important part of their game, as without making money, the developers make no profit (Varaksina). To make this money, game developers sometimes implement pay to win mechanics to get past progress walls. These unethical business practices exploit a player’s addiction to the developer’s game. Many developers use these games to take advantage of their audiences for money. Luckily enough, some games avoid this by forgoing all monetization (“Don’t Play Me”). In the end, it is completely up to a developer on whether they monetize their game or not.

Many developers create idle games without understanding their potential to be addictive. There are numerous reasons why these games are addictive. The most well-known theory for this is that idle games are Operant Conditioning Chambers. Developed in the 1930s, Operant Conditioning Chambers were created by American psychologist B. F. Skinner. These boxes were used to test if an animal would repeat a repetitive task, such as flicking a lever, for the reward of food. The animals would almost always follow these tasks (Brad). This showed that a neural connection had been made in the animal’s brain between flicking the lever and a big reward, so it would flick the lever as much as possible, even if the food didn’t come for a long time. Eventually, these chambers were given the name Skinner Boxes. People like to use the term Skinner Box for these games, as idle games usually involve a repetitive task which the player does over and over again for the reward of numbers going up (Cabrera). Compared to other theories, the idea of an idle game being a Skinner Box is negative, as it solely blames the idle game, reducing it to a box that controls a player.

In comparison to Skinner Boxes, a less prominent theory on the addictive property of idle games is Interpassivity. Interpassivity is a theory that was made by Robert Pfaller and Slavoj Zizek, which describes how humans gain joy by delegating a task to a machine. The idea is that by making a machine do a task, a person can still gain joy. This occurs because when an action happens through the machine, people often have the feeling that they did the action and reaped the benefits. An excellent example of this is laugh tracks on old T.V. shows. The viewer gets the feeling that they enjoyed the show, and feel the effects of laughter, even though they might not have laughed. Idle games play off of this because, in the essence, a player is delegating the task of increasing the currency (Fizek). To many, idle games are a puzzle simply because they can give the same pleasure gained from interactivity through interpassivity (“Don’t Play Me”). Ironically, as the player tries to get rid of the task of clicking by clicking. They must click so they can click no more. This traps the player into an infinite cycle. In the words of famous game scholar Sonia Fizek, “Paradoxically, with every delegated click comes an enacted click of the player, and so the agency and non-agency dance in an eternally unfolding embrace…”(Fizek).

Though the previous theories are mainly about machines, these next ones are closely related to built-in parts of the human mind. One of these theories is about idle games taking advantage of “accumulation desire” and “loss aversion”. These two concepts explain how people love gaining things, and conversely, hate losing things. Idle games play on this, as a player can never really lose their primary currency. Idle games also make sure that the primary currency always goes up. These two mechanics make sure that a person’s need for loss aversion and accumulation desire is always satisfied (King). The final theory for why idle games are so addictive is that they use the Zeigarnik effect. Discovered in the 1920s by psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, the Zeigarnik Effect explains how people have a much easier time remembering tasks they have not completed versus ones they have. This effect shows how people need closure. They like it when they complete something and feel relief from it. Since most idle games have no real conclusion, players always remember them. Even though there is no end, players, in hope of closure, will continue to play the game. This too causes a form of addiction, making players come back again and again (Brad). Though these theories may appear contradictory, most researchers agree that the addictive properties of idle games are made from a mix of every one of them.

At the very beginning of my research, I only planned on finding information on the history and design aspects of idle games. I never thought that it would take a turn towards psychology. This shift in my focus has revealed to me something important about idle games. The understanding that there is much more to these games than meets the eye. Upon first inspection, idle games seem harmless, but a closer look unveils not only their terrifying power, but also how much they can reveal about the human mind. I’ve learned that irrespective of a developer’s intent, most of the mechanics in idle games have the potential to be addictive. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Still, in the hands of an unethical developer, an idle game can become a terrible thing, leading to financial ruin for addicted players. I’ve also learned that attributes of the human mind that are advantageous to survival can become flaws in the context of idle games. Things like accumulation desire and loss aversion are useful when one is struggling for food. However, idle games trick the mind into believing it is in a similar situation, when in reality, nothing of value is being gained or lost. After learning what makes idle games, I decided to make two changes to my project. The first, and most important change, is that I want to make my game a bit more interactive. Instead of having linear progression and simple mechanics, I want to make it a bit more advanced. The second change to my game will be that it will have an end. These will combine to make my game entertaining, but not addictive. In the end, these games will leave a mark in videogame history. Whether that is for how entertaining they are or how abusive they can be, that is for the future to decide.

Works Cited Page

Brad Grow. “Bad Game Design - Clicker Games” Online video clip. YouTube.

YouTube, 9 Feb 2019. Web. 13 April 2020.

Cabrera, Justin. “The Addictive Psychology behind Clicker Games (and How They'll

Destroy Us All).” Softonic, Softonic, 29 Mar. 2019, en.softonic.com/articles/addictive-psychology-clicker-games.

Crecente, Brian. “The Cult of the Cookie Clicker: When Is a Game Not a Game?” Polygon,

Polygon, 30 Sept. 2013, www.polygon.com/2013/9/30/4786780/the-cult-of-the-cookie-clicker-when-is-a-game-not-a-game

Fizek, Sonia. “Interpassivity and the Joy of Delegated Play in Idle Games.” Transactions of

the Digital Games Research Association, vol. 3, no. 3, 2018, doi:10.26503/todigra.v3i3.81.

King, Alexander. “Numbers Getting Bigger: What Are Incremental Games, and Why Are

They Fun?” Game Development Envato Tuts+, 22 May 2015,

gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/numbers-getting-bigger-what-are-incremental-gam

es-and-why-are-they-fun--cms-23925.

Parkin, Simon. “The Rise of Games You (Mostly) Don't Play.” Gamasutra, 13 Mar. 2015,

www.gamasutra.com/view/news/237926/The_rise_of_games_you_mostly_dont_play.php.

Pecorella, Anthony. “A Brief Look at the Idle Games Genre.” Kongregate Developers

Blog, Kongregate, 5 Apr. 2016, blog.kongregate.com/idle-games/.

Tanz, Jason. “The Curse of Cow Clicker: How a Cheeky Satire Became a Videogame Hit.”

Wired, 31 July 2018, www.wired.com/2011/12/ff-cowclicker/.

Varaksina, Svitlana. “How to Make an Idle Clicker Game: Costs and Tips - Mind Studios.”

Blog - Mind Studios, Mind Studios, 9 Apr. 2019,

themindstudios.com/blog/how-to-make-an-idle-clicker-game/.

“Wait Wait… Don’t Play Me: The Clicker Game Genre and Configuring Everyday

Temporalities.” InVisible Culture, 18 Apr. 2019,

ivc.lib.rochester.edu/wait-wait-dont-play-me-the-clicker-game-genre-and-configuring-everyday-temporalities/.