I've previously mentioned my love of certain Idle games, like Cookie Clicker, and Candy Box. What I may have not mentioned is my disdain for certain others, like Farmville. However, these games are all wildly successful, some, like the aforementioned Farmville, even making a veritable ton of money. These games require little to no effort to play, and can be enjoyed almost endlessly, provided you allow them time to go on, and a small amount of time to update the actions taken in the game.
Why? Why are these games so addictive? Why do they succeed where other, more ambitious games fail? To understand this would be to understand a side of gaming that is rarely considered. If game creators could discover why people enjoy sitting around and just watching a game happen, they could discover an important part of what makes a game fun. There are several possibilities I see from this.
One is just the things simply happening - there's something interesting in just watching something happen that you set in motion. However, something unique about these games is the ability to walk away and let it do stuff for you. This could be a major bonus in some games. MMO's with long, difficult ways to grind could possibly allow you to do something where the game just runs, and you gain the XP at a much slower rate (maybe 1/25th to 1/100th, if the MMO want's to be stingy, which they usually are), which is similar to how Cookie Clicker works.
I suppose one of my favorite things about Cookie Clicker is that you can open it in one tab, and then forget about it for a while. This is very nice, and allows to do many other things while it is running (I confess to have written most of my blog posts with Cookie Clicker running in the background). Do I understand the point of that game? Not really, but I have fun with it. In fact, the only time it becomes boring is when other people call it boring, and don't understand it. Even then, the feeling lasts only ten or so minutes, and by the next time I play, the game is very fun again. This feeling of playing, but forgetting, and then coming back and being pleasantly surprised with the results could be a very important part of the idle game.
This is very important to ask, particularly for the future of the gaming industry. Could idle games, games where you can just walk away, or sit and watch, be a large part of the future? They already hold a large part of the casual market, with Farmville and similar games making large amounts of money for Zynga. Implementing some sort of casual system in games could allow for a much larger audience, if it was studied and people figured out how to do so effectively. However, it would have to be optional in most places, as the more hardcore gamers would certainly not appreciate it as a necessary part of the game. However, even they might appreciate a little respite from repetitive and endless grinding, even if it goes slower than it would if a player was directing it.
Knowing the answers to these questions, and implementing them effectively in games could make "hardcore" games more accessible to the average person (which I suppose could ruin their appeal to some, if they were made easier), allow you to have fun while not needing to deeply engage yourself, and make large, long games less monotonous, as long as you allow it to just keep going in the background.
Why? Why are these games so addictive? Why do they succeed where other, more ambitious games fail? To understand this would be to understand a side of gaming that is rarely considered. If game creators could discover why people enjoy sitting around and just watching a game happen, they could discover an important part of what makes a game fun. There are several possibilities I see from this.
One is just the things simply happening - there's something interesting in just watching something happen that you set in motion. However, something unique about these games is the ability to walk away and let it do stuff for you. This could be a major bonus in some games. MMO's with long, difficult ways to grind could possibly allow you to do something where the game just runs, and you gain the XP at a much slower rate (maybe 1/25th to 1/100th, if the MMO want's to be stingy, which they usually are), which is similar to how Cookie Clicker works.
I suppose one of my favorite things about Cookie Clicker is that you can open it in one tab, and then forget about it for a while. This is very nice, and allows to do many other things while it is running (I confess to have written most of my blog posts with Cookie Clicker running in the background). Do I understand the point of that game? Not really, but I have fun with it. In fact, the only time it becomes boring is when other people call it boring, and don't understand it. Even then, the feeling lasts only ten or so minutes, and by the next time I play, the game is very fun again. This feeling of playing, but forgetting, and then coming back and being pleasantly surprised with the results could be a very important part of the idle game.
This is very important to ask, particularly for the future of the gaming industry. Could idle games, games where you can just walk away, or sit and watch, be a large part of the future? They already hold a large part of the casual market, with Farmville and similar games making large amounts of money for Zynga. Implementing some sort of casual system in games could allow for a much larger audience, if it was studied and people figured out how to do so effectively. However, it would have to be optional in most places, as the more hardcore gamers would certainly not appreciate it as a necessary part of the game. However, even they might appreciate a little respite from repetitive and endless grinding, even if it goes slower than it would if a player was directing it.
Knowing the answers to these questions, and implementing them effectively in games could make "hardcore" games more accessible to the average person (which I suppose could ruin their appeal to some, if they were made easier), allow you to have fun while not needing to deeply engage yourself, and make large, long games less monotonous, as long as you allow it to just keep going in the background.
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