Cookie Clicker, Game of the Year Edition

I used to get really wound up about IdleRPG. It wasn't particularly engaging, though it was a wonderful distraction. What excited me wasn't the game, per se. It was more about the general level of interaction within the game. It bent the idea of carrot vs stick in a way that didn't make much sense. Being invested in the game made even less sense. Yet, I was invested and I didn't really understand why. I fucking love that feeling.

There isn't any more novelty in the idea today. For a long time, facebook, et al. have been making passive games. Not only were they the only ones investing in the niche, they were making a killing doing it. Core gamers had low expectations and we were resigned to them. I think that's why Cookie Clicker was so important for me. It made passive games real again.

Cookie Clicker wasn't going to do any of the above it it wasn't a good game first. It took a really silly idea and built something ambitious and strangely beautiful on top of it. I'm not going to dissect it, but all of the game elements tie in together very nicely. The art, the story, the game mechanics are well-reasoned and cohesive. I don't think I'd be talking about any of this otherwise. Nevertheless, it isn't a game you play for a long time. It's fun for a while and then you put it down.

I don't need or want 2000 hours from a game anymore and that's probably OK. I still get a kick out of the thought process. I still get simple pleasure from theorycrafting about random shit. I think that's why Cookie Clicker makes me happy. It just makes me happy that it exists and it's satisfying.

It makes me happy to think that someone will push passive games much, much further.