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Comment by ctur | Hacker News Reader

This is a recent and interesting video about "idle games". That is the classification of this kind of game. They were initially satirical in nature but eventually turned into sad self-satire as it "blossomed" into a real genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7khbIR-WQIw

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I still chuckle about Cow Clicker, made by Ian Bogost. It went from Farmville satire to full-blown ironic game because people kept playing it, and even paying microtransactions. It says something about humanity, but I'm not sure what.

http://bogost.com/games/cow_clicker/

It says to me that we struggle for purpose as humans. We don't know what to do with ourselves beyond survival, and we sometimes make elaborate clocks, just indicating the passage of time in a way that resonates. Lots of things can act like clocks, not really shaping us or meaningfully interacting except by providing an aesthetic and an indication that we're moving forward through time. If you're watching episode 90 of a long running TV show that sticks to its formula, that's somewhat clock-like. It's similar to listening to the same album every day, or reading the same arguments on social media.

Idle games don't appeal to me, but I have my time-wasting clock-watching habits, too.

Could it be our hunter-gatherer instinct pulling our legs? Give a toddler a chocolate, and they'll just eat it. Give them a plate with the equivalent in M&Ms and they will enjoy picking them one by one. Hunter-gatherers that got bored fast probably weren't as successful as their obsessive peers.

This reminds me how primates and monkeys seem to enjoy meticulously cleaning other's fur looking for fleas.

Couldn't say, of course, but that's an interesting idea. I think you're right to look to the past for selection pressures that might explain why we are how we are. It's true that a number of tasks we'd need to do in primitive living are low on mental effort over a relatively long time. That could help explain why absent a need, we still want to do similar things.

Thanks to this link I'm now aware of Cookie Clicker and have been 'playing' it for the last couple of hours. I now have no life.

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