Idle Games. Genre Discussion.

[Radiant_Maelstrom]

So after Progress Quest and Anti-Idle has been created, we've been having a large surge of idle games appear and a new genre of video games. I would like to start a discussion on the reason of the cause of its popularity, nothing of academy assignment of sort but of pure curiosity. Is it because it is allow you to see numbers grow without the tedium of grinding? Let me hear your thoughts on the matter .

[Ysh]

So after Progress Quest and Anti-Idle has been created, we've been having a large surge of idle games appear and a new genre of video games. I would like to start a discussion on the reason of the cause of its popularity, nothing of academy assignment of sort but of pure curiosity. Is it because it is allow you to see numbers grow without the tedium of grinding? Let me hear your thoughts on the matter .

Requires no effort and give (very little) reward. People like to see number go up.

[dageir]

At some point the numbers get silly and the interest is lost.
Also I soon reach 1000 posts!

[GenghisKhan44]

So after Progress Quest and Anti-Idle has been created, we've been having a large surge of idle games appear and a new genre of video games. I would like to start a discussion on the reason of the cause of its popularity, nothing of academy assignment of sort but of pure curiosity. Is it because it is allow you to see numbers grow without the tedium of grinding? Let me hear your thoughts on the matter .

Requires no effort and give (very little) reward. People like to see number go up.

Yeah. It is another logical turn in the Western trait of seeking instant gratification and impatience and an alienation from the goodness of sacrifice.

[Ysh]

At some point the numbers get silly and the interest is lost.
Also I soon reach 1000 posts!

You do have celebrate planned? It is large milestone! Happy to you.

So after Progress Quest and Anti-Idle has been created, we've been having a large surge of idle games appear and a new genre of video games. I would like to start a discussion on the reason of the cause of its popularity, nothing of academy assignment of sort but of pure curiosity. Is it because it is allow you to see numbers grow without the tedium of grinding? Let me hear your thoughts on the matter .

Requires no effort and give (very little) reward. People like to see number go up.

Yeah. It is another logical turn in the Western trait of seeking instant gratification and impatience and an alienation from the goodness of sacrifice.

You seem as to not like this direction of moving.

[Radiant_Maelstrom]

I'd less think of it as a Western think rather than more of a high effort vs reward rather than something cultural. And there are some people that more believe it is the journey that makes the game fun rather than the end.

[Zeler]

one man likes idle games and another one when his feets stink

[Mafious]

well after this update the game is now an iddle game.

[GenghisKhan44]

Yeah. It is another logical turn in the Western trait of seeking instant gratification and impatience and an alienation from the goodness of sacrifice.

You seem as to not like this direction of moving.

Honestly, no. What kind of game is it where you just click and are rewarded? There's actually something fun about the chance of losing.

[TeckXKnight]

Idle games are a peculiar genre as they're not only easier, faster, and cheaper to make than a traditional game in virtually every way, they seem to garner a larger and more dedicated audience. In a way they represent a refinement of a Pavlovian response. To some degree they're not bad, another type of game for another crowd of people is fine. As we've seen, even in Haven, people enjoy games well enough when bots play for them. On the other hand their ease of production has made them flood the 'market' sort-of-speak. When you look at online game hosting websites you see around 5 to 10 idle games for every other type of game put out. This overproduction and general low quality of game devalues games as a whole while creating a sort of fatigue in people who want to try new games.

Speaking empirically I thought Cookie Clicker, Progress Quest, and Idle Reactor were a lot of fun. I enjoyed when steam put out an idle clicker game for one of their sales. I'm playing an idle game right now that I refuse to name or endorse because of how godawful and intrusive the tutorials were. I hate going to sites like kongregate now though since 90% of all of the new games listed are idle games, 5% are freemium card games, and 5% are playable games. This ennui has lead to a drop in how much I play games in general and a stark drop in how much I spend on them. In 2014 I must have spent about $800 on video games. I dropped $20 on various freemium games that I had enjoyed for a long time like Shop Heroes, picked up new games that I wanted to try like Dark Souls 2 and Craft the World, and generally didn't mind putting money down to buy games to pass the time. Fast forward to 2016 and I've spent nothing on online games because I'm so sick of idle and freemium games, I've spent a total of maybe $120 on new games because I'm so burnt out on everything. I haven't even been able to muster the will to pick up Dark Souls 3 and I love that series. That's a devastating drop in consumption.

So the fact that idle games exist is great, new genres are interesting and fun to explore and different facets of our time and interest call for different types of entertainment. The fact that they're so easy to make and flood the market with is awful.