Cow Clicker Boils Down Facebook Games 237
mjn writes "Game designer and academic Ian Bogost announces Cow Clicker, a Facebook game implementing the mechanics of the Facebook-games genre stripped to their core. You get a cow, which you can click on every six hours. You earn additional clicks if your friends in your pasture also click. You can buy premium cows with 'mooney,' and also use your mooney to buy more clicks. You can buy mooney with real dollars, or earn some free bonus mooney if you spam up your feed with Cow Clicker activity. A satire of Facebook games, but actually as genuine a game as the non-satirical games are. And people actually play it, perhaps confirming Bogost's view that the genre of games is largely just 'brain hacks that exploit human psychology in order to make money,' which continue to work even when the users are openly told what's going on."
You found a lonely lost cow (Score:5, Funny)
Strange Game (Score:4, Funny)
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
Sign me up. (Score:5, Funny)
I am predicting at least one defriending as I rub this piece of satire in some choice faces.
I don't think one can truly appreciate the evil addictive nature of those games until he has watched a loved one lose hours in a catatonic trance of digital fertilizing.
Wait.
Maybe there's something to her arguments about porn?
Re:You found a lonely lost cow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Strange Game (Score:2, Funny)
A nice game of cheese?
Re:You can buy mooney with real dollars. (Score:3, Funny)
Who. Are. These. People?
And what's their contact info?
That site... (Score:3, Funny)
Click My Cow! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You found a lonely lost cow (Score:3, Funny)
Click here to continue reading
click "to here", continue reading
Cult of the dead cow (Score:4, Funny)
If you're going to make a viral app as a satire of other apps, you should prepare your site to at least stand one slashdotting.
Re:Guess I haven't played enough FB games (Score:2, Funny)
My character Muffy in Sorority Life has special Paris clothing and hot cars.
Plus I think she's the US Ambassador to the UN or something.
Mostly I use my special powers to beat up French chix tho.
Re:That site... (Score:2, Funny)
There is no Cow Level.
Re:Guess I haven't played enough FB games (Score:2, Funny)
F*ck [...] everyone I went to school with
Doesn't sound like a lonely game to me. Risky, yeah, but certainly not lonely.
Unless, of course, you were homeschooled, in which case it's just sick.
Personally I'd be at least choosy about, if nothing else, gender. But that's me.
Re:Prior Art (Score:5, Funny)
Even better: Posting comments going for a "Funny" mod which doesn't mean anything for your Karma... but doing it anyway. ;)
Re:Sign me up. (Score:3, Funny)
Except your porn addiction is over in minutes, nay, SECONDS, whereas facebook consumes multiple hours of peoples days.
This is a virus (Score:1, Funny)
This is a virus. It works on the honor system. Please delete all the files from your hard drive and manually post a copy of this virus. Thank you for your cooperation.
Re:You found a lonely lost cow (Score:1, Funny)
How many times do I have to click, scroll down and reread your post before I feel satisfied with my personal life and no longer feel the need to play this game?
Re:Sign me up. (Score:2, Funny)
Except your porn addiction is over in minutes, nay, SECONDS, whereas facebook consumes multiple hours of peoples days.
I find the reverse to be true. One of us is doing it wrong.
Re:You found a lonely lost cow (Score:4, Funny)
I'll write a macro to click it for me so I don't have to read!
Re:Strange Game (Score:4, Funny)
In the game of chess, you can never let your adversary see your pieces
-Zapp Brannigan
Re:Exploiting? (Score:3, Funny)
"Ever felt pressured by your better half to buy a small piece of metal (jewelery) for $1000 dollars or a tiny bottle of water (perfume) for $100?"
Nope (and we've been together 13 years). Get a better better half.
This only works once, then you run out of hands. Then become jealous of octopus.
Re:Strange Game (Score:5, Funny)
In the game of chess, you can never let your adversary see your pieces
And if we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.
Re:Prior Art (Score:3, Funny)
Trust me, I'm a Buddhist, I don't need any more Karma!
Speaking of Jokes and Buddhists, I'm sure we've all heard this one before.
So a Buddhist monk goes up to a hot dog vendor. Vendor asks him "What'll it be?" and the monk replies, "Make me one with everything."
*Badoom psh*
So the vendor fixes him up with a dog, with all the fillings. The Monk hands him a $20 bill and the vendor puts it in the till and smiles at him. The monk, a little confused, asks him "What about my change?" and the vendor replies, "Change comes from within."
Re:Strange Game (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Guess I haven't played enough FB games (Score:4, Funny)
>>>RPG game?
Role Playing Genre game.
See? Wouldn't I make a great politician? I can backpeddle and bullshit with the best of 'em. ;-) Maybe I'll check-out this Cow Clicker game - see how many of my friends I can dupe into joining it.
Re:Exploiting? (Score:5, Funny)
What? You don't?
Every month I get a credit to my Paypal account, it's usually $50-100 . I think I get around $1 per +5 post, and I get like $0.25 per mod point I spend on behalf of Microsoft. I get the statement that itemizes the payment in my email each month, but I never bother to read it.
Dude, if you're posting here and not getting paid, you're really wasting your time. Send me your contact info via email at slashdot_shill_127@microsoft.com, I'll sign you up for the program -- I think I get a $25 referral bonus if you maintain high karma and moderate weekly for six months.
My dis am bigger than yours (Score:3, Funny)
"RPG game"... really? did you use your PIN number on an ATM machine to buy that typical RPG game?
As Wikipedia's RAS syndrome article explains [wikipedia.org], the noun after abbreviation helps disambiguate [wikipedia.org] the abbreviation, so that RPG clearly doesn't refer to rocket-propelled grenades, and ATM doesn't refer to the networking methods [wikipedia.org].
Re:Prior Art (Score:3, Funny)
...At which time the Monk answered the question "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Re:You can buy mooney with real dollars. (Score:2, Funny)
Who. Are. These. People?
And what's their contact info?
And why does William Shatner want to know, anyhow?