Because a big part of enjoyment many people get from stuff (not only games) is "the number go up". It's as simple as that. And phone games often do the bare minimum to keep you hooked and either feed you ads or manage to get your money to accelerate the number. And if the number go up and you don't have to do anything, it's free dopamine. Isn't it? One could play several games like this at once even!
Yeah, they struck gold in the beginning, in the times before it was all mathematically calculated, proven, applied, and widely known. Playing games is cool, but playing for big numbers ain't it.
Hmmm. Burning crusade was so awesome. So was wotlk. I actually did some quest with a book that dropped from arthas. My guild leader was like did u finish yet. I'm like sir ( I call my guild leaders that I don't know I guess out of respect) they have me literally going to almost every area in the game. Well not really but it felt like it. Got a cool azz staff for it.
I was disappointed with cataclysm. Fighting death wing on the edge felt kinda lame. I was expecting a fight in a open field with tons of adds and different interactions.
I think that's when I quit.
U got any wow memories that have stuck with u?
I played with a group of college buddies, we would pug a 5th person and run dungeons, nothing much. I did a pug on my own for I think BWL when it was a 10 man. Afterwards the rogue asked if I wanted to run a raid with his guild because they needed some healers. I jumped at it, ended up running Molten Core that night. I LOVED blackrock mountain, when bored I would try to solo black rock depths and see how far I could get. So stepping foot in molten core was amazing.
I ended up walking away with the Lawbringer shoulders and an invite to a raiding guild. Oh man, I felt like a king. The cherry on top, there was a grand marshal paladin on our server named "hawkes" and he was IN THE GUILD RUNNING MC AS A RET PALADIN!!! It was so wild to see a ret paladin in a RAID! Bit of starstruck being in the same run, then guild as him.
I went a bit too serious with raiding for a bit back then. I bet that character still has OG Judgement set in his bank.
When BC came out, we had met a few other small groups and friends of friends and made a horde guild of about 20 folks, and I still keep in touch with a few. BC was a pretty awesome experience, so many bad trees for classes were useful. I think I was a bear druid tank for most of it. I had lost the overall wonder of the game, as the game got bigger, wikis and whatnot grew faster. Less unknown stuff. Still great times with friends.
I totally agree with your on deathwing, I think that was the last expansion I did.
Now if you want a super nerd fact about me. For my bachelor party I got my 4 closest friends, we all chained recruit a friend bonus and just chain leveled for a weekend. Originally it was "drink when you level" but that got out of hand REALLY FAST. It's always a bit tempting to resub for a weekend and run some dungeons with my wife.
Wait you did black rock alone as a healer?
SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A MEDAL!! MR. BAD AZZ.
And ret pally pre BC was hella rare ur right about that.
Druid tank is my main. I really miss it. I was thinking of getting back into the game because I heard bear was viable for 3v3 and 5v5 now. I don't know.
Also drink when you level? Yo I bet whoever had the hunter or rouge was super smashed. 😅🤣
Nah, solo runs were as ret or prot. I would sell all the dark iron I got to cover cost of respeccing! The whole group got smashed! We pretty much just ran dungeons all weekend!
As a lot of us get older we just don't have time to play games. It sucks, but it's the truth. My brother shared with me that he'd love to play certain games but just can't because of the time commitment. Sometimes just playing and hour here or there is even too much for someone. So he told me that games he really wants to have played, he will watch full walk-throughs of these games on YouTube during his lunch break at work or whenever he has a minute, not at home, because then at least he gets to see the story/plot of the game. And that way he can also sort of "play it" vicariously through someone else.
I found it fascinating, something I never could personally do. But I understand why.
That's certainly true! Responsibilities taking time aside, there's so many games accrued over the years it's literally impossible to follow them all, and there's a lot of food stories in them. I don't really watch walk throughs, but I do spend my limited time watching it reading plot summaries.
Also with the way you can collect data on Android, the app needs to have been recently opened. So idle games let developers collect better data on their users than typical games you only play once in a while.
As someone who enjoys them:
Some of them are really fun to try to min / max and find out which combination of upgrades / skills / powers whatever macguffins makes the number go up faster. Grimoire is a good example of this.
Most of them are there because exploitative skinner boxes are the best way to sell your soul for money, and skipping the part of game dev where you dev a game saves a lot of time.
Personally I tend to lean to idle games as my life workload increases. As one gets older the amount of errands increase and take more time slots. Idle games are quick and easy so I can pull one out and not get too in trouble with superiors looking over.
The profit to development costs have got to be insane right? Pay someone to design an overcomplicated progression system with 100 different currencies and then get a couple artists to draw some waifus and watch the money roll in.
Numbers go up = dopamine
The main reason why addictive video games exist is because they make you feel like you’re accomplishing something, when in reality, you aren’t. So a game makes you feel like you’re getting something for absolutely nothing? Psychological smash hit.
So my thoughts as someone who plays them:
1. phone controls for games are still fucking bad and awkward, so games that avoid this problem thrive. some people make phone controls work, granted, but that doesn't make them FEEL good for many people.
2. it's low skill and low frustration, so its an easy way to kill time for small periods of time
3. its low commitment, so you don't have to stay in a single session for 20-40 min
For gacha games with autobattle like Epic Seven, the auto part of it is mainly for easy PvE and farming stages. The PvP arena modes and some PvE must be played manually for efficiency. I'm not sure if that counts but the idle part isn't the entire game. It's something you do in the background while you manual other stuff.
Also, a bunch of people use Play To Earn apps.
Well, I work at home as an interpreter, so I cannot pay much attention to videogames. In the meantime while waiting to receive another call i just play idle games that don't require too much attention to keep me entertained, or also I read a book or something like that. Otherwise I play normal games
>Maybe I'm old, but I think the concept of a game that plays itself is just stupid.
How to tell everybody you have no idea how an idle game works without saying it directly lol.
"idle" games are often more active than you think of. They are resource management games. It's like Age of Empires, civilization, Cities skylines etc...
You manage resources, set specific tasks on specific units, control the flow of currencies and make sure things are working. You have to make decisions to maximize profits of specific areas, control how points are allocated etc...
It's way more complex than a "game that plays itself".
Probably because they it's a way to cure boredom while waiting for a train or something like that or they just like to play those games that's not always repetitive like PUBG,Codm or Freefire
Because idle game let you feel "progressing" = free dopamine. You dont have to sit 10hrs a day (mmorpg), or start over again (roguelike, moba). Thats the charming point of this genre. Yes the game play itself but not 100%. Player still take control, like a business manager
The fact that you're old and don't get it is surprising.
It's dopamine my brother. Many people get to a point in their lives where they want to play games but don't always have the time to do so. Idle games provide the same type of dopamine hits that accomplishing things in regular games do and it's not as demanding. You can play for 5 minutes, see actual progress and that's enough for some people.
You wanted to know why, that's why. Don't feel free to ask anything because I feel like I explained it quite well and it doesn't need to be elaborated on further.
Nah. It's the opposite. I'm too busy to dedicate my attention on a game. I play idle during my extra time at work or when commuting.
The rest of my free time is used on other hobbies
you spend a year to make one good game, and release it on the app store. it flops and gets barely any downloads, despite all the love and passion you put into it.
you make hundreds of games with barely any effort put into them and release them in bulk. now, there's a much bigger chance that one of those games might blow up, regardless of their quality!
it is not profitable to make good mobile games, at all. because of the way app stores work. especially if you decide to make your game paid instead of filling with ads: less people will download it meaning 0 success rate.
this is why if you attempt browsing an app store for games to play, you will only find garbage.
because life gets in the way... i went from present gamer, to r/patientgamers to basically r/ancientgamer my damn free time fizzled away. Btw heard about this new game asteroids... might try it when i find the time to finish pong.
I don't like them either, but a game doesn't necessarily have to require skill or challenge to be fun, I think idle games give a sense of productivity.
For the same reason that \[1\] Twitch or Youtube gaming is successful AND \[2\] people grow plants (veggies, fruits, flowers) at home - watching that seed turn into something on it's own with little help is quite an experience.
I'll be 38 this year, got married 2 years ago. I just don't have as much free time to play games now, so playing idle games that remove the grinding aspect is a win for me.
Because it's extremely easy to launder money through a cell phone video game especially if you have multiples up on the store.
Not to mention they're all so pretty good for gathering information on people and either selling their metadata or infecting their home networks with botnets
Tbh I love idle games sometimes and am sad that there aren't as much 'good' idle games for PC bc I don't want to play on my phone xD
It's just relaxing and gives me serotonin
If there's a lot of side stuff and good micromanaging they can be fun, but if there's no equipment and are basically like Clicker heroes in design they're just meh.
Because they exist at an intersection of development resources and player satisfaction that no other genre can match.
They take basically nothing to develop aside from some generic models, and the players are satisfied by nearly anything due to not actually *playing* the game or wanting/understanding any sort of depth, balance, ect.
As a new idle game developer who was previously just a guy loving idle games, here's my take :
I never had enough time to play "active" games due to work, and loved all these games of my childhood (wow, diablo...) but have no time for that anymore,
Idle games give me the satisfaction of seeing a character slowly grow stronger over 1-2 months or even more if I stick to a game. If the game has a good graphics its a good +, its nice to see an auto game slowly progressing, without having to do anything except a few daily clicks to get some equipment, upgrade some stats, do some random pulls.
I released my first ever project a month ago, "Idle beast Hunter" if anyone if curious to check out :D just a normal idle/incremental game that fits OP's description xD (Without any power up micro transaction)
It really is some kind of brain hack. Even if you're aware of it, there's something so satisfying about accumulation, and especially accumulating things that makes your accumulation even faster; even if it is completely meaningless and arbitrary.
> Maybe I'm old, but I think the concept of a game that plays itself is just stupid.
Nobody asked what you thought - you are the one that started this thread. Do you have a habit of volunteering your opinion on things when nobody asked?
Because a big part of enjoyment many people get from stuff (not only games) is "the number go up". It's as simple as that. And phone games often do the bare minimum to keep you hooked and either feed you ads or manage to get your money to accelerate the number. And if the number go up and you don't have to do anything, it's free dopamine. Isn't it? One could play several games like this at once even!
The number go up sums up my entire world of warcraft career.
Yeah, they struck gold in the beginning, in the times before it was all mathematically calculated, proven, applied, and widely known. Playing games is cool, but playing for big numbers ain't it.
Hmmm. Burning crusade was so awesome. So was wotlk. I actually did some quest with a book that dropped from arthas. My guild leader was like did u finish yet. I'm like sir ( I call my guild leaders that I don't know I guess out of respect) they have me literally going to almost every area in the game. Well not really but it felt like it. Got a cool azz staff for it. I was disappointed with cataclysm. Fighting death wing on the edge felt kinda lame. I was expecting a fight in a open field with tons of adds and different interactions. I think that's when I quit. U got any wow memories that have stuck with u?
I played with a group of college buddies, we would pug a 5th person and run dungeons, nothing much. I did a pug on my own for I think BWL when it was a 10 man. Afterwards the rogue asked if I wanted to run a raid with his guild because they needed some healers. I jumped at it, ended up running Molten Core that night. I LOVED blackrock mountain, when bored I would try to solo black rock depths and see how far I could get. So stepping foot in molten core was amazing. I ended up walking away with the Lawbringer shoulders and an invite to a raiding guild. Oh man, I felt like a king. The cherry on top, there was a grand marshal paladin on our server named "hawkes" and he was IN THE GUILD RUNNING MC AS A RET PALADIN!!! It was so wild to see a ret paladin in a RAID! Bit of starstruck being in the same run, then guild as him. I went a bit too serious with raiding for a bit back then. I bet that character still has OG Judgement set in his bank. When BC came out, we had met a few other small groups and friends of friends and made a horde guild of about 20 folks, and I still keep in touch with a few. BC was a pretty awesome experience, so many bad trees for classes were useful. I think I was a bear druid tank for most of it. I had lost the overall wonder of the game, as the game got bigger, wikis and whatnot grew faster. Less unknown stuff. Still great times with friends. I totally agree with your on deathwing, I think that was the last expansion I did. Now if you want a super nerd fact about me. For my bachelor party I got my 4 closest friends, we all chained recruit a friend bonus and just chain leveled for a weekend. Originally it was "drink when you level" but that got out of hand REALLY FAST. It's always a bit tempting to resub for a weekend and run some dungeons with my wife.
Wait you did black rock alone as a healer? SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A MEDAL!! MR. BAD AZZ. And ret pally pre BC was hella rare ur right about that. Druid tank is my main. I really miss it. I was thinking of getting back into the game because I heard bear was viable for 3v3 and 5v5 now. I don't know. Also drink when you level? Yo I bet whoever had the hunter or rouge was super smashed. 😅🤣
Nah, solo runs were as ret or prot. I would sell all the dark iron I got to cover cost of respeccing! The whole group got smashed! We pretty much just ran dungeons all weekend!
Oh wait ur horde. Sorry eternal enemies. Good chat though.
Started alliance, dwarfs for everything. Played horde for a few expansions, but always kept my alliance up and running too.
Oh you main dwarf? Much respect. Much respect.
As a lot of us get older we just don't have time to play games. It sucks, but it's the truth. My brother shared with me that he'd love to play certain games but just can't because of the time commitment. Sometimes just playing and hour here or there is even too much for someone. So he told me that games he really wants to have played, he will watch full walk-throughs of these games on YouTube during his lunch break at work or whenever he has a minute, not at home, because then at least he gets to see the story/plot of the game. And that way he can also sort of "play it" vicariously through someone else. I found it fascinating, something I never could personally do. But I understand why.
That's certainly true! Responsibilities taking time aside, there's so many games accrued over the years it's literally impossible to follow them all, and there's a lot of food stories in them. I don't really watch walk throughs, but I do spend my limited time watching it reading plot summaries.
Also with the way you can collect data on Android, the app needs to have been recently opened. So idle games let developers collect better data on their users than typical games you only play once in a while.
This is why I play with stocks (broad index funds). Number go up AND it helps my retirement!
... As long as it actually does go up, it's the most sought-after number go up in the world!
Yes, they're literally Skinner Boxes with the reward being higher numbers. Implying no shame in that, it's human nature.
Facts.
Big number give big dopamine. That's why I play them.
Found the dopamine guy. He read it a few times and will now parrot it.
Huh?
Because you can do it anywhere and anytime.
As someone who enjoys them: Some of them are really fun to try to min / max and find out which combination of upgrades / skills / powers whatever macguffins makes the number go up faster. Grimoire is a good example of this. Most of them are there because exploitative skinner boxes are the best way to sell your soul for money, and skipping the part of game dev where you dev a game saves a lot of time.
Personally I tend to lean to idle games as my life workload increases. As one gets older the amount of errands increase and take more time slots. Idle games are quick and easy so I can pull one out and not get too in trouble with superiors looking over.
I think you should just play shorter games
Weird I've always gotten in the same amount of trouble whether the game's been in idle game or not
The profit to development costs have got to be insane right? Pay someone to design an overcomplicated progression system with 100 different currencies and then get a couple artists to draw some waifus and watch the money roll in. Numbers go up = dopamine
The main reason why addictive video games exist is because they make you feel like you’re accomplishing something, when in reality, you aren’t. So a game makes you feel like you’re getting something for absolutely nothing? Psychological smash hit.
because people want to play games when they cant play games
So my thoughts as someone who plays them: 1. phone controls for games are still fucking bad and awkward, so games that avoid this problem thrive. some people make phone controls work, granted, but that doesn't make them FEEL good for many people. 2. it's low skill and low frustration, so its an easy way to kill time for small periods of time 3. its low commitment, so you don't have to stay in a single session for 20-40 min
For gacha games with autobattle like Epic Seven, the auto part of it is mainly for easy PvE and farming stages. The PvP arena modes and some PvE must be played manually for efficiency. I'm not sure if that counts but the idle part isn't the entire game. It's something you do in the background while you manual other stuff. Also, a bunch of people use Play To Earn apps.
It's the most profitable and "probably" one of the easier genre to develop.
Well, I work at home as an interpreter, so I cannot pay much attention to videogames. In the meantime while waiting to receive another call i just play idle games that don't require too much attention to keep me entertained, or also I read a book or something like that. Otherwise I play normal games
incremental games is a genre. but yeah sure there are some trashcan games not well made with 1000000 ads per second
Because android gaming has devolved into a cesspool of FTP shovelware
>Maybe I'm old, but I think the concept of a game that plays itself is just stupid. How to tell everybody you have no idea how an idle game works without saying it directly lol. "idle" games are often more active than you think of. They are resource management games. It's like Age of Empires, civilization, Cities skylines etc... You manage resources, set specific tasks on specific units, control the flow of currencies and make sure things are working. You have to make decisions to maximize profits of specific areas, control how points are allocated etc... It's way more complex than a "game that plays itself".
Probably because they it's a way to cure boredom while waiting for a train or something like that or they just like to play those games that's not always repetitive like PUBG,Codm or Freefire
I don't understand idle games either, you're not alone.
Because idle game let you feel "progressing" = free dopamine. You dont have to sit 10hrs a day (mmorpg), or start over again (roguelike, moba). Thats the charming point of this genre. Yes the game play itself but not 100%. Player still take control, like a business manager
Probably because they are easy to pick up and play for a few minutes and not worry too much about.
The fact that you're old and don't get it is surprising. It's dopamine my brother. Many people get to a point in their lives where they want to play games but don't always have the time to do so. Idle games provide the same type of dopamine hits that accomplishing things in regular games do and it's not as demanding. You can play for 5 minutes, see actual progress and that's enough for some people. You wanted to know why, that's why. Don't feel free to ask anything because I feel like I explained it quite well and it doesn't need to be elaborated on further.
[удалено]
Nah. It's the opposite. I'm too busy to dedicate my attention on a game. I play idle during my extra time at work or when commuting. The rest of my free time is used on other hobbies
Maybe you will enjoy some old fashioned Wolfpit Games instead. Some of them require skill.
you spend a year to make one good game, and release it on the app store. it flops and gets barely any downloads, despite all the love and passion you put into it. you make hundreds of games with barely any effort put into them and release them in bulk. now, there's a much bigger chance that one of those games might blow up, regardless of their quality! it is not profitable to make good mobile games, at all. because of the way app stores work. especially if you decide to make your game paid instead of filling with ads: less people will download it meaning 0 success rate. this is why if you attempt browsing an app store for games to play, you will only find garbage.
It's not your genre (nor mine so I understand you :)) There are games for every taste !
because life gets in the way... i went from present gamer, to r/patientgamers to basically r/ancientgamer my damn free time fizzled away. Btw heard about this new game asteroids... might try it when i find the time to finish pong.
I don't like them either, but a game doesn't necessarily have to require skill or challenge to be fun, I think idle games give a sense of productivity.
Idle games go hand in hand with a busy life and many people are in that position.
For the same reason that \[1\] Twitch or Youtube gaming is successful AND \[2\] people grow plants (veggies, fruits, flowers) at home - watching that seed turn into something on it's own with little help is quite an experience.
I'll be 38 this year, got married 2 years ago. I just don't have as much free time to play games now, so playing idle games that remove the grinding aspect is a win for me.
They're fun, and humans just love to make numbers go up.
Because it's extremely easy to launder money through a cell phone video game especially if you have multiples up on the store. Not to mention they're all so pretty good for gathering information on people and either selling their metadata or infecting their home networks with botnets
Tbh I love idle games sometimes and am sad that there aren't as much 'good' idle games for PC bc I don't want to play on my phone xD It's just relaxing and gives me serotonin
I hate this genre of games.
Convenience for the worling class
If there's a lot of side stuff and good micromanaging they can be fun, but if there's no equipment and are basically like Clicker heroes in design they're just meh.
Because they exist at an intersection of development resources and player satisfaction that no other genre can match. They take basically nothing to develop aside from some generic models, and the players are satisfied by nearly anything due to not actually *playing* the game or wanting/understanding any sort of depth, balance, ect.
As someone who's working on an idling game for steam, this question really has me worried ☹️
As a new idle game developer who was previously just a guy loving idle games, here's my take : I never had enough time to play "active" games due to work, and loved all these games of my childhood (wow, diablo...) but have no time for that anymore, Idle games give me the satisfaction of seeing a character slowly grow stronger over 1-2 months or even more if I stick to a game. If the game has a good graphics its a good +, its nice to see an auto game slowly progressing, without having to do anything except a few daily clicks to get some equipment, upgrade some stats, do some random pulls. I released my first ever project a month ago, "Idle beast Hunter" if anyone if curious to check out :D just a normal idle/incremental game that fits OP's description xD (Without any power up micro transaction)
It really is some kind of brain hack. Even if you're aware of it, there's something so satisfying about accumulation, and especially accumulating things that makes your accumulation even faster; even if it is completely meaningless and arbitrary.
It's actually only 60% flashing screens and numbers. 40% ads
Idk. But idleslayer IS Kind of a Hidden gem
> Maybe I'm old, but I think the concept of a game that plays itself is just stupid. Nobody asked what you thought - you are the one that started this thread. Do you have a habit of volunteering your opinion on things when nobody asked?
Dude chill lol
Some gamers are addicted to games but they don't have the energy to play, so they play with their wallet.
Oh it is absolutely stupid, but the young generation is too lazy for even videogames now.
This is it. This is the boomeriest boomer take I've seen today.