Cultural analysis of idle games

For many in the working class, Cookie Clicker is more than just a game - it is a beacon of hope. I insist, however, that the anti-capitalist (or otherwise satirical) element of idle games has been exaggerated.

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Sources and further reading:
"Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies, And Neoliberalism" by Jonathan Bailes
   • Why Idle games make good satire, and how i...   "Why Idle games make good satire, and how it was ruined." by Thought Slime
"Governmentality, Neoliberalism, and the Digital Game" by Andrew Baerg
""It Started as a Joke": On the Design of Idle Games" by Katta Spiel, Sultan A. Alharthi, Andrew Jian-Lan Cen et al.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/cooki... "‘Cookie Clicker’ Wasn’t Meant to Be Fun. Why Is It So Popular 8 Years Later?" by Patrick Klepek
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022065... GDC: "Idle Games: The Mechanics and Monetization of Self-Playing Games" by Anthony Pecorella
"Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games" by Tracy Fullerton
  / clickers-and-capitalism   "Cookies in Context" by Julian Cady

Music used in this video:
"click", "hover", "grandmapocalypse", "ascend" from the Cookie Clicker OST by C418
https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/cooki...

"Welcome to Los Santos" from the GTA V OST by Oh No
https://open.spotify.com/track/5ZZuiM...

"AdVenture Capitalist Theme" from the AdVenture Capitalist OST by Hyper Hippo
  / popular-tracks  

0:00 Intro
3:23 Politics in games
8:21 Design foundations of idle games
12:34 Progress Quest case study
14:50 AdVenture Capitalist case study
17:35 Cookie Clicker's politics
22:00 The genre's next steps

you can find me on the websites https://x.com/Alex_Pinetree https://bsky.app/profile/alex-pine.bs...