Why Clicking On Cows Brings Us Closer Together

A Facebook game about Facebook games was inevitable: Hence  “Cow Clicker,” a spoof Facebook app created by game theorist Ian Bogost in an attempt to distill the appeal of Zynga games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and FrontierVille. Between Scamville , Mark Pincus’ “every dirty trick in the book” comments, and a particularly unfortunate speech at the GDC, 2010 is the year to hate on social games — viewed by many gaming industry developers to be simplistic derivatives requiring no talent or skill. Whether Zynga games are successful because they give users valuable social experiences or because they are, according Bogost’s fellow game theorist Jesper Juul, “ brain hacks that exploit human psychology in order to make money, ” people will always be willing to play up the latter theory.

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Why Clicking On Cows Brings Us Closer Together