When Ian Bogost launched Cow Clicker, he intended it to be a satire of social games like Farmville, a demonstration of what’s wrong with them in the form of a working model. Cow Clicker may be taking off, by hooking critics of social gaming into clicking their cows daily, even if (as many protest) only ironically, but I’d argue that Cow Clicker is somewhat flawed. As a critique of social games, Cow Clicker has some huge, gaping holes in its working model. Why? Because it’s not exploiting its players enough.

Now, to explain what I mean, I’m going to make an argument about social games, and the way they work. But it’s important to note that I’m talking here about one particular type of social gaming. Games that fit this mould are reasonably identifiable (free to play, minimal free content, paid content gives game advantages, etc.) and if you’re not doing social games this way, this argument probably doesn’t apply to you. It doesn’t apply to games like Neptune’s Pride, or to Words With Friends. It does apply to many of the games made by companies like Zynga, and it does apply to the prominent of these games: Farmville. Continue reading →