CHI 2018 Paper CHI 2018, April 21–26, 2018, Montréal, QC, Canada Playing to Wait: A Taxonomy of Idle Games Sultan A. Alharthi,1 Olaa Alsaedi,1 Zachary O. Toups,1 Joshua Tanenbaum,2 Jessica Hammer3 1Play & Interactive Experiences for Learning Lab, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA 2 Transformative Play Lab, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA 3HCI Institute / Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA {salharth, olaa}@nmsu.edu,
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[email protected] Figure 1. Sample of idle games featuring different styles of gameplay, interaction, and graphical or text interfaces. From left to right: Cookie Clicker [G50], AdVenture Capitalist [G38], Kittens Game [G16], Clicker Heroes [G66], and Cow Clicker [G39]. Screenshots taken cb author Alharthi. ABSTRACT are typically played in web browsers, on mobile devices, or Idle games are a recent minimalist gaming phenomenon in on a PC. Players progress with minimal-to-no interaction. Idle which the game is left running with little player interaction. games usually involve repeating a simple action (e.g., clicking, We deepen understanding of idle games and their characteris- rubbing, tapping) to accumulate resources as a core mechanic, tics by developing a taxonomy and identifying game features. an action that is regularly performed in play [55]. Most idle This paper examines 66 idle games using a grounded theory games also include mechanics that automate gameplay so the approach to analyze play, game mechanics, rewards, interac- game progresses by itself [50]. Although the interactions are tivity, progress rate, and user interface.