An investigation of compulsive interactions and mechanics in incremental idle clickers Exploring the tension between interactivity and interpassivity Christoffer Larsson [email protected] Interaction Design Bachelor 22.5HP Spring/2019 Supervisor: Simon Niedenthal 2 of 47 Abstract Incremental idle clickers is a genre of games where gameplay revolves around simple interactions like clicking the screen repeatedly to accumulate currency. The clicking action is often automatized by the game. This thesis investigates qualities that make interactions in incremental idle clickers compulsive and motivating. The incremental idle clickers genre adopts mechanics and interactions that were experienced as compelling, motivating and anxiety-inducing. The “idle” mechanic allows the game to run without player interaction and proved to be central in relation to the player experience. Through a user-centered design-process, the compulsive and motivating nature can be suggested to emerge from three major experiences of the genre, “Monotony”, “Intrusive omnipresence” and “Demanding”. The result includes a discovery of the ambiguous tension and balance between interactivity and interpassivity in the genre. Finding this balance may prove beneficial to the player experience. I identified ethical challenges concerning the game depriving players of satisfying gameplay. Keywords: interaction design, game design, incremental idle clickers, compulsive interactions, interpassivity. 3 of 47 Acknowledgment I would like to give thanks to all those who participated in terms of interviews, observations, workshops and user tests. A special thanks go out to Simon Niedenthal for his valuable guidance and supervision. 4 of 47 Contact Information Author: Christoffer Larsson E-mail: [email protected] Supervisor: Simon Niedenthal E-mail: [email protected] Examiner: Anne-Marie Hansen E-mail: [email protected] 5 of 47 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 2 Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................... 2 Contact Information .............................................................................................................. 3 1 Introduction........................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 Context .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Research questions ....................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.4 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................. 8 1.5 Limitations ................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Relation to interaction design ..................................................................................... 9 1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 The origin of incremental idle clickers ......................................................................... 9 1.2 Incremental idle clickers today ................................................................................... 10 1.3 Mechanics of an incremental idle clicker ................................................................... 11 1.3.1 Main game loop .................................................................................................... 11 1.3.2 Primary currency .................................................................................................. 11 1.3.3 Idling .................................................................................................................... 11 1.3.4 Dynamic mechanics ............................................................................................. 12 1.3.5 Prestige ................................................................................................................. 12 1.3.6 Premium currency ................................................................................................ 12 1.3.7 Special events ....................................................................................................... 12 2 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 User-centered design process ..................................................................................... 13 2.2 Analysis of Idle Games ............................................................................................... 13 2.3 Field Studies ............................................................................................................... 14 2.3.1 Semi-structured Interviews .................................................................................. 14 2.3.2 Observations ........................................................................................................ 14 2.3.3 Extended user testing .......................................................................................... 14 2.4 Grounded Theory ....................................................................................................... 15 2.5 Workshop ................................................................................................................... 16 2.6 Brainstorming ............................................................................................................ 16 2.7 Prototyping ................................................................................................................. 16 2.8 User testing ................................................................................................................ 17 3 Theory ............................................................................................................................... 18 6 of 47 3.1 Interpassivity .............................................................................................................. 18 3.2 Attention Economy..................................................................................................... 18 3.3 Delay of Gratification ................................................................................................. 19 3.4 Self-Determination Theory & Self-Actualization ....................................................... 19 4 Contextual discovery ......................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Analysis of eight incremental idle clickers ................................................................. 19 4.1.1 Analyzing Egg, Inc ............................................................................................... 20 4.1.2 Analyzing Realm Grinder .................................................................................... 22 4.2 Mapping play frequency and context ........................................................................ 23 4.3 Compulsive aspects of incremental idle clickers ........................................................25 4.4 Summary of contextual discovery ............................................................................. 26 4.5 Grounded Theory ....................................................................................................... 27 4.6 Generating a how-might-we question ........................................................................ 31 5 Design Phase .................................................................................................................... 32 5.1 Ideation workshop ..................................................................................................... 32 5.2 Ideation ..................................................................................................................... 33 5.3 Developing a prototype ............................................................................................. 33 5.4 User testing ................................................................................................................. 35 5.5 Iterations .................................................................................................................... 37 5.5.1 Findings from user testing of the first iteration .................................................. 38 5.5.2 Findings from user testing of the second iteration ............................................. 38 6 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 39 7 Self-Critique ...................................................................................................................... 41 8 Future work ...................................................................................................................... 42 9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 42 10 References .....................................................................................................................