Social games? Boeh!

Cow Clicker in Het Parool

The Dutch newspaper Het Parool ran a story last Saturday about Cow Clicker. You can read a scan of the story below (in Dutch, click for the large version), but equally interesting to me is the fact that the paper put an enormous Cow Clicker cow on the front page of their media section (also below), just like Svenska Dagbladet… read more

Shit Crayons

My talk at the 2011 Game Developers Conference "rant" panel

Last year I made a game about Facebook games, called Cow Clicker. You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Among the many retorts to Cow Clicker‘s characterization of social games, a common one is about creativity. Players of these games, the argument goes, exercise imagination and creativity far beyond what… read more

Cow Clicktivism

Click a cow, change the world

I know what you’ve been thinking. Sure, I enjoy clicking cows, but what good is it doing? Is cow clicking just for fun, or can cow clicking make the world a better place? Molleindustria and Cow Clicker are pleased to announce Cow Clicktivism, a cooperative social game with real-world impact. Now you can turn your virtual cow into a real… read more

My First Cow Clicker

Are you investing in your calf's future?

By now, the virtues of cow clicking are well-known and understood. But there’s a problem: Cow Clicker is bound to Facebook, and to use Facebook one must be over the age of thirteen. Are our children meant to be cooped up indoors, never allowed to romp through pastures of their own? A startling truth reveals itself: despite the explosion in… read more

Cowclickification

Anything you can click you can cow click!

Last year, the social gaming phenomenon Cow Clicker captured the world’s imoogination, offering players the opportunity to click on a cow every six hours—or even more often. Since July 2010, more than 50,000 people have clicked over 50 breeds of cows over 5 million times, engorging their accownts with over 5 million mooney, Cow Clicker’s in-game currency. Cow Clicker distilled… read more

A Personal Appeal from Cow Clicker Creator Ian Bogost

We are soon entering our 6th month online, and I want to take a moment to ask you for your help in continuing our mission. Cow Clicker is facing new challenges and encountering new opportunities and both are going to require major funds. Cow Clicker is based on a very radical idea, the realization of the dreams most of us… read more

Two Books, One Summer

Alien Phenomenology and How to Do Things with Videogames

My goal this summer was to finish two books I’d been working on. By July I had some concerns, as writing wasn’t coming as easily as I’d hoped, and then I got overwhelmed by the unexpected stampede of cows. But I just completed the second manuscript, and I’ll admit I’m quite chuffed to have reached my goal. The first book… read more

Cow Clicker Cloned!

Dip your pointer into Fish Feeder

Cow Clicker is now officially a real Facebook game. How do I know? Because it’s been copied! Christian Primozich has created Fish Feeder, which takes Cow Clicker’s “innovative” cow clicking mechanics and applies them to the equally common social game genre of fish fondling. You can play it here. It’s… well, it’s Cow Clicker, but with fish. What did you… read more

Cow Clicker

The Making of Obsession

I made a Facebook game about Facebook games, called Cow Clicker. You can go play it on Facebook now, or you can see some screenshots on on this site. Here’s the short description, from the page just linked: Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about Facebook games. It’s partly a satire, and partly a playable theory of today’s social games,… read more

Cow Clicker

A Facebook Game about Facebook Games

Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about Facebook games. It’s partly a satire, and partly a playable theory of today’s social games, and partly an earnest example of that genre. You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Clicking earns you clicks. You can buy custom “premium” cows through micropayments (the… read more