Around six months ago I discovered Cookie Clicker, and it consumed my life for over a month. The idle game became somewhat of an obsession of mine, keeping me up at all hours of the night and interrupting my work day. It was a BAD addiction, and I’m afraid I’ve fallen off the wagon.
Cookie Clicker is a so-called “idle game”, and AdVenture Capitalism can be loosely summed up as a clone of Cookie Clicker, though it has at least one notable advantage: It keeps going in the background, even when the game isn’t running. This is either wonderful, or horrible for someone as dramatically addicted as I am.
They say the first step to overcoming an addiction is to recognize it. Well, I knew it was going to be a problem before I started, but that didn’t stop me. For the last few days I have been seeing my friends fire up the game on Steam, and it piqued my interest, but I was wary. Rightly so, it would seem.
Back in the fall I lost way too much time and productivity to Cookie Clicker. I was obsessed with getting the next achievement in a game I was ostensibly doing nothing at all in. You see, these are considered “idle games” because all you really have to do is get them started. After a few minutes, you can purchase an upgrade that will automate the process, and then continue from there. It really earns you nothing. Takes literally no skill, and essentially no strategy. All it needs is time, and lots of it.
I kept CC running for over a month, and had multiple computers running different sessions. It was a horrible thing, and sadly here I am again. I recognize the tremendous downsides, but I can’t seem to pull myself from this horror. I even pulled out a PC that I haven’t fired up in 3 months and started it for the sole purpose to run a 27/7 AdVenture Capitalism session, even though it will keep running when you launch another Steam game. There’s absolutely no reason to run two simultaneous sessions, except to examine how different purchase strategies affect the speed of wealth accumulation.
In all seriousness, I can’t figure out why I like this game so much, but I’m hopelessly addicted. Maybe once I get to the moon I’ll be able to walk away. God, I hope so. This is cutting into my Rocket League time.
Kevin Carbotte is a Contributing Editor for aybonline.com. He knows a little about a lot, and a lot about a little. The opinions in his columns are his and his alone, but you are free to have them.
