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Stimulation Clicker

neal.fun

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Re: Stimulation Clicker

#291

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

jal278 wrote: post #265
allemagne wrote: post #167

This is a fun clicker game whose point seems cynical and self-defeating on multiple levels. Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. The stimulation torture wasn't really torture, but another level to the game. All the content creators whose inclusion at first seems lik…

> Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. Is this like a massive HN wooosh -- how can this be the top-voted comment? From Neil Postman's 1985 "Amusing Ourselves to Death": > “With television, we vault ourselves into a continuous, incoherent present.” > “Spiritual devas…

>> Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page.

> Is this like a massive HN wooosh -- how can this be the top-voted comment?

100% agree. I had to read that sentence and surrounding parts like 5 times to check if I was missing a satirical nod somewhere. It's like writing a review of Franz Kafka's books and saying "Despite what we may say about bureaucracy, clearly lots of people enjoy it because his books were best sellers!"

Lots of art is there to make you think, not to "enjoy" it.

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#293

Post by hug »

allemagne wrote: post #167

This is a fun clicker game whose point seems cynical and self-defeating on multiple levels. Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. The stimulation torture wasn't really torture, but another level to the game. All the content creators whose inclusion at first seems lik…

We're taking part in boiling a frog. The game starts off blank and peaceful with a single button inviting you to push it. It adds the DVD bounce, which is a nice little charming and nostalgic hit of dopamine. Then you get another DVD logo, which is a nice touch, double the points! Then you get a hydraulic press. Hydraulic press automation. Level ups. Audio. Oh no. Now it's the kind of unending audiovisual nightmare that browsing the modern web without adblock is, and it evolved in much the same way.

If you keep playing it -- either to find out what the whole point of this game is or because you are trapped in the game loop by your stimulation-seeking brain -- and you just keep building and building in overstimulating nonsense versions of real-world content until you are presented with the calmness of it doesn't have to be this way.

That first wave in the calm after the storm gave me literal physical relaxation: I felt the tenseness of my back & shoulders ease into a slump once the incessant babble of the attention-seeking components of the game went away. I felt better than I had a moment ago. It was nice. And it was, counter to your point, exactly a look in the mirror. Why do I put myself through the wringer on modern social media when I don't have to?

All of that to say I don't feel like the message is self-defeating at all. The dissonance is the point. Condition yourself as much as you like to the way things are by continuing to play the game, the peaceful beach is almost certainly nicer. Even just for 30 seconds.

Why not get out in nature? Touch grass, maybe, as the kids say these days.

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#294

Post by throw83288 »

afpx wrote: post #269
jal278 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. Is this like a massive HN wooosh -- how can this be the top-voted comment? From Neil Postman's 1985 "Amusing Ourselves to Death": > “With television, we vault ourselves into a continuous, incoherent present.” > “Spiritual devas…

I like your description. I sometimes wonder if the final equilibrium state will be most people working on addictive products and the rest working on addiction treatment.

I'd say with the current state of things it's more like two singularities in which either:

- A landian-stephensian accelerationist timeline occurs where the majority of the urban population becomes some flavor of AGI-tuned VR junkie

- An extreme naturalistic counterculture movement occurs that causes majority of the civilized world to willingly roll themselves back 1 or 2 centuries technologically in order to feel something again

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#295

Post by randomcatuser »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #283

I'm surprised it does actually work very well. The whole earn coins to purchase faster ways to earn coins is objectively stupid, I'm not going to do anything with them but I still feel like I need to earn more and feel good when I unlocked new stuff. Is that Pavlov conditioning ? Used to buy new stuff and always make more money.

haha true, the ultimate meta. why do we feel the need to earn more coins? the game prescriptively doesn't say how it should be played - a player could well be content with rain sounds....

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#296

Post by rdiddly »

aszantu wrote: post #248
rottencupcakes wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not self-defeating, it's a commentary. I've built up a reflex to leave any sort of overstimulatory atmosphere. I don't watch short form videos and leave any page that causes high levels of stimulation (Temu's spinner stops me from shopping there, for example). I quit this game after about 10 minutes when it hit a comical level of stimulation and still upvoted this. I loved the commentary because the game seemed…

I think I quit after the DVD sounds

I quit (the first time) after the first three totally unlabeled icons appeared. Not having hovered on them, I had no idea there was anything more. Lesson for designers of scroll bars and other commonly-hidden but important UI elements.

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#297

Post by btown »

The real hidden gem here is the hilarious 40 minute mermaid-themed true crime podcast parody that you'll only hear a portion of if you progress quickly. As far as I can tell, it's fully custom-made for this game? Can't find any references to the characters online.

https://stimulation-clicker.neal.fun/ sounds/true-crime.mp3 - it's hosted on Cloudflare, but even so I don't want to cost OP significant bandwidth, so join the two strings above for the direct link.

"Aww, he was all cat 'n tonic when he first saw her." An absolute classic. I would do anything to know more about how this came to exist.

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#298

Post by djhworld »

This was so much fun and yet so awful at the same time, I was laughing out loud at some of the escalations.

At the end I was losing track of my mouse cursor and fatigue was setting in, the final ending scene was such a calming sense of relief!

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#299

Post by locallost »

jal278 wrote: post #265
allemagne wrote: post #167

This is a fun clicker game whose point seems cynical and self-defeating on multiple levels. Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. The stimulation torture wasn't really torture, but another level to the game. All the content creators whose inclusion at first seems lik…

> Despite the HN comments complaining about it being overwhelming and a dark reflection of how awful and distracting the internet is, clearly enough people enjoyed it to get to the front page. Is this like a massive HN wooosh -- how can this be the top-voted comment? From Neil Postman's 1985 "Amusing Ourselves to Death": > “With television, we vault ourselves into a continuous, incoherent present.” > “Spiritual devas…

I think it's kind of necessary to be exposed to ideas and views of people like Postman to even think of them when you play a game like this. The top comment is disappointing, but so it goes.

I enjoyed the game, for the attention to detail and making a mockery out of so many things in our daily lives that are in essence absurd, in such a brilliant yet simple way. The frowning Duolingo owl. The pillow delivery tracking made me chuckle. The only thing I missed was booking a an apartment on booking.com with a billion reminders to hurry up as the place might be gone any second, or doing an online check in. Although maybe it happened, I refreshed the game accidentally and never came back.

Re: Stimulation Clicker

#300

Post by re »

Can't seem to get a few of the achievements:

* Roaring Kitty (Definitely made over 100k on bitcoin trades)

* Polyglot (Duolingo no longer appears -- did I need to never answer any incorrectly? It seemed like incorrectly answered questions re-appeared later)

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