this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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Gaming
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I'm aware of extrinsic motivation vs intrinsic motivation, about the potential upsides and downsides, the potentially positive or detrimental effects of achievements.
I often do chase or consider achievements, but also explore games and their limits or what they cover anyway. I do like completing, especially if 100% is feasible. Other times I ignore them and focus on the game. If the game is not very captivating or interesting, I often don't care much about achievements.
I did find incremental progression games interesting in how they make the extrinsic motivation, the numbers-go-up system, the core game mechanic. It's interesting to explore and be mindful of how that can be fun, but in a different way than creative, exploratory, or story games. Of course, some mix both systems.
My experience with games like this (Cookie Clicker, Vampire Survivors, Wizard Tower, etc) is that they are a fun little distraction that gets boring very quickly. Like, they can captivate me for an hour or two but eventually it becomes blatantly obvious that this game just abuses my brain without providing an actually worthwhile experience.
I've played a diverse set of incremental games. I can certainly see where you're coming from. Many follow the same or similar formula and don't add enough interesting story or other elements. Eventually, or sometimes very quickly, become boring.
There are some good ones out there too, though. That add a story and continuous progression, or a spin on or focus on gameplay over the incremental progression system.
I recently played The Last Cat in the Universe, which is only two hours long. So "for an hour or two" can end while it's still good. :)