Platypotamus

Been a while since I updated, due to some travel, some visitors, and some other general busy-ness (as opposed to business).  Not only have I fallen behind on updating ye olde blog, I've fallen behind on my reading too.  So I've been generally catching up, and sometime during that time,was linked to the following piece, which is just fantastic:

The Brainy Gamer: Fun Factor Catalog.

If you've been following my recent posts, you already know about my Fun Factor project. I'm trying to account for the many ways games provoke us to play them. A few days ago I asked you to help me 'catalog the fun' delivered by some of your favorite games, and you came through big time. Thanks again for that.I've sorted through your responses and added some of my own. The result is below: a collection of fun factors and a list of games that exemplify them.

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I'm not sure how late to the party I am on this one, but a student today mentioned a facebook app called Cow Clicker.  I don't have a facebook account anymore, so I can't actually check it out, but reading about it on Bogost's site has me rather fascinated:

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 Cow Clicker currency is called "mooney"), and you can buy your way out of the time delay by spending it. You can publish feed stories about clicking your cow, and you can click friends' cow clicks in their feed stories. Cow Clicker is Facebook games distilled to their essence.

Ian Bogost - Cow Clicker.  His site features a link to the app, as well as some extended thoughts on the concept (which I recommend reading!).