. Last tended to <ahref='https://code.incremental.social/thepaperpilot/pages/commit/411de1d59fe75b3e56de49dd5209b0b0b9a8616c'title='Tue Jun 18 09:30:26 2024 -0500'><timeclass='dt-updated'datetime='Tue Jun 18 09:30:26 2024 -0500'>2024-06-18</time></a>
.</span></p><hr><p>This is something that has been discussed and analyzed by many people, and to some extent, I feel like everything that can be said on the topic already has. However, a lot of these analyses are from the perspective of those with not as much experience and involvement within the genre as I'd argue would be necessary for a fully contextualized answer. I recently watched a video about Vampire Survivors, which has since been taken down due to drawing negative attention, which made me think about some interesting arguments about what games <em>are</em>, and what makes them <em>good</em>. The video's argument that "Vampire Survivors is not a video game" mirrors a claim by the developer of Cookie Clicker that his games are <ahref="https://www.polygon.com/2013/9/30/4786780/the-cult-of-the-cookie-clicker-when-is-a-game-not-a-game"target="_blank"rel="noreferrer">"non-games"</a>. Using Vampire Survivors and the video made on it as a framework, I'll be answering why incremental games appeal to players. Since the video has been taken down, I'll do my best to contextualize and generalize the arguments of the video without requiring the reader to watch it. For what it's worth, while I disagreed with the video I actually liked a lot of the way it went about thinking about games, and I consider this a continuation of that discussion.</p><h2id="numbers-going-up"tabindex="-1">Numbers Going Up <aclass="header-anchor"href="#numbers-going-up"aria-label="Permalink to "Numbers Going Up""></a></h2><p>This is a very common response to why people enjoy incremental games, although it's not one I find compels me personally, and I suspect it might be a stand-in for <ahref="/garden/guide-to-incrementals/appeal-to-players/#665ceed1-704e-4cd0-8263-9a1756b09f4a">progression</a>) or <ahref="/garden/guide-to-incrementals/what-is-content/">Guide to Incrementals/What is Content?</a>. But reportedly, some people do just like <em>seeing</em> big numbers. I must reiterate I suspect the actual cause is seeing big numbers <em>in context</em> though - if you start at 1e1000 of a currency and get to 1e1001, that isn't going to feel as satisfying as going from 1e10 to 1e100, and in any case, I don't think a button that just adds a zero to your number will feel quite satisfying - I believe its the sense of having made progress, and comparing where you are to where you started and feeling like you've earned your way here that is enjoyable.</p><p><spanid="665ceed1-704e-4cd0-8263-9a1756b09f4a"><h2>Progression</h2></span></p><p>Vampire Survivors can be argued to have a comparatively low depth to its combat compared to many other games. I'd argue it has <em>sufficient</em> depth and more than someone might expect who has only played the game for a short while, but it still definitely gets beat out by many other combat-focused games. Instead, a lot of the progression in Vampire Survivors comes from a meta-progression system by which base stats are increased by spending a currency that persists between runs. While it is technically possible to win without this meta-progression system, and indeed in many roguelikes players like to challenge themselves by beating the game without any meta-progression, the criticism can be made that meta-progression de-emphasizes player skill by making it less important to have to beat the game. Certainly, in incremental games, it is often literally impossible to complete a game without taking advantage of the meta-progression systems. I'd argue this does not detract from the game, however, and is actually a part of what makes incremental games, and roguelikes, enjoyable to many players: meta-progression <em>augments</em> the increases in skill the player is naturally gaining as they play. In effect, it's not <em>replacing</em> the skill increase, but <em>exaggerating</em> it to make it feel more real to the player.</p><blockquote><p>Note: There is also a lot of progression from exploring the mechanics and discovering synergies, unlo
