It is with no doubt that Cookie Clicker has a part of capitalist nature within its mechanics.
Initially, the game requires the player to constantly click on the enormous cookie to produce, sell and gain money. This becomes the accumulated capital that allows the players to buy grandmas, buy banks, buy temples, all for enhancing the productivity of the whole cookie business. And we have to admit, that it is sooooo comfortable watching the numbers going up, watching the cookies piling up, and just thinking of the next great upgrade we could get. Although we could say that a lot of games that require grinding to level up or to upgrade is to some extent simulating the capitalist system, Cookie Clicker is an explicit one in terms of how the number of the currency is directly visualized as well as how everything could be for sale in a capitalist society.
Yet there are two features about this game that do not make it a really good simulation of capitalism (which I am happy about.) Firstly, there are no competitors in the cookie industry and the player is the monopoly! In other words, players do not need to worry about competition in any case. The money does not decrease unless you buy something and your “corporation” would not get eliminated by some fierce opponent firms. You are simply on your own and making the only cookies in this world. The game only takes the tasty part of capitalism and tells the players that there is no risk at all.
Then does that mean there will be no disappointments? That takes us to the second feature which is the inevitable consequence of the player making TOO MANY cookies.
YES! There will be GRANDMAPOCALYPSE!
In the game, if you hire a lot of grandmas to work for you for a long time, they would start a worker’s rebellion that cut into your profits. I am hesitating whether it could be defined as a good simulation of capitalism (more like a speculative prediction) but this feature is definitely a critique against it. Labors could have their own pursuits but are encaged by this larger system structure. The game is a nice escape from reality but also a great reflection of reality. Probably in the late stage of the game, most players would leave it, or quit it. And when we start to play another similar game, we would probably think more before we buy any “grandmas” to work for us.
