This is a debate I've seen around since... Well, basically since Cookie Clicker's appearance. Are games that play themselves really games ? Is there some semblance of worth in doing whatever the game wants you to do in order to be able to do it faster ? Are these games worth the time and dedication some people give them ?
Answer: Yes and no. Yeah, I know, it's troublesome. But let me explain.
First, what is an idle game ? Basically, it is a game that allows you to be idle to the point you actually do nothing, while the game plays itself. I've taken Cookie Clicker since it's the quintessential example of how an idle game plays itself. You have a basic interaction (here, clicking the big cookie) that grants you a resource (here, cookies). With enough amounts of said resource, you unlock means to gather said resource passively (here, every building available), which means you don't need to do said basic interaction.
With a gameplay as void as that, what's the worth of these games ? Some say it comes from the stories they can carry. Cookie Clicker makes you go from a simple attempt at making cookies with the help of your kind grandma to an apocalypse of epic proportions where grandmas of the world have transformed into Lovecraftian abominations and hellish creatures are trying to eat the cookies you make. A Dark Room makes you go with expectations of needing to survive and to defend from soldiers to the realization that things aren't as they seem. There's the lore behind the Ancients in Clicker Heroes 1/2, the lore behind the divinities in Idling to Rule the Gods, the sheer craziness behind whichever new monster you'll meet in NGU Idle, and so on.
But these stories come with an element that, while it isn't always there, is something always worth its own self - Unfolding mechanics. When you begin Cookie Clicker, all you have is the big cookie, one building, no upgrades and basic information. Who could have guessed the Grandmapocalypse from there ? Who could have even guessed the other buildings you'd have in order to expand your cookie empire, especially with things such as antimatter condensers and chancemakers in the lot ? Who could have guessed your little tribe of catnip eating cats would have reached space in Kittens Game ? Who could have expected to battle cheese, moles, Gordon Ramsay and the days of the week in NGU Idle ? No one, and that's part of the charm.
Some of these games aren't as idle as they look like, though. Take a quite recent one for example, Incremental Epic Hero. There, you guide your character through various levels, slaying enemies as you go, then confront bosses in order to either get access to better equipment, or to get access to the coveted prestige mechanics. But if you try to go auto on the bosses, especially the last ones, you're gonna get mauled. Brutally. You see, you can either play auto or manual on this game, with the manual version allowing you to move as you see fit. An essential move to avoid bosses' attacks, to trigger them being launched at places you aren't at, while your attacks still reduce slowly its life. You can end up defeating them automatically, but either it'll cost you a ton of resources to do so, you'll need to exploit certain vulnerabilities, or it's just not worthwhile.
And while some idle games aren't as idle as they are, it isn't only because assuming direct control is the better option, but sometimes because you can simply be at a loss if you let the game run on its own. Kittens Game has storages with limited space, and while you can expand them, this isn't something you'll be able to do automatically, meaning that leaving them run on the background will lead to resource losses and thus to potential progression lost. Some like Anti-Idle even run with this idea, giving you much better XP bonuses and speed progression if you're actively playing the game, even if "actively playing the game" can sometimes be reduced to auto-clicking part of the screen every minute or so.
For some people, these features are not worth the time "playing" these games. For some people, they are. It depends from one person to another, and as a result, the fact that idle games should be considered as games or not depends too. But both choices are technically valid, even though instead of saying "idle games are not games", I'd answer that "idle games aren't my kind of games". Which is weird in itself since, while I easily compare idle games to story-driven games or point-and-click games, I'd rather let my computer progress at Idle RPG 2 than play either The Last of Us 2 or Monkey Island, as these aren't my kind of games while idle games do. Weird, I know.
If you want to give them a try, most of them are available through basic Google searching. You have the names, you can reach them. Most of them have counterparts on mobile, but I'd avoid idle games on mobile since they're filled to the brim with crazy microtransactions (seriously, 1 day of progress for 100 $ ?) and cancerous ads (sometimes stopping your progress every 5-10 minutes to shove an ad to your face), with little exceptions like Cookie Clicker (only a small ad bar under the game), Idle Slayer (recently removed popping ads) and Kittens Game (free on PC, 4$ on mobile).
Answer: Yes and no. Yeah, I know, it's troublesome. But let me explain.
First, what is an idle game ? Basically, it is a game that allows you to be idle to the point you actually do nothing, while the game plays itself. I've taken Cookie Clicker since it's the quintessential example of how an idle game plays itself. You have a basic interaction (here, clicking the big cookie) that grants you a resource (here, cookies). With enough amounts of said resource, you unlock means to gather said resource passively (here, every building available), which means you don't need to do said basic interaction.
With a gameplay as void as that, what's the worth of these games ? Some say it comes from the stories they can carry. Cookie Clicker makes you go from a simple attempt at making cookies with the help of your kind grandma to an apocalypse of epic proportions where grandmas of the world have transformed into Lovecraftian abominations and hellish creatures are trying to eat the cookies you make. A Dark Room makes you go with expectations of needing to survive and to defend from soldiers to the realization that things aren't as they seem. There's the lore behind the Ancients in Clicker Heroes 1/2, the lore behind the divinities in Idling to Rule the Gods, the sheer craziness behind whichever new monster you'll meet in NGU Idle, and so on.
But these stories come with an element that, while it isn't always there, is something always worth its own self - Unfolding mechanics. When you begin Cookie Clicker, all you have is the big cookie, one building, no upgrades and basic information. Who could have guessed the Grandmapocalypse from there ? Who could have even guessed the other buildings you'd have in order to expand your cookie empire, especially with things such as antimatter condensers and chancemakers in the lot ? Who could have guessed your little tribe of catnip eating cats would have reached space in Kittens Game ? Who could have expected to battle cheese, moles, Gordon Ramsay and the days of the week in NGU Idle ? No one, and that's part of the charm.
Some of these games aren't as idle as they look like, though. Take a quite recent one for example, Incremental Epic Hero. There, you guide your character through various levels, slaying enemies as you go, then confront bosses in order to either get access to better equipment, or to get access to the coveted prestige mechanics. But if you try to go auto on the bosses, especially the last ones, you're gonna get mauled. Brutally. You see, you can either play auto or manual on this game, with the manual version allowing you to move as you see fit. An essential move to avoid bosses' attacks, to trigger them being launched at places you aren't at, while your attacks still reduce slowly its life. You can end up defeating them automatically, but either it'll cost you a ton of resources to do so, you'll need to exploit certain vulnerabilities, or it's just not worthwhile.
And while some idle games aren't as idle as they are, it isn't only because assuming direct control is the better option, but sometimes because you can simply be at a loss if you let the game run on its own. Kittens Game has storages with limited space, and while you can expand them, this isn't something you'll be able to do automatically, meaning that leaving them run on the background will lead to resource losses and thus to potential progression lost. Some like Anti-Idle even run with this idea, giving you much better XP bonuses and speed progression if you're actively playing the game, even if "actively playing the game" can sometimes be reduced to auto-clicking part of the screen every minute or so.
For some people, these features are not worth the time "playing" these games. For some people, they are. It depends from one person to another, and as a result, the fact that idle games should be considered as games or not depends too. But both choices are technically valid, even though instead of saying "idle games are not games", I'd answer that "idle games aren't my kind of games". Which is weird in itself since, while I easily compare idle games to story-driven games or point-and-click games, I'd rather let my computer progress at Idle RPG 2 than play either The Last of Us 2 or Monkey Island, as these aren't my kind of games while idle games do. Weird, I know.
If you want to give them a try, most of them are available through basic Google searching. You have the names, you can reach them. Most of them have counterparts on mobile, but I'd avoid idle games on mobile since they're filled to the brim with crazy microtransactions (seriously, 1 day of progress for 100 $ ?) and cancerous ads (sometimes stopping your progress every 5-10 minutes to shove an ad to your face), with little exceptions like Cookie Clicker (only a small ad bar under the game), Idle Slayer (recently removed popping ads) and Kittens Game (free on PC, 4$ on mobile).
