Americans Civil Intelligence Agency

This article delves into the psycological "hacks" implemented in social games such as zyngas.

"Game designer and academic Ian Bogost announces Cow Clicker,

a Facebook game implementing the mechanics of the Facebook-games genre

stripped to their core. You get a cow, which you can click on every six

...hours. You earn additional clicks if your friends in your pasture also

click. You can buy premium cows with 'mooney,' and also use your mooney

to buy more clicks. You can buy mooney with real dollars, or earn some

free bonus mooney if you spam up your feed with Cow Clicker activity.

A satire of Facebook games, but actually as genuine a game as the

non-satirical games are.

And people actually play it, perhaps

confirming Bogost's view that the genre of games is largely just 'brain hacks that exploit human psychology in order to make money,' which continue to work even when the users are openly told what's going on."