software development". Reception Cow Clicker received critical attention soon after its release. One early commentator was Alexia Tsotsis of TechCrunch, who acknowledged the game's intent as a commentary on the impact of social network games. In an interview, Bogost foresaw the transformation of the internet into a "compulsive virtual dystopia" through Zynga's use of social gaming. Nick Yee of the Palo Alto Research Center compared the players of games which do not provide "meaningful opportunities for achievement, social interaction, and challenge" to rats in a Skinner box. Accordingly, he compared Cow Clicker to being inside an "incredibly clear Skinner box"acknowledging how little effort the game took in order to keep users playing the game. Jason Tanz of Wired considered Cow Clicker as an example of the growth in the trend of gamificationwhere developers introduce elements influenced by games into their services without providing the normal "experience" a game traditionally incorporates. PopCap Games co-founder Jason Kapalka praised Cow Clicker for being the type of "ironic, satirical, self-referential" game that Facebook's game ecosystem was lacking, as he felt there were too many commercially driven games on the social network. Playdom's Scott Jon Siegel criticized the game for not going far enough in its satire, and putting too many highlights on the "absurd monetisation practices and meaningless clicking which social games are all too well known for." References Further reading 2010 video games Browser games Facebook games Fictional cattle Gamification Incremental games Parody video games Social casual games Video games about animals Video games developed in the United States Works by Ian Bogost