CLICKOLDING Review – A Bizarre and Intriguing Gaming Experience

Introduction to CLICKOLDING

Strange Scaffold are the developers of some very peculiar and evocative games. Titles like El Paso Elsewhere, a supernatural third-person shooter about killing your ex who will end the world from a hotel basement, Life Eater, a horror fantasy kidnapping sim, and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator. I think that the last one explains itself. In their infinite wisdom, while developing their next title, the thriller fps I Am Your Beast, they have decided to develop an entirely new title that is just as evocative.
CLICKOLDING. That’s an L followed by an I, just so you’re aware.

A Simple Yet Intriguing Premise

CLICKOLDING is a very difficult game to write about. It’s straightforward to play, though. You click. CLICKOLDING is an atmospheric experience about that creepy thing in a mask on the couch in the corner of the motel room telling you to click, even. Unless said creepy thing in a mask on the couch in the corner of the motel room tells you to stop. And you might want to listen to whatever he demands because he’s giving you fourteen thousand dollars in cold, hard cash after this, and apparently, you need the money.

All you need to do is click ten thousand times. The little click counter will reset, and you’ll be free to go with the money in hand. You can also hold the mouse button down as an accessibility feature instead of clicking.

Analyzing the Experience

There’s really not much to this game. It’s about 30 minutes, 60 if you really stretch it out. But it’s an incredibly interesting piece to analyze. One of the easiest comparisons to make is to the experimental film Wavelength, a 1967 piece that spends 45 minutes in a single room, slowly zooming into a photograph. It’s a very avant-garde work.

I’ve been more enthralled by this game after I finished it than when I played it!

The most important part here, besides spending your time in a single room, is that you get out of it what you bring to it. This title is intentionally uncomfortable, from the design of the creepy guy thing in the corner of your room to what you can extrapolate from the lines. Neither he nor the player character feel like they’re here for fun. The navigation around the room feels somewhat clunky by design, the sound design is uncomfortable, the filter distorts things out, and the room is geometrically wrong from certain angles.

Interpreting the Themes

So, what’s ClICKOLDING about? Is CLICKOLDING about sex work? There’s the apparent pun there regarding the word cuckolding, as well as the player has been hired. Is it about addiction? The way the thing is willing to pay so much for something that seems to be ruining his life.

This title is intentionally uncomfortable, from the design of the creepy guy thing in the corner of your room to what you can extrapolate from the lines.

And the way everything is so uncomfortable and discordant, is this game an analysis of the morbid curiosity of video game players? How far are they willing to go, and how uncomfortable an atmosphere will it take to get just a few extra lines of dialogue? Is the game a test to bait you into making just one last click? Is this a social experiment conducted by Strange Scaffold in order to see how many people they can get to click over ten thousand times?

Personal Reflections

I’m honestly still working on my answer. I’m still wrapping my head around what the game is. But whatever the answer, it’s been fun. I’ve been more enthralled by this game after I finished it than when I played it!
And then I replayed it. Help.

Conclusion: A Unique Trade Offer

Clickolding is a trade offer in which you throw spare change amounting to just under three dollars at these guys, and in return, they give you an experience. It continues to worm its way through my head.