Ever dream of becoming the neighborhood cat lady?
With Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, an app for Android and Apple products, you can collect all the cats your heart could ever desire. This week, two reporters for the Crow’s Nest decided to investigate the social phenomenon sweeping smart phones everywhere.
Devin Rodriguez, has a fat, orange tabby named Dib. That’s about all the connection he has with cats.
Addiction is a serious word, and it would be silly to say I’m addicted to a cat game.
The app game tasks players with providing food and toys to neighborhood cats in hopes of photographing them.
But, I think I’m addicted to a cat game.
Here’s what it’s like: You get a small yard, you buy toys with little sardines. Then you close the app and check in later to see if any cats are playing in the yard. If they are, you can take a picture of them, name them, and appreciate their little adorable hand drawn faces.
That’s about it. No high scores, no difficulty – just cats.
That being said, I cannot express the frustration of finding all the food you just put out a few minutes ago having been eaten by Tubbs. He’s a selfish, pudgy cat who always has a self-satisfied grin on his face.
It’s strange. The cat’s don’t have personalities. They just do the same things over and over again with new items you’ve bought for them. But, you’ll start to attach little personality traits to different cats over time.
“Oh look, lil’ Sebastion is playing with the ball again, doesn’t he just love that thing?”
That’s not insane right? Oh, it is.
Ryan Callihan, doesn’t like cats in the first place
I tried to buy into this game. I really did.
Checking in at an particular time is the only real constraint within the game. The lack of real investment challenges the player to broaden their definition of “game” and “fun.”
After the tutorial, I was checking for new cats constantly. It took about 12 hours for my first cat to show up.
I won’t say I was feelin’ the love immediately, but it was satisfying to finally have a cat playing in my yard for the very first time. In fact, there were two cats! I named them Uno and Pebbles.
It was like a cat drought after those first two cats.
I checked and I checked. No cats. Well, there were cats. I can tell, because they left me tons of gifts after they had visited, but I never got to see them play.
I figured I needed more toys, maybe some fancier food to attract cats that actually wanted to stick around and play awhile. So I splurged on a better dish for the kitties and a bunch of new toys.
These freeloaders still didn’t stick around.
So, I’m not a believer in Neko Atsume.
You know what? If I wanted a cat that never wanted to play, and just used me for food and treats, I’d get a real cat.
