Further remarks on the online dogs
As I sit in a hotel in downtown Brooklyn listening to cars honking/people arguing and screaming - I can hear what they're saying from around ten stories up! - I am still playing Dog Online.
Here is my dog:
He is a "Level 377 Wolf", which is a lot of levels. I have been playing this game maybe Too Fast this week. I've observed:
- It is insanely good at drip-feeding you secrets
- Like Neopets was, it's a big site-scale mystery, with weird and mysterious systems unlocking other weird and mysterious systems. You frequently get access to things in one part of the site which can only be used in other parts of the site - and only then after a lot of OTHER secrets-unlocking on a third part of the site.
- Some stuff is so rare that the best way to get it is by trading with others, which is very cute.
- It's also wisely forced me to play entirely with people I know from other parts of my life, because Dog Online has no inter-player communication.
Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about how much I like it's weird friction. It reminds me a lot of Cohost! Sometimes friction is absolutely crucial to the enjoyment of something. I think that a daily game which is very withholding, very mysterious, and very concealing may actually be the best kind of daily game. If only more games were courageous enough to be as withholding as Dog Online...