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[Draugoth]

​

If you’ve been paying attention to the most-played games on Steam lately, you have no doubt seen a strange one. That would be “Banana” a game where you…click a banana. And that’s it. That’s all it is.

But now Banana has crossed 420,000 concurrent players as of an hour ago and things are spiraling a bit, given the reason players are playing, and who is actually playing it. Namely, a zillion bots.


The game is a money printer. After enough clicking you will earn banana “skins” in the game, and because of the ability to sell those a-la-Counterstrike, you can earn actual money just from those clicks. While most skins might sell for three cents, some prices have increased to dozens or even hundreds of dollars. The record right now appears to be $1,345.


The problem is that the vast majority of those playing are bots, something developer team member Hery admitted to Polygon:

“Unfortunately we are currently facing some problems around botting, since the game takes basically 1% to no resources of your PC, people are abusing up to 1000 alternative accounts in order to get Rarer drops or atleast drops in bulk.”

via Forbes

​

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Just when you think the world can't get any dumber.

 

[Bridges]

If only bots are playing why is anyone buying?

 

[bbeach123]

Sound like those blockchain pic with extra step .

 

[Come On Tars]

Who’s buying the skins

 

[IDKFA]

This is the game? Just clicking a banana?



And people earn money by doing this?

What?

 

[daxgame]

Darwin made a mistake.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I don’t understand. People actually play CS so it makes sense to farm skins. If nobody but bots are clicking a banana who is supporting this economy of banana skins?

 

[Kupfer]

I don’t understand. People actually play CS so it makes sense to farm skins. If nobody but bots are clicking a banana who is supporting this economy of banana skins?

It's probably is a mixture of gambling and stonks and lot of people like to hop on a train for "easy money"

 

[Cyberpunkd]

This is the game? Just clicking a banana?



And people earn money by doing this?

What?

 

[SportsFan581]

I don’t understand. People actually play CS so it makes sense to farm skins. If nobody but bots are clicking a banana who is supporting this economy of banana skins?

This is literally the greater fool theory playing out in front of us. LOL

 

[ahtlas7]

 

[Evil Calvin]

As if humanity cannot get any more retarded.....here we are.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

If only bots are playing why is anyone buying?

Stupidity and the overwhelming audacity to power through it regardless of how illogical.
I really don't understand human beings, sometimes.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Cookie Clicker for Zoomers.

 

[dudester]

 

[semiconscious]

peter molyneux? why am I suddenly being reminded of peter molyneux?...

 

[BennyBlanco]

It's probably is a mixture of gambling and stonks and lot of people like to hop on a train for "easy money"

Or some kind of weird money laundering scheme

 

[Denton]

People who are buying anything related to this really do deserve to lose all their money. Good on banana devs for providing this outlet for that to happen!

 

[W11d]

If only bots are playing why is anyone buying?

They buy it from each other. It's a ponzi scheme

 

[Damigos]

Oh god

 

[FunkMiller]

Still slightly more gameplay than Hellblade 2.

 

[bender]

PC Gaming was a mistake.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Not surprised, it's PC gaming.

 

[PSYGN]

That's...

 

[Fbh]

Not to be outperformed, PC devs found a way to not only replicate but enhanced the winning formula of exciting PS5 exclusives like Running Taco and The Giraffe G

 

[poppabk]

Not surprised, it's PC gaming.

At least its free and people are potentially somehow getting money from it. Weren't playstation gamers spending money to get games where you clicked a button and all they got out of it was a digital trophy?

 

[newtypepilot]

the only winner is the dev.

 

[Robb]

 

[Bernoulli]

This is the game? Just clicking a banana?



And people earn money by doing this?

What?

 

[Alx]

peter molyneux? why am I suddenly being reminded of peter molyneux?...

I thought about him too. People thought his "game" based on clicking on a cube was silly, but at least there was a goal and something to win.
This is the very definition of a speculative bubble, create fake value to buy and resell, hoping you won't be the last one holding it when everything collapses.

 

[THE DUCK]

Ya but there is a lot of really nice bananas.

 

[StueyDuck]

​

If you’ve been paying attention to the most-played games on Steam lately, you have no doubt seen a strange one. That would be “Banana” a game where you…click a banana. And that’s it. That’s all it is.

But now Banana has crossed 420,000 concurrent players as of an hour ago and things are spiraling a bit, given the reason players are playing, and who is actually playing it. Namely, a zillion bots.


The game is a money printer. After enough clicking you will earn banana “skins” in the game, and because of the ability to sell those a-la-Counterstrike, you can earn actual money just from those clicks. While most skins might sell for three cents, some prices have increased to dozens or even hundreds of dollars. The record right now appears to be $1,345.


The problem is that the vast majority of those playing are bots, something developer team member Hery admitted to Polygon:




via Forbes

​

Surely that market exists only if people are buying the skins.

Surely idiots aren't doing that

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Not surprised, it's PC gaming.

Guess they got tired of blowing money on a 4090 to run this game. Wonder what kind of fps they're pushing.

 

[Paasei]

Basically NFT's disguised as a video game.

 

[semiconscious]

I thought about him too. People thought his "game" based on clicking on a cube was silly, but at least there was a goal and something to win.
This is the very definition of a speculative bubble, create fake value to buy and resell, hoping you won't be the last one holding it when everything collapses.

um, about the 'prize':

Bryan is a normal 20-year-old making his way in the world. He has a passion for music (he singles out Radiohead and Alt-J as two of his favourite bands) and computer animation. He's studying computer art and design at Edinburgh College and doing what most do at that age: finding himself. He hopes one day to make music for a video game. He'd love that.

But there is one thing different about Bryan, and that is a couple of years ago he was promised the world by one of our most legendary video game developers. He was thrust into the spotlight, interviewed by the likes of Wired, and then... nothing. But nearly two years later, Bryan Henderson's life is yet to change.

"The only difference is I've got more Twitter followers," he says. "And even then it's still gradually declined since it started, and none of them talk to me or retweet me. So honestly, there's no difference...

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-god-who-peter-molyneux-forgot

 

[hemo memo]

That's bananas.

 

[March Climber]

 

[cash_longfellow]

Darwin made a mistake.

I’m not sure if you know this or not, but Darwin didn’t have any power over evolution

 

[ProtoByte]

I don’t understand. People actually play CS so it makes sense to farm skins. If nobody but bots are clicking a banana who is supporting this economy of banana skins?

Don't know if this would apply to Bananas, but I bet a lot of indie devs are figuring out that playercount hype is something they can exploit. And Valve's okay with it because they can fling around pumped up active user numbers.

 

[BennyBlanco]

And Valve's okay with it because they can fling around pumped up active user numbers.

To what end? Pleasing shareholders? I think Valve is very much not ok with it but can’t really do much. I think you have to spend $5 or something on Steam before you can use the marketplace. Not sure what else they could do.

 

[Holammer]

It's not pulling in any insane amounts of money yet, even with almost 800k users it's the aprox 460'ish global top seller.
Meanwhile a sex title is hovering on #69 and it's free to play.

 

[mitch1971]

They're doing this just for clicks.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Don't know if this would apply to Bananas, but I bet a lot of indie devs are figuring out that playercount hype is something they can exploit. And Valve's okay with it because they can fling around pumped up active user numbers.

To what end? Pleasing shareholders? I think Valve is very much not ok with it but can’t really do much. I think you have to spend $5 or something on Steam before you can use the marketplace. Not sure what else they could do.

video posted earlier explains it. Dev is just trying to abuse the market place through speculation value. Doesn't seem to be working all that well though.

 

[Wildebeest]

Leave your 800 watt gaming PC running overnight to farm 10 digital bananas that sell for 1 cent each. Makes good financial sense.

 

[Heaven Angel]

PC gaming, lol

 

[RoadHazard]

So... why would anyone ever BUY those skins? That's what makes zero sense to me.

 

[TrippleA345]

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Leave your 800 watt gaming PC running overnight to farm 10 digital bananas that sell for 1 cent each. Makes good financial sense.

Almost as good as spending 2k€ for a graphics card to get that 5 extra FPS.

 

[Danknugz]

when bitcoin dries up