Pushing Buttons: Why viral voyeurism game Clickolding became a surprise hit

This strange, dark game is an allegory about voyeurism and transactional sex that gives ample space to freak ourselves out - and critics and players can't get enough

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A man wearing a weird animalistic mask sits slumped in an armchair in a grotty motel room, watching you click a handheld tally counter. He says he will pay you $14,000 if you click until the numbers reset at 10,000 - so that's what you do. Occasionally, he makes polite yet suggestive demands - do it faster, slower, stop, start again - but he doesn't move except to occasionally flex his hands.

While you click, using the left mouse button, you wander the room, looking at the paintings on the wall, the detuned TV, the thermostat. But as you edge toward the end number, the man slowly begins to reveal snippets of his life, and the already dark tone of the world grows dimmer by the second. That's it, that's the whole game.