Cats don’t form the same emotional bond with humans that dogs do, which is why they just leave when conditions become insufficiently luxurious. Which brings me to the thing that makes Neko Atsume such a great metaphor for a labor force: cats, like modern employees, have no loyalty. “A generous donation has been made in your name to the Human Fund.”īut what happens if you stop making these investments? What if you just put out the cheap food and take away the expensive toys? The cats produce less revenue, or they just stop showing up altogether. The game even provides you a nice balance sheet summary that shows revenue generated by each cat and what toys they used (a Key Purrformance Indicator dashboard, if you will). The Neko Atsume economy skips this step the time that cats spend playing in the yard (as a result of the food and toys you’ve provided them) leads directly to revenue for the firm. In Neko Atsume, you start off providing simple diversions like plastic bags and rubber balls for your cats, but eventually fork over thousands of units of currency for a “cat condo complex” and a “Japanese-style heated table made just for cats.” All to attract and retain your best cats.īut what do the employees/cats provide in return? Human employees’ work products-whether they’re fresh produce or lines of code-must be sold to customers in order to realize value in the form of revenue. Silicon Valley firms supply everything from now-cliché ping pong tables to elaborate gyms, video game rooms, and music rehearsal studios to keep employees on their premises for as much of the day as they possibly can. If your office is like mine, your options for blowing off steam are limited to pacing up and down the hall or trash-can basketball. If it’s good enough for my kitties, it’s good enough for the brogrammers at Facebook. The most expensive option is 60 times more expensive than the cheap stuff (putting aside the cost-free “thrifty bitz” for a moment-we’ll come back to it though). Common cats will come to the yard for the cheap stuff, but rare cats (top talent) only come out for deluxe tuna and sashimi. Likewise, the cats in Neko Atsume are sensitive to the quality of food you provide to them. Top talent in Silicon Valley won’t settle for pizza parties and Folger’s coffee-they expect on-premise, completely free Indian restaurants and all-you-can-drink espresso made from freshly-ground, locally roasted, single origin beans. It’s your job to keep employees happy with…food and toys.
![supernatural neko atsume game on google play supernatural neko atsume game on google play](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/aa/b8/37aab8fd233c3bcc8b756124da3a3456.jpg)
You, the player, are the HR Director, Chief Motivation Officer, Happiness Guru, or whatever new-agey title that’s in vogue these days.
![supernatural neko atsume game on google play supernatural neko atsume game on google play](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sY73WBXq3-M/maxresdefault.jpg)
They’re pampered employees at a tech firm or other “knowledge economy” company that feels the need to provide employees with on-the-job “perks” above and beyond the usual vacation days and health insurance. What’s going on here? What’s the value exchange between me and the cats? For a while, everything seemed like a mere jumble of gaming concepts wrapped up in Japanese cuteness, until it hit me: Neko Atsume is a metaphor for employee recruitment and retention as it’s practiced in Silicon Valley and other American workplaces in highly competitive labor markets. But beyond cooing over the likes of Snowball, Pumpkin, and Marshmallow, I started to obsess over the loose suggestions of an in-game economy. I, too, have been taken in by the game’s charms.
![supernatural neko atsume game on google play supernatural neko atsume game on google play](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/02/16/magazine/16mag-nekoatsume-1/16mag-nekoatsume-1-facebookJumbo.jpg)
I know all of this doesn’t sound particularly compelling, but this open-ended play has turned the game into something of a cult phenomenon. Lavishing cats with gifts and expensive food is rewarded only with currency for buying more stuff for cats, which in turn is rewarded with the continued presence of cats and the occasional odd “memento,” which is what the game affectionately calls random bits of garbage that cats bring into the house.
![supernatural neko atsume game on google play supernatural neko atsume game on google play](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VuV9ASTiNLo/maxresdefault.jpg)
Failing to tend to your cats brings no negative consequences in the game, other than an empty yard without cats. There’s no real way to “win” or “lose” the game. It has a lot of familiar gameplay elements-taking care of creatures, an in-game marketplace for buying stuff for said creatures-but what sets Neko Atsume apart from other similar games is its lack of built-in structure and incentives. Neko Atsume is a casual smartphone game of Japanese origin that’s ostensibly about tending to a menagerie of cats.