What is interesting about both Cookie Clicker and Paperclips is that their stories (yes, they have one, although perhaps it falls somewhere between "theme" and "story") are implicit critiques about clicker games themselves. Especially paperclips is on the nose, since the famous "paperclip maximizer" thought experiment fits the game mechanics so well[0].
Games have the ability to let you have a kind of "lived" experience of something. Sure, a good book makes you live the story through the eyes of the protagonist, but adding the act of making choices within a game framework on top of that changes this fundamentally. This more than anything else is what defines games as a medium.
Clicker games are in a way very interesting deconstructions of what it means to be a game. Cookie Clicker started out as a joke making fun of other game mechanics[1]. Which shouldn't be surprising, since some of the best jokes are deconstructions.
Games have the ability to let you have a kind of "lived" experience of something. Sure, a good book makes you live the story through the eyes of the protagonist, but adding the act of making choices within a game framework on top of that changes this fundamentally. This more than anything else is what defines games as a medium.
Clicker games are in a way very interesting deconstructions of what it means to be a game. Cookie Clicker started out as a joke making fun of other game mechanics[1]. Which shouldn't be surprising, since some of the best jokes are deconstructions.
[0] https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai.html
[1] https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gaming/cookie-clicker-julien...