As ever with these trends, copycats have started springing up.
No one is playing any of these games because they're 'fun' they're doing it for the skins. It would be kind of funny if what ends up killing the skin market overall would be these idle clicker games unless Valve decides to have a clamp down.
I'm still pondering the maths behind the trend a bit, with botting and cheating it's definitely going to be worth it for some people to do this. All I know is as far as I'm concerned multiplayer gaming that has any kind of micro-transactions like this are massively dead to me and these idle clickers are clearly an exploit people have found in the market.
Edit: There's a third copycat game that I didn't notice LOL, the cancer is spreading
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3015610/Banana__Cucumber/#app_reviews_hash
Its honestly amazing how Cookie Clicker basically set the foundation for the genre, and then not a single one has managed to replicate what made it good in the first place.
I'm always on the hunt for a good one but its always either predatory MTX or absurd time investments without that sweet dopamine hit.
I like Idle Dice way better than cookie clicker.
I find it hilarious how every time you maximize an exponential vs polynomial curve there's an entire new one layered on top that opens up. It eventually gets really crazy.