You put out fresh sashimi, sometimes, arranged as best as you know how.

December 6, 2015 10:48 AM

The Economics of Neko Atsume -- Nicole Dieker meditates on a cat-gathering future for The Billfold in a story tagged NEKO ATSUME, ONLINE GAMES THAT SUGGEST HORRIBLE DYSTOPIAN FUTURES, SERIOUSLY NEKO ATSUME IS THE CUTEST GAME I HAVE FED SO MANY CATS. If you're looking for hard economic analysis of the sardine-to-gold exchange rate, move on: this is a slice of life story in a world where gathering cats is all that matters. (And if adding a layer of "horrible dystopia" would negatively affect your gathering of cats, you might want to skip this one.)

Previously. Previously.

posted by wintersweet (65 comments total)

This game is the first one I've seen get really popular with non-otaku in America before it was localized to English.
posted by Nelson at 10:51 AM on December 6, 2015

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a war between the cat fanatics and the cookie fanatics—forever.

(And here I thought the real danger was paperclips.)
posted by Rangi at 11:04 AM on December 6, 2015

I was having dinner with friends and their families last night, and I bonded with the 7 year old over Neko Atsume. She hadn't gotten all the gifts yet so she wanted to see what some of the cats left.

Yolo ("cream-san") is still holding out, though. I have gifts from every other cat except the cowboy cat, but he or she has only showed up 22 times ever.
posted by tavella at 11:13 AM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm missing some of the special cats and have been trying to avoid spoiling myself on what those cats are or how to attract them. But I think I need to up my food game to get them to appear reliably.
posted by dismas at 11:18 AM on December 6, 2015

My carrier tells me I'm eligible for a free phone upgrade... but I'm not perfectly confident that I can successfully transfer everything over to a new phone. And there's no way I'm starting over - there's only 3 mementos left to get. So here I am, pecking away at my tatty old Galaxy, trapped in the technological stone age by my devotion to imaginary cats.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 11:23 AM on December 6, 2015 [26 favorites]

If you want a vision of the future, imagine Tubbs eating all your fucking food - forever.
posted by selfnoise at 11:25 AM on December 6, 2015 [52 favorites]

I would have been much more excited by the localization to English if the upgrade hadn't wiped my entire history and made me start all over from the beginning. I'd kind of drifted away from the game for a few months, but that was still an unpleasant surprise.
posted by asterix at 11:27 AM on December 6, 2015

Tubbs is the 1%.

(I just upgraded iPhones and kept everything, phew.)
posted by wintersweet at 11:30 AM on December 6, 2015

There is one black cat with white ears and white feet whom nearly everyone calls “Socks,” except for the one person who stubbornly refers to the cat as “Eight-Ball.”

THAT ONE PERSON IS WRONG. SOCK'S NAME IS "SOCKS." THIS IS SELF EVIDENT. TO DENY IT IS HERESY!

HERESY!!!!!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:40 AM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

This game is currently the best part of my life.

Take from that what you will.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:48 AM on December 6, 2015 [8 favorites]

No Linux version? I haz a sad nao.
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:03 PM on December 6, 2015

Oh, god, Mary Ellen Carter, I had't thought of that. I am planning to get a new phone soon. Nooo! I need Yolo to give me that damn gift, I have cats that have shown up 700 times but he's still holding out on me.
posted by tavella at 12:13 PM on December 6, 2015

"Socks"? Please. That cat is named "Points" and we all know it to be right and true.
posted by angeline at 12:40 PM on December 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong- I leave food out and when I come back the cats have already come and gone. I never actually get to see the kitties.

No Linux version? I haz a sad nao.

It's on Android.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:09 PM on December 6, 2015

Tubbs? What is this “Tubbs”‽ In this house, we call him Manzoku-San.
posted by acb at 1:20 PM on December 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

FUCKIN TUBBS JUST ATE ALL MY SASHIMI AND LEFT ME ONE GODDAMN SILVER MACKEREL

Pope Guilty: You gotta check more often!
posted by dismas at 1:30 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

(Tubbs is Mochi in MY house.)

Pope Guilty: Put the food out, close the app or do something else, and check back in about 5 minutes.
posted by wintersweet at 1:34 PM on December 6, 2015

5 minutes? I was waiting like six hours.

*puts out food*
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:35 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh my goodness!
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:48 PM on December 6, 2015 [23 favorites]

Why won't Billy the Kitten give me his gift?????? I've tried everything. I've got everything (and everyone) else. This is the last hold out, of course. I don't want to emphasize with Hedly Lamar.....just give it Billy!
posted by triage_lazarus at 2:00 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I am enjoying how some of the rare cats are getting multiple "attractive items." So far, Ronin-Cat, Nokomata, Mr. Bistro, and Station Master Cat have second items, and there may be more....

I have a friend who regularly texts me "I got Tubbed."
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:23 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Tubbs - or Chubbs, as he is in my house - has the Giant Cushion as a second item, but I've only seen him on it once.
posted by angeline at 2:26 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Tubbs is Sta-Puft in my house!

I find that the cardboard house is great value for the money - many cats, including the elusive Peaches/Cream-san, seem to like it, and Ms. Fortune/Koikoi, the rare cat who goes with the house, is generous with her sardines. (I call her "Pink Ears!")
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 3:04 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I named him Kevin, not Tubbs, and the cat with socks is Pippi.

You know he won't eat anything inside the house, right, so you can just put the sashimi inside and give the outside cats cheaper food? Also, if you let him leave on his own time he'll usually leave 45-60 silver fish. Just don't refresh the food until he's gone.
posted by felix grundy at 3:06 PM on December 6, 2015

Haha "Sta-puft" is a great name for him.
posted by felix grundy at 3:06 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

You can rename them?!
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:08 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was thinking about a remodel of the space (to the Japanese zen style, to start with), am collecting my gold fish for this purpose, but does anyone know if it has any impact on the cats? Are some visiting more often?
posted by Ender's Friend at 3:28 PM on December 6, 2015

Angeline, I call him Chubbs too! Obviously that is his one TRUE NAME.

I'm in this weird spot where all my cats show up with their default Japanese names even though I play the game in English. I've started renaming some of them after deciding that "Shironeko-san" is simply not inspiring enough. I do like the "-san" honorific at the end of the names, though....

My rare cats live up to their names - although Prince-san (the Sphinx cat) has visited me 6 times, I haven't ever managed to catch him to snap a photo!

I discovered Neko Atsume about a month ago and was so sad to see that the MeFi thread had been long closed. YAY NEKO!!
posted by invokeuse at 3:44 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

As far as I know, after the initial expansion, any further remodeling just moves things around rather than adding spots or having other effects. (And if you do it while you've got cats in the yard, they will all disappear.)

There are several guides out there. This one is for English-reading players of the Japanese version, but presumably the same general principles are in effect.
posted by wintersweet at 3:56 PM on December 6, 2015

The nice thing about remodeling is that it remembers what you had in which spot, and there's no cost to switching once you've paid the initial fee. So you can have multiple setups, or just move stuff around when you get bored.

The cardboard house is great. My favorite thing might be Mister Dragonfly, as the cats leap up to get it. Makes getting a good photo somewhat difficult. I do wish the more exclusive cats did more than just stand there, though. Some of them are a bit more intricate, I imagine they'd be a pain to animate.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:29 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you need more than one 'take care of these adorable cats'-type game on your phone, and you are also susceptible to cookie-clicker incremental clones, then please also enjoy the unbearably adorable animation and pet-the-cat-as-gameplay-mechanism action of Idle Paws.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 5:03 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Mine is called Gordo! I've become an evangelist and have gotten four or five friends hooked on the game. I'm saving up for another house now. I have kept things set to Japanese mostly because I played the game long enough that I don't feel the need to switch over.
posted by PussKillian at 5:15 PM on December 6, 2015

I named my cats alphabetically by when they showed up, so the one you call Chubs or Tubbs is Zara in my world. (Jimbo and Xaviar wield the swords; Lars climbs the mountains; Kenny keeps the peace.)
posted by julen at 5:53 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

I haven't dug too deep into spoilers so I was super excited to discover that Tubbs will actually sit on the giant cushion. Mind you no guarantee he won't do his usual thing. My family has been all about chasing rares but I'm still going for sheer number of cats per pixel. To that end, the giant cushion, dice cube and tiramisu cube all have the potential for double cats in a single space.
posted by Lorin at 6:08 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

My tablet died and what I'm saddest about is that I can't go visit my adorable cartoon cats. I'll have to start over when I get my new one.

I love my stupid virtual kitties.
posted by darksong at 7:27 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Installed this on my iPad last week. Then realized I really should have installed it on my phone. So I did. And now I'm playing both instances simultaneously.

I think I have a problem.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:03 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like incongruous names, so all my cats are like "Pestilence" and "Viscera" and "Dr. Murder".

I renamed Tubbs "Butterball", after the fattest of the cenobites.
posted by cortex at 9:20 PM on December 6, 2015 [5 favorites]

I am vehemently pro-Tubbs and do not understand this hate surrounding him. He's generous if you let him eat.
posted by solarion at 9:49 PM on December 6, 2015 [9 favorites]

I am vehemently pro-Tubbs and do not understand this hate surrounding him.

It's just, I could be seeing other cats fidget with the Busy Bee or the Ping Pong Ball but noooooooo someone came and hogged allllll the food, driving all the other cats away.
posted by invokeuse at 10:01 PM on December 6, 2015

Tubbs = Hedonismbot
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:34 PM on December 6, 2015 [8 favorites]

Don Gato is just standing there in front of the mister mouse, like cmon Don Gato play with it or let another kitty play with it
posted by wemayfreeze at 10:39 PM on December 6, 2015 [3 favorites]

Whew. I've been wondering if I was the only one. It's not like I can tell my meatspace friends about my secret virtual cat game shame. More cats.

I've just been trying to get the yard expansion as quickly as possible so I could see more cats. Knowing more has complicated my virtual cat world. More cats.

Also, how about that catchy tune. More cats.
posted by -t at 11:56 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

This game is the first one I've seen get really popular with non-otaku in America before it was localized to English.

It's also the first one i've seen that transcended the usual chain of ultra nerds/people super in to whatever subgenre or hobby/scene the thing comes from > cool tumblr/IG/etc "tastemaker" people with lots of followers > cool people who follow the latest stuff and more casual nerds > regular every day internet people > parents/people who don't really give a crap about internet stuff/etc

I could give plenty of examples of games and apps that became huge memes essentially, which followed that chain.

This game hit the entire chain at the same time essentially. I was seeing people who don't really follow much of anything online posting about it at the same time as turbonerds and stuff. People who usually call an app/game getting really big right next to my friends mom.

It wasn't just that it got really popular before it was localized, it got like almost angry birds popular concurrently with the "cool" people playing with it, rather than a month or two later.

The last even vaguely similar full-stack shockwave like that i can think of was probably flappy bird. This had way wider appeal though.
posted by emptythought at 3:58 AM on December 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Don Gato is just standing there in front of the mister mouse, like cmon Don Gato play with it or let another kitty play with it

You...may want to take a closer look at Don Gato. Well. Maybe not WANT.

He's playing. In his own way. *cough*
posted by angeline at 4:23 AM on December 7, 2015

He's stabbed mister mouse! But still just standing there. Very strange behavior Don Gato, VERY strange.
posted by wemayfreeze at 8:16 AM on December 7, 2015

Tubbs = Moose to me. Now I have to put the giant cushion out.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:25 AM on December 7, 2015

Installed this on my iPad last week. Then realized I really should have installed it on my phone. So I did. And now I'm playing both instances simultaneously.

Me too. And so in one game I followed the prudent path of upgrades from cat condo to expansion to remodel, while in the other I spent at will, loading the small yard with all the fanciest items. It was glorious burning through the 150 gold I'd saved when I decided to go that route. Also nice getting to try multiple remodels at half price.
posted by Lorin at 10:37 AM on December 7, 2015

neko atsume is the only game so far that has even begun to fill the void left behind by the shuttering of kawaii pet megu
posted by burgerrr at 11:52 AM on December 7, 2015

I love this game so much that I made a couple of the cardboard toys IRL. my cats didn't like the pyramid though so it became a halloween hat. I would KILL for a giant burger cushion. the game creators could probably make a fortune selling the toys.

is there a list of all the english names somewhere, or the original japanese names translated? i'd love to see a list of all the original names. i had already named a bunch of my collected cats before I switched to English mode.
posted by ghostbikes at 2:06 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

also, this thread spoilered me about Tubbs... I clearly haven't been playing enough!
posted by ghostbikes at 2:06 PM on December 7, 2015

All the Neko Atsume info you can wiggle a Mister Mouse at, including names for each cat, what they're into, and pictures of mementos.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 5:47 PM on December 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Mr Tubbs is 'Arbuckle' in my garden.
posted by mippy at 4:50 AM on December 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

"I do wish the more exclusive cats did more than just stand there, though. Some of them are a bit more intricate, I imagine they'd be a pain to animate."

I like the way that the baseball cat just turns up to serenely gaze at the baseball, though. 'Yes. That is a baseball. I like the baseball. I approve.'
posted by mippy at 4:52 AM on December 8, 2015 [9 favorites]

A friend of mine pointed me to this awesome data visualization today and it's great. Crowdsourced fish statistics: living in the future is awesome.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:00 PM on December 12, 2015 [5 favorites]

Tubbs = Bubbs
posted by krinklyfig at 5:46 PM on December 15, 2015

(you all have ruined my life)
posted by krinklyfig at 5:55 PM on December 15, 2015

I really like the way that the cats will either lounge on the pads and cushions, or they sit on them, sometimes with their back to you.
posted by krinklyfig at 6:28 PM on December 15, 2015

I've had the most visits from Lexi (the gray and white with "expensive tastes,"), Sunny (one of the calicos) and Marshmallow (the Siamese). And I just sprung gold fish for the marble slab and I got Peaches to show her elusive face!
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 6:07 AM on December 16, 2015

I still have seven cats missing from my catbook. I'm not sure if it's the cheap food or if it's some item I haven't bought yet. I am rolling in silver mackerel though.
posted by dismas at 8:16 AM on December 16, 2015

There are NEW THINGS. And apparently a new cat.
posted by angeline at 2:50 PM on December 18, 2015 [4 favorites]

There is SNOW. And TINKLY FESTIVE MUSIC.
posted by angeline at 11:02 PM on December 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

You guys. I cried. CRIED yesterday when I logged in and I saw the snow and heard the tinkly music. I seriously cannot handle this level of cute.
posted by Fuego at 8:45 PM on December 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

I have caught Frosty! I think he brings the snow with him? I switched to a new layout, and there was no snow, until after he had appeared.
posted by tavella at 11:19 PM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Congratulations! But surely you didn't catch Frosty. Perhaps Frosty decided to visit you and enjoy some of your delicious snacks and amusing toys?

FWIW I had the snow yesterday and today I don't. And no Frosty in my Catbook.
posted by Nelson at 7:36 AM on December 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

There was no snow today in my layout. RETURN THE SNOW. PLEEEEEASE

this makes me happier than when it's Reindeer Koi season in Koi Pond and honestly I didn't know anything could top fish with antlers and Rudolph noses.
posted by angeline at 10:02 AM on December 20, 2015