A.V.G.M. (Abusive Video Game Manipulation) is an experimental flash game developed by Edmund McMillen (Bluebaby) and Tyler Glaiel (Glaiel-Gamer) with sound design by Danny Baranowsky. The game was originally released on February 1st, 2009 on the popular flash website Newgrounds. It was later repackaged with other Edmund McMillen games in The Basement Collection. This collection has an updated version which features three extra difficulty levels.
The game has players flicking a light switch in order to make items appear in a room whereupon they can then rearrange the items they have collected. The items are distributed in such a way that the next item takes twice as many clicks to reach as the previous one did; i.e. the first item takes one click, the second takes two, the third takes four, the fourth takes eight, etcetera. The game ends when the player reaches 10,000 clicks. When the player finally reaches the 10,000 clicks to beat the game, the full un-abbreviated title is revealed to be Abusive Video Game Manipulation.
According to a deleted scene of Indie Game: The Movie -- which can be found in The Basement Collection -- the purpose of the game was "to comment on the mindless tasks that people will undertake in order to achieve ridiculous goals and be rewarded with virtual items." McMillen also makes remarks about how people, given the option, will often opt to pay their way to the end reward rather then achieve it through laborious means, which is how games such as FarmVille make their "mountains of money."
A.V.G.M. was the winner of the IGF award for innovation in 2010.
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