10 Video Games That Punished You For Buying Them
6. The Stroke The Animal "Franchise"
Developed by the shamelessly monikered outfit Game Achievements Ltd, the Stroke The Animal "franchise" is a collection of no-effort "games" in which you pay a few bucks to stroke an animal - be they hamster, dog, cat, hedgehog, snake, or parrot - by just repeatedly hammering the X button.
In reality, as the developer's name clarifies, the games are basically paid platinum trophies in thinly-veiled disguise - all of the trophies involve nothing more than spamming X in order to stroke your animal of choice.
You'll unlock trophies at regular intervals until you hit 2,000 strokes, at which point you'll pop the Platinum trophy.
Because this takes less than 10 minutes, the Stroke The Animal franchise has one of the highest trophy completion rates in the PlayStation ecosystem, and yet, because these titles are so transparently offering Platinums for pay, many are baffled that Sony hasn't stepped in and removed them from the service.
Then again, given that developer TJ Gardner has raked in £280,000 from the games, and Sony takes a 30% cut from this - amounting to around £84,000 - one can perhaps understand why they're still available.
All the same, these games are basically mocking players and their tireless fixation with hoovering up digital trophies, making them a few bucks poorer while supporting their compulsive behaviour.