The whole appeal of idle games for me hinges on that weird contradiction: they're built for minimal input, but if progression becomes too passive, I lose interest completely. It's a delicate dance. I've played ones where the balance feels off—like 'Cookie Clicker' in its early days, where you'd hit a wall and need to actively strategize prestige upgrades, versus some mobile titles where you just check in once a day to collect rewards and it feels hollow.
What keeps me hooked is when the game layers passive income with occasional strategic decision points. Take 'Realm Grinder' as an example. Your buildings generate resources while you're away, but to really optimize and reach new factions or ascension tiers, you need to sit down and reconfigure your build, aligning different alignments and bloodlines. That hour of active tinkering then fuels days of satisfying offline growth. The progression isn't just numbers going up; it's about unlocking new systems that change how the idle loop functions.
Without those inflection points, it becomes background noise. I need to feel like my choices, even if infrequent, have a tangible impact on the speed and shape of that upward curve. Otherwise, it's just watching a progress bar fill, and my phone has a clock for that.