Every week, with few exceptions, Tristan Cooper spends anywhere from a couple of hours to over a dozen hours telling over 500,000 people whether or not they will pet the dog in various video games like, say, “Lost Judgement” (you can).
If a computer game features a dog or a cat or maybe a fox, likelihood is that that Tristan’s “Can you pet the dog?” account has looked into whether or not it are often pet.
Despite runaway success, Cooper isn’t making a sustainable income from “Can you pet the dog?” albeit the account is getting used as a marketing bullet point for a few major games with major marketing budgets.
As of now I even have not made any money on the account,” Cooper told Insider during a phone interview earlier this month. “I spend tons of your time thereon and you’ll maybe argue that it’s helping people get a spotlight on their games and i am glad to try to to that,” he said. “But there hasn’t been a true return on behalf of me thereon .”
Because of the increase of Cooper’s account over two-plus years, the solution tends to be yes, you’ll pet the dog.
Though he denies it, “Can you pet the dog?” has had a serious impact on the computer game business. Mainstream computer game franchises like “Marvel’s Avengers” and “Call of Duty” have added animal petting, to mention nothing of the handfuls of smaller indie games that have done an equivalent .
If there is a cute animal during a game, likelihood is that that players want to pet it – as highlighted by Cooper’s account:
I would wish to avoid overstating any quite like impact that the account had,” he said. “I started it because people could pet dogs in games to start with.”
That’s true, and he specifically cited Ubisoft’s “Far Cry: New Dawn” as a part of the inspiration behind the account – a game you not only can pet the dog in, but are specifically directed to on a side mission. Other major games, including “Fallout 4” and “The Last folks ,” have featured dogs alongside the most character that were pettable.
But for every example of major games with dogs that would be pet, there are dozens of digital doggos that were unpettable.
As the account’s popularity has increased, the concept has been used as a marketing bulletpoint for everything from small indie titles to major mainstream games.
Cooper isn’t upset about this, but he would really like to be ready to pay his rent – and perhaps turn the account into a cocktail table book featuring the stories behind the digital animals we like to pet.
A nice cocktail table book of dogs in video games that you simply can pet…some interviews. there is a lot of great stories, behind tons of the dogs in games,” Cooper said. “They’re supported real dogs. They’re supported dogs that have gave up the ghost , and are immortalized in games.”
Most of all, he just wants people to stay enjoying his account albeit it’s occasionally used as a part of a marketing plan. “I realize it may be a marketing bulletpoint lately ,” he said, “but that’s to not say people aren’t enjoying this.”