Glasses Cleaning Simulator

What it is

Glasses Cleaning Simulator is a pair of black-rimmed glasses lying on a Persian rug, both lenses smeared with fingerprints, and a counter that reads 0.0% clean. Your cursor is the cloth. Rub the lenses and try to get the number up, one lens at a time, for as long as your patience and your wrist hold out. The site promises a realism glasses wearers will appreciate.

How to play

Rub. Move your cursor, or your finger, back and forth over a lens and watch the percentage. Move to the other lens. Rub again. A menu sits top-left and there is nothing else to press, which is the correct number of things to press for a game about cleaning glasses. What happens as you rub is the joke, so we will leave it there.

What makes it different

It is a simulator in the deadpan sense: one action, one number, and a chore every glasses wearer knows, rendered as a game with the seriousness of a flight simulator and none of the buttons. The glasses and the smudges look right, and the rug is the kind of rug glasses fall onto when you sit down without thinking. There is no score beyond the percentage and no menu beyond the one in the corner. It takes a minute, and the minute is a small, specific comedy.

Why it is on Bored

You will think of it the next time you reach for a shirt hem, which is more than most games manage. It comes from the same British workshop as a good many of our other toys, and the hub is on Bored as its own link.

Tips

• Use small circles, the way you would with a real cloth
• Watch the counter
• Try both lenses
• Then go clean your actual glasses, you have been reminded, and a real cloth works better

FAQ