I've never really been a big "gaming" person. I had a six month stint of playing XBOX360 games while I was dating a guy who had an XBOX360. I've never owned a gaming system.
But then I got an iPhone.
At first I just used it to be on social media, check email, and call people. Then I got apps for "good" reasons: sleep and food tracking apps, IMDB and recipe apps (so I don't have to pull out my computer all the time!), weather apps (because if I don't like the forecast on one, I can go to the other?!), and the keyring app (so I don't have to carry all those plastic things on my keychain...they're still on it). Then, finally, I heard so much about games that I had to get some of them (just to keep up with what everyone was talking about!).
This is a list of games with which I have had serious addiction problems, albeit some just for a few days. They are classified with these colors: Red = Numbers, Green = Words, Blue = Strategy, Black = Other.
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| My games folder on my phone. |
Sudoku
Bejeweled
Bubble Shooter
Angry Birds
Words With Friends
Boggle
Farkle
Word to Word
Hearts
Dot Line
Whirly Word
Flow Free
Chain of Thought
Word Jewels
Domino
Word Wall
Drop7
Number Fill
Number Cruncher
7 Little Words
Eighty-Eight
Take It Easy
Daily Crossword
Dots
The breakdown: 10 word games, 7 number games, 6 strategy games, 1 speed game, and 1 card game. For the record, I only have the last six still on my phone and haven't played "Eighty-Eight" or "Take It Easy" in a few weeks (I just have such great high scores that I can't delete them!). I had to go back through my App Store history to find all the names of the other apps.
But why are they so addicting? This is something I've been thinking about for a while and here is why I think I am prone to obsessing over these particular games:
Word Games - I love the satisfaction I get from completing a crossword or other word game, beating someone in Words with Friends, or even beating my own scores in some word games. I think word games tap into our perception of "smart": "smart people" do crosswords, "I'm playing smart Person X in Words with Friends and I beat them, ergo I am smart" etc. I'm not saying that's a good reason to play word games, but I think it definitely plays a part in it.
Number Games - I have loved numbers my entire life! I just like number games. Why are they addicting? I think I have a propensity to be obsessed with number games because I'm extremely competitive and I love numbers. The way the games are built tap straight into my brain's "pleasure center" because of the built-in reward system: you get this many numbers, you get this much more time.
Strategy Games - Again, these games have great reward systems built into them: more time when you do a certain thing, more points if you do a certain thing, bonus levels if you get a certain amount of points on the previous levels. And that idea of reward is something our brains latch onto very quickly.
I wanted to test just how quickly my brain would latch onto a game I'd never played. I came across the new strategy game called "Dots." It took me less than two times through the game (120 seconds) to become hooked. It literally took me longer to find and download the game than become addicted to it. I kept picking up my phone and playing at odd times during the day: while I was waiting for the microwave to finish, while I was curling my hair (bad idea), during every commercial break, while I was walking from the living room to the kitchen, and then this morning before I even got out of bed! I'm not too concerned about my well-being in the long term. I usually go through a period of a day or two of being extremely addicted and then I get bored with it and end up deleting the app (Drop7 lasted the longest: two weeks and I played way too much.).
So, if you know you have an addictive personality and a lack of self-discipline, I think the above list is probably a do-not-download-these-apps list! They're fun, but unless you can put them down, are they worth it?
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi
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