It’s All in the Game

Are you addicted to an Internet game? I am. I’m a game-aholic and it is all Elie’s fault. Worse – I’ve infected other people with this. There’s a game Elie plays – and usually wins. I started it, it took a while, and I’m almost there. It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s brainless and it’s a connection with my son that I feel. Silly? I told you it was…

The game begins like this. Five colors, tons of bubbles. You aim and fire at color clusters of three and they disappear. If there aren’t any color clusters, you shoot the bubble strategically to the best location you can to try to build clusters.

And you keep trying to shoot bubbles of three until you have only a few left. Of course, as with life, there are forces working against you. At first, you have a whole bunch of chances to hit something (see the lower left corner where you are shooting the blue, and next up is the red. The other white balls are how many chances you have left.

Each time you miss, you use up one of your chances until, when you have none left. Then, a bunch more rows are added. As it gets closer and closer to the bottom, your maneuvering room diminishes until you are eventually cornered, the balls touch the bottom, and you lose.

Of course, if you are successful, you keep getting closer and closer to the top of the screen. If you shoot all the bubbles of a color, the color doesn’t return the next time you use up all your chances.

It’s a silly game, time consuming, and long. You can play it here, online: http://www.bubbleshooter.net/games/001_bubble_shooter.swf, I think you can even download it to your computer or phone (though I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

I could be philosophical about it and compare it to life, but that would make things too complicated. The fact is – it’s a mindless game I enjoy…and I enjoy when Elie sees me play it and takes over to “show me how it’s done”.

And a secret Elie doesn’t know – I haven’t beaten his top score of 389,000 or so points, but I’ve gotten close…297,740 and counting.

 So, do you have a game you love to play? If you do, share it with me and I’ll tell Elie about it.

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