Cows, Birds, & Campuses...Oh My!

Everyone has at least heard of it. Heck...I bet you've even tried to give it a spin. You've probably gotten the invite and once your family and friends have found out, you've opened up a pandora's box of alerts and invitations. All of a sudden your become addicted and plan your real life around your virtual playland. "Susy needs your help farming her crops" or " Joe needs you as part of their mafia."  Casual gaming has been the big boom as of late and it doesnt look like its stopping. You can play it on your computer. You can play it on your Iphone or Ipod. There are strategy books on how to boost your crops faster! No matter where you go or what you do, it's this kind of gaming that draws not only the 10 year old 4th grader but also the 70 year old grandmother.

Those freakin pigs stole our eggs!

 What do the developers do to draw this wide array of players to play their games? There's nothing really fancy in these games at all and maybe that's the whole point. It's simple, and very user friendly. A hardcore gamer like myself has tried these games before. It does get addicting and having easy access to it just makes it more harder for me to put it down. Take for example Angry Birds I was messing around with my Ipod and one of my coworkers saw the game and asked what it was. Now this guy is not a gamer and just felt anything complex was a hassle. Trying to explain that it is puzzle game trying to destroy the pigs whole stole the bird's eggs gave me funny looks like I was insane but he tried it and I ended up not seeing my ipod the whole day. Now this guy downloaded the app for his Iphone and has been hooked ever since. You can hear the frustration from across the office and you know its from the game. Sometimes the simplicity of it all just draws those people in and they just get hooked. You play a level or two and you hear the catchy chimes and sounds and you start to think to yourself, "Wow...Im really doing pretty good." You then see your friends scores and high they are and then you get to thinking you can beat that and play it over and over till you do reach top score and that's how they get you. Im looking at you Bejeweled!!!

 Not only does it have to be simple for someone casual to enjoy it but it also has to be easily accessible. Social websites like Facebook is easily a haven for family and friends to reconnect but also help each other whether its farming your cousin's crops or giving your old college roommate that nail for their frontier. Will it ever end? From the looks of my facebook page...I highly doubt it. Now does anyone want to help me with putting Gdogg U on the map?

My latest addiction