game on

Okay, I'll admit it, I like playing some of the games on facebook and online. I'm not crazy addicted where I have to look at them every hour, but I spend some time in the morning early and then again at night (and I'm not fond of the whole farm movement, I have real plants here that need tending, I only play to help others who help me in other games).

I've never considered myself a 'gamer' in years past. There have been games I've liked (Tempest comes to mind, as does the original Legend of Zelda, and 7th Guest, a computer game way ahead of it's time with its graphics), but nothing very addictive, even in the days when Mario ruled the game console.

I love Zuma Blitz. It's mindless, matching 3 of a kind and competing with friends for the highest score. Level 80 is as high as you can get, so PopCap started with letting you reset and start again, I'm over 1/2 way through my 4th time. I play when I'm in the midst of coding because it used to help stop my brain from coding all night while I sleep. Actually the coding overnight is a good skill to have. When I got my BS in computer science, I found that when I couldn't get a program to work, if I went to bed without 'clearing it out of my mind', my brain would work on it all night and I'd usually wake up with a solution. That doesn't make for a good night's sleep though. I would knit or something 'mindless' to clear it out.

If I play Zuma Blitz too late though or right before I go to bed, I find my brain decides to play that all night.....so that's not usually a late night thing.

A new Zynga game (and if you play anything online, Zynga is the king of gaming) is Hidden Chronicles. It is a mansion with a searchable scenes part. So you have this home and you can 'buy' stuff for your estate, which in turn gives you points that unlock other scenes and more property. It is the fastest growing game I've seen. I have probably 40 friends that play steadily, pretty much unheard of. The scenes have a varying set of items you have to search for and you get points and 'cash' for finding them without errors and quickly. I've always liked the 'see what's different' games and searching in general. I used to love the find items last page in Highlights magazine they used to have in the doctor's office. Anyway, the graphics are great and it doesn't crash the shockwave/flash player as often as a lot of the other games seem to. It's low maintenance (your crops don't rot, there's nothing to 'feed') so that has been my 'last stop' before bedtime lately.

I also play Frontierville/Pioneer Trail, though I'm getting about done with that. I've been playing that since they started. It's glitchy, it crashes, it forgets stuff, but I have to say Zynga's customer support is great. You email them, they give you 'stuff' and more. But lately they've been more apt to give you things than fix the overall programming issues. Lately it has become more of a 'chore' than fun. The missions are very redundant and a lot of my friends have stopped playing. You have to beg (every 12 hours) for stuff, even then, you can only get 3 of whatever you need (sometimes 50-60!) at that. It's also the only game where I have 'friends' I don't know. You need so many to keep up, and they have to be dedicated, daily players. Right now, a lot of them have stopped playing because it's getting ridiculous and there is a huge online movement to get Zynga to rethink the way the game is played. We'll see, I play that only here and there now, mainly just to help out others. They even opened a 'new' area but the work involved to play was just overwhelming and not enough 'resources' provided by Zynga to make it fun.

I like the new Solitaire Blitz. You have a minute (or more if you pay with your winnings) to go through the deck and unload all your cards into 3 piles. Also mindless (well you have to pay a bit attention to get the matches and runs, but mindless)

I did the Farmville and My Farm when I first got online. My Farm was kinda fun, I had a lot of stuff, I liked the cow tipping aspect, but honestly I haven't looked at it in years. Farmville I only play every week or so, and just to the requests I get for stuff.

Words with Friends (aka Scrabble) is available online and on my iPad/iPhone. I made a rule that I will only play when I'm on my exercise bike and I don't get to that every day (I walk a lot when it's nice out) so I amended that rule as I was losing games for not playing for a few days. I play with a lot of my friends. You can also only have 30 games going at once, and though that may sound like a lot, when you're the 'grammar police' as I am at work, you can breeze though them. And no, I don't cheat. I know a number of people that have admitted to using programs that play for them or give them words. I mean what's the point then? I sometimes do just throw letters at the board and hope they make a word and I am always surprised when they do. I'm also surprised at how the differing 'scrabble' type games use different dictionaries and what passes in one game and not in another.

The mahjong matching games were nice, but now they are fraught with ads that stop you every 2-3 games and make you watch something you don't want to for :30. Same with playing Words with Friends online. I'm sure these companies need to make some money somehow. Words with Friends, I paid for the app on my phone just to get rid of the ads. I won't pay online though. I do throw some $ (like $25 every 3-4 months) at Frontierville from time to time. I keep hoping they'll get their servers to stop being ridiculous.

Bejeweled Blitz is also a mindless matching game, same thing as Zuma but it's more like a Tetris type in a grid.

Other games gone by the wayside, Mafia Wars. One of the first online/Facebook games. It really got boring after awhile. At first, I was just getting killed off all the time and all my stuff ripped off, but then it was just a clicking thing and different cities/collections, but the same thing. Then they tried a more interactive (looked like the Sims) and I more didn't understand the overall missions. Pirates. I did like Pirates, though similar to Mafia Wars, it had a bit more to it. Zynga discontinued it. The Farm games, both of them, required way too much time and dedication to keep going. I guess they expect you to either play every hour or fork over some real $$ to buy things like unwither for your crops. Don't like them enough to do that.

Angry Birds has just 'debuted' on Facebook. I have it on my phone and all Angry Birds does is makes me angry. It's okay to play if there is nothing else to do, but I personally find it very frustrating. I guess it's funny the first few times the 'pigs' laugh/grunt at you, but after that, yes you just want to slap them upside the head. I play online here and there (like maybe 1x every 2-3 weeks if I'm bored) only because it's larger than trying to play on a little phone screen.