Addicted to Clicking

Dear Jason Tanz,

Ian Bogost is just as much as a sucker as the Farmville creators. Bogost fell apart of his own plan. Bogost started off trying to satire Farmville, but when the game went viral, Bogost became just as invested in it as Zynga was invested in Farmville. Just as Farmville did, he allowed the game to spam Facebook walls and charge a fee to advance in the game. However, I cannot be a hypocrite, I must admit I have fallen guilty of playing Farmville and clicking on the stupid little cows on your article's page. When I first discovered by clicking the word 'cow' that one of those cows would pop up I continued to do it. I didn't even find it enjoyable, in all honesty I thought it was completely annoying, but I couldn't stop clicking whenever I was able to. I guess this just goes to show how people become addicted to such pointless games. You can't help but give in. However, I do think it is entirely ridiculous that people continued to click after the cows were removed and gamers were just clicking grass. Games should at least have a purpose.

Although I am no fan of these virtual gaming worlds such as WoW and Second Life, at least they offer social interaction. Instead of just sending a notification saying a click was made, individuals can socialize with one another and connect. In the study of the Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft, researchers found that players joined Guilds pertaining to their social style and play goals. In these Guilds, players created relationships with other players. However, some players mentioned they spend as much time with their WoW friends as they do with their real life friends. And after hearing that I am immediately thrown off again by virtual world games. Just like the stupid cow clicking game, the virtual world of gaming sucks you in too. I guess what I'm trying to say, is any game is addictive, whether it serves a purpose or not. But as long as a person is able to separate themselves from sitting at a computer all day playing video games and spend most of their time in the real world, who cares what the purpose of the game their playing is.

Yours Truly,

Taylor Palehonki