An Addict Confesses 


Jim's experiment with the world of computer gaming. 

I went cold turkey tonight. I deleted all the games from my Palm Z22. It had to be done.

Originally, I replace the Zire 21 with the Palm Z22 so I could show pictures off of the grandkid. I was quite excited to have this little $99 handheld with a 160 x 160 low-res screen. I gave no thought to playing games. But included in the apps on this new Palm was a game called Crazy Daisy from Astraware. By chance I just tried it out. The ad says "Spin the flowers to match the colored petals and watch them pop!" It wasn't a day until I was spinning those daisies for say 15-20 minutes a time, three or four times a day. I went along like this for a couple of weeks.

Stephen noticed it right away. He didn't say anything at first, but those of you in long-term relationships know the tell-tale signs of spouse annoyance. For example. I'm sitting in my easy chair playing this game. Stephen gets up from his chair, but instead of leaving the room, he stops right in the middle. Turns his head slightly and looks at me. Then walks out. Now, as I say, any half-wit recognizes these signs of mild annoyance, even if their thoughts are occupied by spinning daisies. As the days rolled on, he made a comment or two. Like, "Are you playing that game again?" Well, yes. Half-wit.

After a couple of weeks, Crazy Daisies became monotonous marigolds, leaden lilies and echinacea ennui in that order. But there I was still spinning stupid daisies. So I thought, what about a trip back to Astraware? I'll become an expert on games for the Palm. Does this sound like druggie to you? I'll just become an expert on addicting substances. I tried a couple of games that were inherently boring right off the web. Like Bejeweled. Or games that were truly stupid. Mummy Maze comes to mind here.

However, I was to meet the supreme addictive game for me. The God of Diversion clearly intended for me to go out madly locked in Atomica-generated infinitely regressive stylus-driven combat. I love Atomica. I actually spent the $10 and bought it. "Make Molecules in Dr. Atomica's Laboratory! Build up atomic power by moving atoms to make larger and larger molecules, but watch out, otherwise your test board will get so crowded with new atoms appearing that you can't move any more and.... *BOOOM*." On certain esoteric sections of the GRE, notably spatial configurations, I scored in the 99% percentile. This game is all about recognizing and utilizing geometric relationships.

Ah, but how dangerous it was! Like I said, the Crazy Daisy game got boring. Atomica, however, got addictive. I didn't get tired of it. Instead, I found myself playing it like sex addicts will put themselves in danger without realizing it. Like today, lovely day. Colleen and Rosanda joined Stephen and me for lunch and Art in Bloom at the St. Louis Art Museum. Towards the end of the afternoon, Rosanda and I decided to sit it out while Colleen and Stephen made one more round of the flower arrangements. We were sitting there talking, and I just popped out the Palm and began to play Atomica. I played a whole game while talking to her.

That's when I realized, right then and there, that I had to kick the habit. Tonight, I played one final game of Atomica, and then I systematically deleted all the games off of my Z22. Life is short, there are mountains still to climb, real daisies to smell and real atoms to smash. Maybe sometime in the future again, after I've figured out how to do podcasting and helped Stephen caulk the bathtub.

It was great fun, but it was just one of those addictive things. 

Posted: Sat - February 25, 2006 at 08:56 PM          

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