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We see the final battle between the new gods and the old gods, and Kate and Daniel are trying to keep their secrets hidden, or they risk losing all their allies.
The evolution of language is always fascinating, but at times it dismays me. For example, as liberal and a feminist, I’m constantly confused as to why those are considered bad words. I know educated, strong women who want equal pay, equal rights, and respect, but they back away from the word “feminist” as if it were a mouse and they’re nothing more than a ’50′s housewife.
(See the subtle sexism there? That was irony. Keep up.)
But the word that troubles me lately is “addictive.” I was browsing the iTunes App Store for productivity apps for my iPod Touch (instead of writing- more irony here), and found myself casually browsing the new games. In discovering how many of the apps proudly call themselves “addictive,” I realized the word now means “so very cool.”
I’m not saying they’re wrong. I had two addictive apps on my ipod, Virtual Villagers 2 and Civilization, and wasted many an hour on them. “I’ll stop at 5:30. Oh. It’s 5:35. Ok, then I’ll stop at 5:45…” and so on. Recently I set new goals for the fall that include upping my writing output by a great deal, both in fiction and in freelance. Some of these freelance assignments include book reviews, which means I actually need to put down the shiny screens and pick up a book (unless, of course, I get the book on kindle or ipod, but I digress)-which I should be doing anyway because writers read, dammit. Note that none of the above include “play Virtual Villagers till your people gain level 2 engineering and you can build a dam.”
While it was tough to ignore the constant pull of these games, it was pretty easy to delete them from the ipod. Now the iPod is mostly a music player with some “grown up” apps on it – as well as some games for the Pink Tornado (she loves Pocket God, especially with the addition of zombies). So when I look at games in the app store, I steer away from “addictive.”
I know what they’re meaning by it: play this and it will be so much fun you won’t want to stop! But to me, “addictive” means not just a time-suck, but also demanding brain space when you’re not playing. I still do this with World of Warcraft, and I quit that months ago. It means ignoring more meaningful things – and I’m not saying games bad, I mean it’s more meaningful for me to play a game on the PS3 with Jim or our daughter than be holed up with my iPod urging the Germans to attack America, as New Orleans is right down the road from Hamburg. It means ignoring my family. And, as my dear friend Chris Miller pointed out to me, it also means vapid, shallow, and empty calories if not downright dangerous – people get addicted to cocaine and WoW and alcohol, not aspirin and Connie Willis books and milk. (Specifically Chris said “optional and frivolous” – but it reminded me of meaningless, empty calories that we love so much, and then I got reminded of the harmful products, etc, etc.)
I’ve been an addict before- cigarettes and gaming. And I’m all too aware of the feeling of brief euphoria followed by a somewhat hollow feeling and planning the next time you get that feeling. That shit ain’t healthy.
So I know my $.99 (or more) is but a drop in the bucket, but if you list your app as “addictive,” I’m going to think twice before downloading. I want to have fun, but not at the expense of more important things. I have books to read, words to write, a family to go enjoy the fall weather with, and pumpkin bread to make.
Mmmm. Pumpkin bread…
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8 Responses to "Addictive" is now a good thing?
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As an avid gamer, I know exactly what you’re getting at. I see a lot of similarities between games and books in this article, though, which interests me. Particularly where you mentioned, “But to me, ‘addictive’ means not just a time-suck, but also demanding brain space when you’re not playing.”
This happens to me with books, too!
Whenever I force myself to put down a great page-turner, I find my mind drifting back to it until the next time I pick it up. This was as true of Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth novels as it was true of brilliant games like Shadow of the Colossus or Devil May Cry. So, it piqued my interest that you pointed out “constant mindshare” as a pernicious quality of games, because I somewhat consider it a necessity in any creative work that is worth appreciating. After playing a game, watching a movie or reading a book that stimulates my senses and imagination, I enjoy the “background noise,” to an extent.
Perhaps there is an important difference between the passive analysis we experience after viewing “healthy” creative works, and the disruptive I-wish-I-were-playing-right-now-gosh-why-won’t-these-silly-worldly-distractions-just-disintegrate distraction elicited by “addictive” games. It must be very subjective, though, because I know a lot of World of Warcraft players who would howl in outrage at their game being classified as “addictive” over “healthy” and stimulating. Maybe it’s both?
Excellent post, Mur, as always. As a recovering alcoholic, I can appreciate what you’re saying. I was addicted to the Myst games and had to just walk away. That’s why I don’t play WoW or any of the apps on Facebook. You know, the HARD stuff. Compu-crack. I limit my iPod apps to utilities like a grocery list and an eReader.
Thanks for sharing this!
My sentiments exactly. I’m a feminist and a liberal and I actively stay away from games because I like them too darn much. Only problem is that I’m addicted to the internet. Not full-blown addiction but I think it’s a problem all the same. And it’s not like I can go cold turkey!
When I use the word “addictive” to refer to something good (TvTropes.org), it’s always, “I love this site, it’s so helpful, but watch out, it’s addictive!” And it’s true. I agree that something being addictive is not good for productivity… unless it’s the productivity itself that’s addictive.
It does kind of bother me how you always talk about turning off the TV and games and reading prose as such a great thing. I read a lot of prose, and I also read a lot of manga and watch a lot of anime. I find that the manga and anime is usually what inspires me the most in terms of thinking, “I want to write a story like this!” when I finish it (There’s still only a very small percent of anime I watch that gives me that feeling, since a lot of anime have endings that seem like they were written on drugs).
(Personally, I can’t cut out anime and manga/comics because out of the three stories I have in development, one I want as a novel, one as a comic, and one I think would work as an animated series, though I’m probably going to write it as a novel first, then possibly find some animators and voice actors and produce it independently (yes, I do realize how hard that will be))
Sorry for going on so much about that… ^_^;
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could trace that meme to Futurama: “Slurm. It’s addictive!”
The program uses it as parody, of course, but these days parody isn’t easy because nothing is too absurd to be real.
Hi, I’m an addict. Computer games, food, reading, just about anything that affords me “me time”. My wife has been a big help in battling those times where “I want me time”.
This, for me, is a constant struggle. Thanks for sharing, Mur.
Just keep the absolute necessary tech. If your computer or telephone hasn’t got the capabilities to run these addictive games, you can’t play them. I’m particularly cross about a game that used to work, but doesn’t since they upgraded it, but I guess it saves up a lot of writing time…
Hear, hear. Such a common problem. For me, it is a deadly form of procrastination.
I decided yesterday that I would abandon the time-suck of Zuma. I’ve almost finished level 12, and that’s where I’ll end it. No more.
Now I need to curb my usage of social networking sites. Facebook and Twitter are chewing up the time I could be using for school and for writing. The writing needs to regain its place of importance. It won’t happen unless I make the space for it.
‘Nuff said. Time for me to get to work.