Well, blog, here's my dilemma. You know that I've been playing this silly online game called Farmville. Well, blog, you may remember that my sister introduced me to Farmville. In fact, she cajoled me into playing it. Now, I am about to catch up with her and maybe even fly by the level she is on. My quandary is should I?
I have always loved playing games. Fun games such as cards. Yes, I love to play Spades and Back Alley and Hearts. My honey and I get together with the kids to play cards, too, which has turned out to be a great family event.
Over the years I've enjoyed Monopoly and especially Scrabble. (I'm a writer and words are my trade, so this is a slam dunk for me.) But Farmville is my first 'digital' game.
When I'm playing cards, for example, I might be called a bit competitive. I say this only because years (and I means years) ago, I was getting creamed playing Monopoly and suddenly the board and all the little green houses and red hotels went flying. They scattered and that was that… the end of the game… and a shameful display of bad sportsmanship by me. Bad bad bad.
Since that fateful day, I have educated myself on the virtues of being a good loser. Although, in the past I have also fallen prey to being a not-so-good winner. Much to much gloating and over joyed behavior. Dancing and prancing about, face grins and hand waving.
Needless to say, I have matured and I am much much better at both winning and losing when I play games, even Solitaire.
It's true that I like to win. Triumph. Achieve. But I am now much more cognizant of the other person's feelings. [Losing is no fun.]
So, I am concerned that perhaps this is one occasion where I should not play too well. Farmville is not really a competition, although by definition, a game itself is meant to have a winner. But in regard to Farmville, ramping up to higher and higher "Levels" is the method of keeping score. But… it's also just fun to move your farm houses, animals and trees around into new configurations. My sister calls it a no brainer. Well, her exact words are, "mindless."
It's true. There's no real reason to move up in the levels, especially if all you are interested in doing is occupying time with a game that is just plain enjoyable.
For me, I think that's the key. I am competitive by nature. But I don't play Farmville to "win" per se. I just want to see what my sister's farm evolves into each day. I like to gift her and buy stuff from her Bakery. I get a lot of pleasure out of "connecting" with my sister in this small way. I don't think she cares about the score. Back when I was starting the game, she told me how amazed she was at my progress. I think that was her telling me she is proud of me, her little sis. Age never changes the hierarchy of who is the big sister and who is the annoying little brat who snoops at the boy friend through the radiator. [Guilty as charged.]
The fact that I may catch up with her level just doesn't matter [at least to me]. I am not trying to overtake her in this silly game. It just so happens that I probably have a lot more opportunity to harvest crops again and again. That moves me up the ladder.
So… I'll stop worrying about this and play the game. That's what I got involved to do. Have fun and do something with my sis even though we live something like 3,000 miles apart. We touch. Now, that's what I call a game with a purpose.
On a side note… [sorry, blog] but I do want to mention something that popped into my head. This competitive spirit of mine plays out in the real world with two shots of gusto. What I mean is that if someone charges at me in a game of real life cat-and-mouse, beware. I take no prisoners. I am not coy about investing my resources to insure success. It's more than competitive. It's asserting my rights and never being a push over again. I am absolutely done with being taken advantage of. That's who I am today.
[Gad] That's it, blog. Once again, I have spilled my guts and feel so much better as a result. How do you feel about playing games?
