Sunday, March 3, 2013

All the sweet candy of free games


[]

Those little games cost nothing (usually)

It takes a capable mind
to burn time
at both ends;

where is the pause
when at every interlude
between calls

he plays a game?

tap tap...
Up, up score rewards.

tap tap...
away the little spaces for thought.


***


Submitted for DVerse Poetics. An Evening of Short Verse is being hosted by Fred Rutherford. It'd be fun to blog hop today too. :) 

36 comments:

Brian Miller said...

dang...how did you know i was playing games between reading...smiles...oh the time it steals...dang those free games...smiles.

Janine Bollée said...

A bit of a mini philosophical treatise here. Wonder what game? Backgammon by any chance?

Scarlet said...

Those games can burn a lot of time, at both ends ~ Fun time to while away though ~

Mary said...

Aha! I have my favorite game too. We should all compare notes...tee hee. They are definitely time stealers though, aren't they? Tap tap tap!

Ravenblack said...

Thanks for the comments, Brian, Aprille, Mary and Grace.


Aprille: Oh no, not Backgammon, but more about those free games you can sometimes get on your phone that you can't ever lose. :)

They never let you lose, so you keep playing and they never end.

I have to admit I enjoyed some of them. I used to be into Farmville too.

Anonymous said...

I am hopeless at those games, though do enjoy tetris, my husband gets hooked and the kids well...it's game heaven...my son complains that I don't have any games on my phone but that's because I don't really know how to use the phone either...oh dear! Cool little poem !

Bodhirose said...

It's like every single space of empty time must be filled doing something! I do enjoy playing some online games though but they do eat up your time... Enjoyed this.

Sheila said...

the little spaces for thought - god forbid we think these days! great point made in such few words.

Ursa Bowers said...

Ha! I really loved this. My boyfriend is always disappearing behind the screen of his iPhone to play bejeweled or look at 9gag, the second there is a lull in conversation or activity. I always find myself thinking how sad this is-- do we really feel so uncomfortable being alone with our thoughts that we must whittle away our time with silly games on our phone, which exist -solely- to be fleeting distractions? You make this point in such a clever, concise way! Thanks so much for the read :)

Uneven Stephen said...

Fun write! I love how the poem starts off on a rather serious note, but then turns playful.

Unknown said...

really nice Raven. I like how this is really multiple poems working alone, yet together. I remember back when I was a big gamer, and I would spend so many hours playing, up until the sunlight, wondering where the night had gone, still burning in the eyes from tapping away on the controllers all night. Love the up, up score rewards line, away the little spaces for thought-excellent close. Really nicely done. Thanks, glad you could make it tonight

kelvin s.m. said...

...what fun to have everything free... games are so addictive...what more if it's made for free...def non stop of addiction & killing time could be expected... the tap..tap...sound is really effective as i have those sounds on my phone's keypad while typing my comment.... tap..tap...tap...tap... smiles...

Claudia said...

ha..they cost nothing, but they're not free...we have become such masters of time fillers...yeah..sometimes i'm missing those small spaces to just be and think

Ravenblack said...

I enjoyed reading all your comments. :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts from this!


To me, as a gamer, games can be wonderful forms of interactive art and expression, but clearly some games are designed merely to hook, they do tend to be "free", but it's only because the makers of such games are confident that you would eventually pay real money to continue the experience when you've played it a while.

Sabio Lantz said...

"Life is a game" is not a dark, nihilist saying except to those who don't truly understand games -- or life, for that matter.

Finding freedom from reflexive tapping and monotonous brain atrophy is the real game -- the game that beats games.

tap, tap - burning both ends - the Ouroboros
(thanx for making me wonder)

Marbles in My Pocket said...

I realized early on that me and computer games were not a good mix. That is, if I ever wanted to get anything else done. Those things are addictive!
Love the poem, though!

dsnake1 said...

that "sweet" game is now #1 on the net. :D

you are right that games are not really "free". people will be paying for boosters or DLCs to up their scores.

ayala said...

A fun write :) don't have much time for those games but they can be addictive. :)

Ravenblack said...

Charles, Ayala, Sabio and dsnake, thanks for your comments.


Sabio: It definitely takes effort not to go into that stuck mindset of routinely doing things mindlessly. :)


dsnake: I haven't tried that game but I see many on the bus and trains playing it. To be honest, I think it's the colors. lol It's crazy loud to me.

Sabio Lantz said...

@ Ravenblack: My favorite game is WeiQi and I write poems on it occasionally. See one here. But I imagine it is very different from your tap-tap-tap games, though I play on-line and do that too.

hyperCRYPTICal said...

I like this ( a lot) - clever write.

tap tap...
away the little spaces for thought.

How true this is.

Anna :o]

Ravenblack said...

@Sabio: I learned how to play WeiQi only about a year ago. Certainly isn't one of those games played mindlessly!

I've played and probably will play all kinds of games that I'm curious about. Even some mindless ones. But I don't think I would be as easily as caught as before since this observation.

@Anna: Thank you. :)

Sabio Lantz said...

@ Ravenblack:
Ah, are you still playing WeiQi?

Ravenblack said...

@Sabio: No, not recently. I would really love to get into such boardgames. And although there are computer and portable online versions of these, I find that I have trouble following through the games in such form. I don't play any competitive or cooperative online games at all because of this. I would very much love to have a game in real life but there's the issue of finding people to play with and time.

Liz Rice-Sosne said...

This made me chuckle, I am famous for "not" playing games. I have been so bad about it that I never played games with my grandchildren. I loved the tone of this!

Ravenblack said...

Thank you dear friend. Always glad to "see" you.

My grandmother wasn't the sort to play games either, I fondly remember we used to read comic books together. :)

Liz Rice-Sosne said...

Ravenblack I had to close my Facebook account and open another. I cannot find you. Liz

Ravenblack said...

I was wondering what happened to your FB and why you closed it. No worries, easier for me to find you. :)

Victoria said...

I avoid games like the plague...it's too easy for me to become addicted and use them as an excuse to not write.

Ravenblack said...

Yes, that does happen. :)

Thanks for coming by, Victoria. :)

Claudia said...

thanks for visiting and commenting at OLN without even linking up...much appreciated raven

Ravenblack said...

It's a pleasure! I have some time, just no writing ideas at the mo. :)

PoppySilver said...

I shall so be returning to read this again, so much to breathe in! Awesome!

Ravenblack said...

Thank you, PoppySilver. :)

Lovable Derek said...

I enjoyed this. Shame you don't post more often.
Have a nice day.

Ravenblack said...

Thank you.