I love games. Well, probably more accurately, I love puzzles and games. I love jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, mind bending puzzles, but most particularly I love word game puzzles. I lie to myself (and anyone else who will listen) by claiming I play games and puzzles in an effort to keep my mind sharp. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my mind has ever been sharp, which would make keeping it that way more than a little difficult.
My husband also loves games, though he is a lot more particular about the games he plays. For instance, he is a chess player. I can play chess. I know how each piece is allowed to move. I know the object of the game. I also can lose to him in three moves or less, because I won't take the game seriously enough to think ahead to what his next three moves might be. We both love World of Warcraft, which is a MMORPG (massively multi-player online roll playing game). I started playing WoW shortly after it appeared on the market and I spent a lot of time holed up in my home office in my fantasy world where I was omnipotent and in control (the only place I could be these things). My husband knows me well, and he knows I tend to get wrapped up in things and forget there is a world out there. But after some weeks (or months, but definitely not years) he comes to me with "the family that plays together, stays together" line. So, we buy another copy of WoW, install it on his computer and we start conquering the world together. Unfortunately, I can no longer play WoW. The graphics are just too real and my SCDS makes me want to barf every time I start to play. Bud, however, is still addicted and a daily player.
Allow me to go back a few years to the early 1990's. Bud was a bit of an audiophile. His home sound system was as good or better than some recording studios. In fact, our speakers really are studio monitors that came from a real sound engineer. To say he had a lot of money tied up in audio electronics would be an understatement. I enjoy music. I have absolutely no musical ability, cannot read music and cannot carry a tune (not even humming); but I do enjoy music. I used to play an accordion, but that is another story for another day. Bud was a musician. He played clarinet, saxophone and flute. Unfortunately, something about hooking up with me must have put him off of it, because he quit playing at exactly the time our lives coincided. I have never heard him play, though I did see his clarinet once (no innuendo intended). Oops, now I'm really off subject. Anyway, we had a small fortune tied up in his stereo equipment. I wanted a home computer. I know home computers were pretty uncommon in the early 1990's, but that wasn't relevant. I wanted a computer and figured since he had all that sound system stuff, I should be able to have a computer. I found one for sale and broached the subject of its purchase. Bud could not imagine what we would do with a home computer and suggested that we might be able to "justify" its cost if I were to start taking in work at home (in my spare time) such as typing term papers for college students. So, I, of course, now want to hear his justification for all that stereo crap in our home, which incidentally cost a whole lot more than one measly little home computer. I won the argument, but almost lost the war. To this day Bud has a love/hate relationship with computers, and I'm sure it has a lot to do with our original "misunderstanding" about their purposes. However, one of the first things I did with our new home computer was install a game. Computer games in the early 1990's were primitive with rudimentary graphics, but could still be compelling. I installed a game named Moraff's World. MW was a precursor to MMORPGs such as WoW. Once I introduced Bud to MW, the computer was instantly an acceptable tool, and there were no more discussions about "taking in typing". We have never been without at least one home computer since (we currently have two desktops and a laptop).
As mentioned earlier I cannot play WoW, but I have a subscription to a gaming site called Boxerjam. Boxerjam offers games and puzzles (the puzzles require a paid subscription). There are new puzzles every day and if you are the least bit competitive, there are competitions though no prizes other than bragging rights. For years I have begun my days by solving the puzzles on Boxerjam (keeping my brain cells from deteriorating). I have absolutely no objection to paying for something that brings me so much pleasure and the subscription price is negligible. I do, however, have serious objections to paying for something and not getting any value in return. Lately the Boxerjam site and puzzles have been what can only be described as unreliable. I hope this is temporary. I hope it is something simple, like some personnel issues with programmers. I really would be unhappy to lose these puzzles, but I will not continue to pay for something that does not provide as advertised.
I also now play a (huge) number of games on Facebook. I started on Facebook as a way to keep up with my far-flung family, but I stay because of the new "friends" I have made and the games. The games are one of the few things I can still do without getting seriously nauseated. And, as we all know after all, it is extremely important to keep those old brain cells active.
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