Bored of board games??

I am a 90’s kid and as most people who grew up in the 90’s would know, board games, tamagotchis and Pokemon were the rage. In fact, my brothers and I have an ice cream box filled with Pokemon cards. My little brother Mikaeel and I were reminiscing about how we used to spend summer vacation nights playing Monopoly and how we had three tamagotchis, one for each. Mine and Mikaeel’s was a blue tamagotchi while my older brother Khalid had a red tamagotchi and we all had dinosaurs as pets. Somehow they died and I can’t recall if we ever named them. I, to this day, believe 90’s era was the best era to be brought up in.

My parents recently hosted a dinner party where the guests were a mix of aunties, uncles and the littlies (ranging from 5 to 12 years of age). To keep the kids entertained, we downloaded a couple of animated movies. When we questioned whether they would like to watch Minions, a general response of “We’ve already watched it” rang out. After giving them a series of options such as Home, Tangled, Frozen, Up, Toy Story (all three parts), Monsters, Inc., etc, and getting “no, nope, borrrriinngg, seen that, hate that” in response, I decided to settle for my final trump card : Lion King (a movie that even I (non-repeater of books and movies) would watch countless times over and still not be able to get over Mufasa’s death). I was shocked when almost all kids made a face in mock horror for me to be so stupid as to suggest such an old classic when they found the recents so ho hum and mundane. So then I brought my board games such as Monopoly, Ludo, Battleship, Snakes and Ladders, Scrabble and Pictionary among many others.

What I didn’t realise was that these kids were the I generation, where iPhones, iPads and iMac dominated their eating,sleeping and waking habits. They slept with iPhone’s in their hands, woke up with it ringing and ate with Youtube playing their cartoons. So naturally the concept of board games as a form of entertainment not only seemed medieval but absurd to them. And no matter how exciting or appealing I tried to make the plastic counters and cardboard game board, the kids just seem uninterested and indifferent. In the end I gave up and fetched the iPad that resulted in squeals of pleasure and satisfaction and a few minutes later the ruckus died down as they found a video suited to everyone’s taste. I was left with feelings of woe and disappointment, seeing them huddled around screen, eyes wide, enchanted and motionless, almost brain dead as zombies, recalling how I used to scream and shout at Mikaeel for taking rent money from me when I was broke at Monopoly, not considering the fact that I was his only sister.

Maybe I consider 90’s to be the best, the same way my mum considers her childhood to be the best. Maybe these kids will grow up someday and shake their heads at their kids with 4D technology and futuristic gadgets and recount on how their childhood was simple and the best. And maybe I should just consider being grateful for having such great childhood memories while understanding that each kid is living the best childhood he/she can.

*** All images taken from Google Search

Advertisement

I am addicted…to Trivia Crack (App Review)

Before all those aunties start shaking  their heads and start giving my example to their kids on me coming out as a drug addict & getting high on some crack, let me clarify : Trivia Crack really does get me high. I get euphoric when I am able to crush and beat my opponent. I get excited when my questions get approved or when I win a challenge. I get ecstatic when I am able to guess a question right without having to use my coins.

Trivia Crack is an educational game that is a perfect mix of entertainment and knowledge. There is a free version at the app store and an ad-free one that you have to pay for. You create an account through email or Facebook and start playing with your Facebook friends or random people.

There are two game modes : classic and challenge.

In classic you verse your friend or the random person you are playing with. There are six categories : Entertainment, Art, Sports, History, Science and Geography.The aim of the game is to answer correctly the questions of the six categories that the game has to offer. There is a wheel of chance that spins and lands on the category. If you get three categories right, you get to choose which crown character you would like to win or challenge your friend to win his/her character.

  
The first person to get all characters wins the game.

There are four options to choose from when answering.

You also get power ups such as extra time ( which costs you a coin but you get extra 15 seconds to answer) , bomb (5 coins (it eliminates two options)), double chance (5 coins ( you get to answer one more time if you answered incorrectly ) and the option to skip the question (3 coins). When you win a classic game you gain 3 coins.

Now in a challenge game, you are pitted against 15 to 20 people who are currently playing the game. The amount of coins you can gain varies but the minimum is 6. You get 2 questions from each category and you can’t use the power up options. It is also a race against time as the person who scores the highest in the least amount of time wins.

There are several pros and cons to the game.

Advantages :

• It is a great way to pass the time while you are on the commute or in a long queue.
• You increase knowledge in a fun interactive way.
• It has quite many features to dabble with.
• You get to create your own questions and rate other’s questions.
• One can interact and communicate with players within games.
• The game comes in several languages such as Chinese, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, etc.

Disadvantages:

• The free version is crap as the game crashes once a video ad starts playing and you lose your turn.
• You are able to get 3 turns but you must wait for an hour for each to charge. You can buy lives (with real money) so you get 5 lives instead of 3.
• The ad free version retails for $ 3 on the app store which is a huge amount for just a game *
• Since the game’s questions are created by the players, the credibility and the content of questions can be compromised.
• Suggested questions must be approved by other players who can reject if they wish so.
• I find that the there aren’t diverse questions in the art category. It would be great to include questions on fashion, literature and the like instead of just on Renaissance painters.

The game is great if you pay for it as the app store has many customers who are complaining about it crashing in the middle due to ad. It tends to be very frustrating especially when you are winning. Other than that it is an addictive game and I enjoy playing it.

* Update : The game is currently for $0.99 for a limited time at the time of writing.

***All images are screenshots from my iPhone.