I got caught up in the iPhone “game” WeRule for a while, enchanted by the idea of building my own town, especially one with a Medieval theme and dragons. As a child, my brother and I would draw our own detailed island maps on graph paper, and I hoped that this “Farmville”-like app would provide a similar feeling of omnipotent creativity. It lasted longer for me than did Farmville, probably because it is not associated with the time-suck that is Facebook. (Yes, I am on facebook, partially for work, and partially to more easily keep in touch with people who live far away, but I would honestly be just as happy if everyone was on Twitter so there would be no FB app pollution in my snippet-based correspondence.) I farmed and ran my businesses, grew my holdings and watched clouds float prettily by. I even started ordering goods and services from neighboring “towns”, and fulfilling similar orders. My kingdom, at the time of its demise this afternoon, was a sizable one. Why, then, did I stop? The disillusionment came in small increments:
- I had not wanted to build a lumber mill. Recycled paper goods are far superior, more readily renewable building resources like bamboo, hay-bale and rammed earth are just as readily available, and the impact of both of these on the ecosystem is lower… I was given no option for a recycling plant, however, and I would not foist my paper and wood needs onto other towns to assuage my own ecological guilt, so I built one.
- I also had no desire for a butcher shop. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see the killing when it happened (such is the sterilized nature of the game). It was simply horrific enough to know that the happy little cows that roamed my screen were occasionally made into sausage! However, I am not the type to force my beliefs onto others. I prepare non-vegetarian food for my family, so I couldn’t keep my townsfolk from their kielbasa. I built a butcher shop as well.
- I never had any real need for the rulers of my town to be so well-housed. Even if it were a monarchy, no ruler rules for long if their subjects see too great a disparity between themselves and the powers that be. The game left no option, however, for increasing the land holdings of my town without also adding on to the castle at its center. Here, too, I grudgingly gave in, promising to set aside whole citadel wings for hospitals and other social services.
- “They” took my magic cauliflower away from me, even though I had been growing it since level 20, and announced that it would only be made available again once I’d reached level 40. This needs no explanation, really. Stealing a woman’s magic cauliflower. Really.
- New expansion options were regularly added, and all were welcome until the most recent additions. Two of the four were a prison and a chopping block for capital punishment. If a butcher shop made me queasy, imagine the effects of these two celebrations of human cruelty! At the same time, ruby colored castles and ruby-fruit trees were also made available. Shocking displays of the misuse of wealth, I say! No thanks!
- Finally, even if all the previous points are just me being silly, the last straw was my realization that, despite being able to enact commerce with other players, there was nothing at all truly social about this game-that-isn’t-really-a-game. I realized that I was playing solely to get more stuff, by myself, for myself: A noxious addiction to something that, while somewhat relaxing in its rudimentary attempts at fostering creativity, was a complete waste of my time. These are not values I want to nurture in myself in real life, so why do so online, when I could actually be chatting with friends or writing poetry or watching my daughter skate or walking outside or napping with my dogs?
I have, instead, pulled out an old notebook and some crayons. Anyone want to make maps with me?
