HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIRIAM QUIAMBAO

A Game You Should Play by Russel S. Pernites

One of the features offered by social networking websites today are the game applications. Through Facebook I came to know the game Icy Tower. I saw a friend who published her accomplishment in the said game. I was curious and tried to open the application. Days passed and I became hooked with the game. I have learned to master the game style, the strategy, the technique.

                                               Icy Tower

Icy Tower, wikipedia described is a popular freeware computer game. It is both an action game and a platform game. An action game is one that involves physical challenges which require coordination of the mind, hand and the eye. A platform game is a game genre which is characterized by jumping from one platform to another (the most famous of which is Super Mario). The game was created by a Swedish game developer Free Lunch Design. The game is set inside a high tower with platforms to jump all the way to the top. The goal of the game is to help Homer the Homeboy (he is the character in skater boy outfit) reach as high as he can by jumping through the platforms. Along the way, you can gain additional scores by doing the combo jump--twirling and ricocheting Homer as he runs fast along the platforms.

Need for Achievement

I loved the game so much that I play it from the moment I open my computer. I also look forward to seeing how I ranked among my friends who play it. Every time I play it I have the goal to improve my previous score and to rank higher (hopefully number 1). I did this everyday to the point that I tremble because of the excitement and the disgust and frustration because the character fell down. When it does fall, you do the game all over again—back to square one.

According to David McClelland in his Theory of Needs, people’s needs can be classified into three: Need for Achievement, Need for Affiliation and Need for Power. These needs are universally observed among people with different cultures. These are also shaped by differing lifestyles and perspectives. In development studies, it is also argued that development is attained because of the people’s desire and yearning to achieve. Even in simple things we want to be better, we want to improve, we want accomplish, we want to achieve.

Realization

By reason of that need to achieve, I play the game to show that I can improve my score, to prove that I can play the game well and to share my rank to others. Until one day, I asked myself, I play the game to achieve? To achieve what? I realized that the game was becoming a habit—a bad habit at that. A bad habit because it took minutes and then hours of my time which should have been devoted to work. It was close to obsession. As of this moment, I have already deactivated my facebook account to keep myself from playing the game (I once in a while reactivate it though, to receive updates from friends and relatives).

This entry is neither intended to discredit the game nor serve as a negative criticism against the game. In fact, I recommend the game to all game enthusiasts who want something to pass their time or relax from a boring life. My point is that we all have the desire to achieve. We all want to improve; we all want to be better. In simple things, including the games we play, that desire will always make manifest. In that desire to achieve we should always remember to do it without compromising others—other people (do not step into other people, learn to appreciate, listen and encourage), our work (earnestly do your work, do not procrastinate), our selves (be critical in every decision, do not be carried by the present euphoria, think and be honest). We want to achieve for the fact that it boosts our morale; we want to achieve because we want to help ourselves and eventually help others but we should reach it not at the expense of others.

P.S.: try playing it Icy Tower and share to me the experience, its good really.