Go ahead, eat my brainz.

Zombies ate my brains 5 times over the weekend.
They somehow got through the lawn's defenses and made it into the house. I should have added some snow pea shooters.

Before that, I had to wait a bit for the game to download, so I collected some jewels in Paris on my mobile phone. I earned more than 60k on Jewel Twist.

I love casual games.
Just in the last week, I spent Php 500 on casual gaming downloaded through the net and mobile. Games allow me to kill zombies in my backyard. Check if someone would date me or ditch me. Or play Othello with my hubby while waiting for our food to arrive.

It’s something that's fun virtually, but I wouldn't want to do in real life. A sentiment I’m sure gamers in Halo or Counterstrike would share (at least without proper training).

Platforms that let us explore realities we can’t experience in real life, check.

Games that I’d like to do but can't do in real life - how well do they work?
Unlike House of the Dead or Samurai sword, I don’t see a lot of people playing that game in Timezone where you get to do skateboard tricks.

I guess the kids already do it in real life. But I tried it, it was fun. Just that it was too real. Not real in the sense that it feels like I was on a real skateboard in a real skatepark. (It felt close though.)
But real in the sense that the likelihood of failing was higher than the likelihood of doing well.

The most enjoyable games give a sense of accomplishment - levels cleared, a story finished, a mission accomplished. Even if I’m cut a little (or maybe even a lot of) slack. Like a second life, for example.

That second life is significant too, in that, would I be interested in takin it? A game’s ability to hold your attention, changing with conditions and adapting to behaviors in a complex way WOULD keep me playing it.
In the same way that babies watch parents’ faces so furtively because of the complex changes that occur in it so quickly.

I keep trying Pop Cap games because their best games are so well executed. Not just as gaming experiences or stories, but as things to look at and hear. Things like SFX, well-developed looks and animation, hold my attention and make their games a pleasure to play.

In the end, the things that keep us rapt in attention, are the things that we can relate to, not as someone in communications, but just a plain ‘someone’. Chances are, if you find it fun. Someone else will too.

It’s that simple.