I've been looking for an essay topic, and I thought talking about the games I played would be something. Then, I like to think of a clever title, and this came to mind. Who better to crib from than Shakespeare? (For those of you wondering, this is a reference to Romeo and Juliet. ‘Who cares what our last names are? I love you.’)
Over the years, as my physical condition has deteriorated, there are fewer and fewer activities I can participate in. About three years ago, I got my first iPad and discovered the joys of voice control. It's good for me to use my hands and arms as much as possible, but when I can't, it's nice to have a way to control my iPad. I can remain a fully functioning human being this way.
Playing games on my iPad is a great way to keep my mind active. If you look at the games I play closely, you can see that they are not only fun things to do but ways of keeping my brain exercised and working well.
The game I have played the longest is Wordscapes. I think I started playing that about eight or nine years ago. I'm not sure why I like this game so much, but I really do. On my old Samsung phone, I got through over 78,000 levels, and I am approaching half of that on my current phone. I can play it offline, so it can chew up hours anywhere I am.
It is a simple word game where they give you either six or seven letters, and you make as many words as you can with the letters. They have a crossword-style board, and you have to guess the words that fill in the puzzle. Long ago, I decided to make as many words as I could, whether or not they were in the puzzle. You get bonus points for making valid words that aren't included in the puzzle, so that maximizes my points.
The words get incrementally more difficult, but the puzzle moves very slowly, so it may take hundreds of levels to see a difference. At this point, I do not question why I tolerate this game so much; I just play it.
I loved doing jigsaw puzzles in real life, but that stopped when I got cats. Jigsaw puzzle pieces are chew toys for cats, so I put them away. I also got to the point where I could not physically handle the puzzle pieces, so I was overjoyed to discover digital puzzles on my tablet and phone!
Initially, the bummer to me was the designs of the puzzles. Most are drawings of things or landscapes. I want the puzzles to be photographs of those things, not drawings of them. I eventually found one puzzle that had great pictures and also lots of pieces. I have played that for 8 years or so.
The last thing I play every day are the games on the New York Times puzzle app. There is Pips, a logic game with dominoes; Spelling Bee, Wordle, Connections, and Strands, a simple word search-type game. I play at least three of the five games every day. The game keeps track of how many times in a row you win, and I am currently working on a 40+ day streak for Wordle and a 30+ day streak for Strands. I share my results with a few family members so we can all view our progress.
These are all great ways to keep my mind active and working every day. The puzzles also test my pattern recognition and how things fit together. I really like sunset photos or pictures with subtle gradations of color. So now you know my workout routine, and it doesn’t involve sit-ups of any kind. I'm struggling to conclude this essay with something meaningful and clever that will tie everything together. It's just not coming to me. Have fun playing games! There's more going on than just idle play. (That will have to do.)
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