I stare maddeningly at the screen telling me ‘GAME OVER’. I press ‘new game’ and start again. I drag the boxes – left, right, left, right, down, then right again. This lasts for about five minutes and then the screen fills up again with those heart-breaking words: ‘GAME OVER’.
This is 2048, the video game that has spread across every campus and continent in less than a month since it was released by 19-year-old Gabriele Cirulli on March 9th. It’s played by swiping boxes of numbers together that add together until you create the 2048 tile. Both frustrating and addicting, it’s a challenging game that you will not be able to forget about until you’ve beaten it. Like candy crush, this phenomenon is both our obsession and our worst enemy in terms of the daily distraction it exerts over our lives.
The reaction to first-time players of this game isalways the same: a determination to win as fast as possible. If this means staying up until four with a final the next day, then so be it. The game comes first. Downloading the app is a must, because why listen to a boring lecture when you could be mastering the game? I’ve witnessed the cries of outrage and disappointment after making one mistake that sabotages the rest of the game, as well as the myriad ‘YOU WIN’ posts on my newsfeed.
Just a few minutes ago, as I was writing this, my friend pranced into my room cheerily exclaiming that she won the game: “I was confused at first because the game ended and I still had more space to fill up. Then I saw I’d gotten to 2048 without even realizing!” Of course I was frustrated that she’d beaten it before me, and so easily too, so I turned back to my computer and started again. This time to win.
Images Retrieved From:
http://www.followthecoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2048.png
http://wpcron.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/og_image2.png?w=670&h=670