Life is all about the simple pleasures. Those little distractions that ground us, taking our minds off the stressful hustle and bustle of a complicated world.
For me, one such small joy is playing Words With Friends, the iPhone's version of Scrabble. I play WWF every day. Without fail. At any given moment, I have between six and ten different games going on with various "friends" ("friends" being in quotes because some of these people are merely Facebook friends and not people I actually communicate with outside of Words With Friends). Often I've mused about the possibility that I may conceivably play WWF every day for the rest of my life, and if I could envision a situation in which this would not be the case. Barring a nuclear holocaust that would force me underground, I can't think of one.
But something terrible has happened. Something rotten, impure and vile. WWF has become tainted, so much so that I'm considering walking away from the game I love.
Because this week, WWF introduced something called "Vision Power-Up!" This is a feature that, for 99 cents, will assess your letters and suggest three words for you to play.
In other words: cheating.
WWF has been creeping towards this taint for awhile now. It has other pay features, such as "Tile Pile," which will tell you which letters are still available, or "Word-O-Meter," which will assess how strong your potential word is relative to what other possibilities exist. But never before has the game offered to just go ahead and play itself for you, allowing you to sit back and spend your way to victory without having to use any of your own precious brainpower.
"Vision Power-Up!" goes against everything WWF - nay, competition - is about. If players start using this feature regularly, what's the point of even playing? Why not you and I start a game, then just hand it over to two IBM supercomputers to complete it while we go get drunk and watch Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?
We already have to deal with baseball players routinely getting suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. But at least Bud Selig isn't walking into major league clubhouses, peddling steroids for 99 cents a pop. Please, WWF, I urge you: do away with this ugly impropriety...or risk destroying yourself, becoming just another imperfection in an imperfect world.
For me, one such small joy is playing Words With Friends, the iPhone's version of Scrabble. I play WWF every day. Without fail. At any given moment, I have between six and ten different games going on with various "friends" ("friends" being in quotes because some of these people are merely Facebook friends and not people I actually communicate with outside of Words With Friends). Often I've mused about the possibility that I may conceivably play WWF every day for the rest of my life, and if I could envision a situation in which this would not be the case. Barring a nuclear holocaust that would force me underground, I can't think of one.
But something terrible has happened. Something rotten, impure and vile. WWF has become tainted, so much so that I'm considering walking away from the game I love.
Because this week, WWF introduced something called "Vision Power-Up!" This is a feature that, for 99 cents, will assess your letters and suggest three words for you to play.
In other words: cheating.
WWF has been creeping towards this taint for awhile now. It has other pay features, such as "Tile Pile," which will tell you which letters are still available, or "Word-O-Meter," which will assess how strong your potential word is relative to what other possibilities exist. But never before has the game offered to just go ahead and play itself for you, allowing you to sit back and spend your way to victory without having to use any of your own precious brainpower.
"Vision Power-Up!" goes against everything WWF - nay, competition - is about. If players start using this feature regularly, what's the point of even playing? Why not you and I start a game, then just hand it over to two IBM supercomputers to complete it while we go get drunk and watch Here Comes Honey Boo Boo?
We already have to deal with baseball players routinely getting suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. But at least Bud Selig isn't walking into major league clubhouses, peddling steroids for 99 cents a pop. Please, WWF, I urge you: do away with this ugly impropriety...or risk destroying yourself, becoming just another imperfection in an imperfect world.
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