Yup, YOU Are A Gamer

You wouldn't believe how surprised I was when Shari and Deanna, the lovely hosts of And She Games..., informed me that they considered me to be a gamer. I completely did not - but in retrospect, I thought about it and I guess, yeah, I suppose I would be a gamer, although I'm not one of those ComicCon-going, hard-core gamers, I am a gamer all the same.

That is what I am saying as an iPad addict.

Hello, my name is Serena (aka Bewildered Bug) and I'm an iPad game addict. Okay I'm an iPad addict period, but for the purpose of this blog, I'm addicted to iPad games.

Recently, I stayed by my Aunt for a week while I was moving, and her grandson sat with me with our iPads and we played Candy Crush for hours on end. He even showed me how to cheat by changing the clock on your iPad and get more lives....what he didn't know how to do was how to change the time back and then re-install the app so that you didn't have over 3000 hours to wait for one more life. That one I figured out for him..... Anyway, I had considered my gaming ways to be in remission until that week, because I had come a long way from the days of staying up two days in a row getting treasures and fighting trolls in World of Warcraft and trying to beat my friends' high scores in Bejeweled Blitz. I had managed to cut my time down to playing only Candy Crush obsessively - and not cheating for extra lives, so that I knew when to put it down. That week, however, killed my resolve, and using the excuse that I had to download more games just so that I could play them with him, I went a bit nutty in my app store. So now, I have three pages of iPad games. What I'm not telling you is that many of them are grouped into "Games I", "Games II", "Games III" etc. groupings - so it looks like a lot less than it is.

Since starting my Masters, I've had to cut down on how many I play, but there are still the few that I will stay up that extra hour to finish and get as far as possible in, including Candy Crush, The Tribez, Bubble Witch Saga and my most recent obsession, Zombie Tsunami. Not so bad, you say - you're a lot worse? Well, I didn't mention all the others that I've deleted once upon a time and refuse to put back on because I spend SO MUCH TIME on them. I have a Masters Degree to earn people - I can't afford to add them back on...in fact I am currently struggling to convince myself to delete the ones I have, because I haven't seen my little friend in over a month, and am not likely to see him any time soon either. In fact, I'm mourning the fact that he's still not drawn something for me on Draw Something for said month.

So with all of that in mind, I agree, Shari and Deanna - I am a gamer and a bit of a compulsive one, even if I don't play the latest Call of Duty, don't go nuts trying to figure out the release of the next Assassin's Creed (am I behind times?) or NASCAR or FIFA release. I just go into my app store and download everything that looks cute or exciting or hidden object-ey. That way I don't miss anything...and no, I don't buy iPad games - I'm not that bad (yet) and I hope never to be. That being said, £0.69 ($0.99 Ca) for 5 extra lives in Candy Crush ain't so bad...at least not the first time you type in your iTunes Store password...the hundredth time though....well....let's pretend that never happened.

So ladies, I am sorry to say that even if you don't consider yourself in leagues with the little and not so little ones who sit in front of their gaming consoles and TVs for hours on end, whether you play Scrabble, Anagrams HD, Candy Crush, Zombie Café, Plants vs Zombies (one or two), Bubble Witch Saga, The Tribez, Sunny Seedz, Temple Run (one or two), Minion Rush, Banana Kong, Bingo, 4 Pics 1 Word or any other game on your iPad or even on Facebook - you are a gamer...and you belong in the And She Games... community.

Shari, Deanna and I welcome you with open arms...once it doesn't interfere with our gaming...