Hi, my name is Rebecca. And I am addicted to the Facebook game City of Wonder.
Having once been obsessed with the games Mobsters and Mafia Wars (I have found that obsessions are easy to come by when one is bored at work), I am aware of just how easily (and quickly) I fall under the spell of things that for all intents and purposes appear to be competitive.
By golly, I want to win the competition. No matter what it is.
It starts out so innocently. You begin to build your civilization. Grow your population. Add allies (that is if you are able to convince any of your Facebook friends that it is absolutely necessary to life that they start playing the game). Then, all of a sudden, your slow and steady progress isn't good enough. You want more.
The creators add items that you can "purchase" for your land only through parting with exorbitant amounts of gold. The only problem is, you earn one bar of gold every time you reach a new level. That insane asylum you want (a special just for Halloween - and something you may very well end up needing in real life) costs 35.
But wait - I can take surveys to earn more gold! Except that 7 times out of 10 you don't qualify for the survey - and you can only attempt to gain gold this way once per day. So, countless time is spent attempting to qualify for and take mind numbing surveys, all for a measly four to ten gold each.
Then you start dabbling in other ways to earn gold. Buy a subscription to Shape magazine for 28 gold! Sign up for Netflix for 60 gold! Join Columbia House for 80 gold! When you find yourself starting to consider parting with your hard earned money to straight out purchase gold, you have to ask yourself, "Do I have a problem?"
The answer is most likely yes, you do.
Funny how a click of the mouse can become so addicting, isn't it?
Looks like I might have to quit this one cold turkey.
