Candy Crush = Addiction

Today I actually stopped playing Candy Crush for good on Facebook.  For those of you living under a rock the past few months, Candy Crush is a match 3 game which takes you from level to level.  There are all sorts of bells and whistles and different options in each level, but the basic gist of the game is to get you addicted, entice you to play, then when you can’t live without it and you’ve made it to the higher levels they make the game almost impossible to advance unless you, get this, spend some money for some help.  Good old fashioned American ingenuity here, how to make a quick buck off of all of us Facebook suckers.  For those of you that do play this game, I mean no offense.  I am a reformed addict.  I was one of the suckers that fell for this game’s little ploy. 

I’ll tell you a little secret, what made me quit were two things.  First, I looked at the map of the game.  As of today it goes up to LEVEL 430!!!  What the hell?!?!  I am only at level 64 and I find that level impossible to pass, I’ll be 80 years old before I ever get to level 200!!! 

Second, in all seriousness, I was ignoring my kids and my husband so that I could play.  Now granted there are days where I do need to ignore them or I will kill them because they are all getting on my last nerve.  But I found I was playing the game multiple times a day and telling my kids to go watch tv!  I love to watch television and I don’t mind my kids watching it sometimes either, but something is terribly wrong when I would rather them not talk to me about an art piece they created just so Mommy can level up. 

When I look back on my life 10, 20, 30 years from now I am pretty sure that I will be wanting to think about when my kids and I played in the pool together or made a finger painting together.  I don’t think I’ll wistfully be saying “Remember when I leveled up to level 73 in Candy Crush and I did it in only 4 days?”

Final note....I fully expect to fall off the wagon. Damn you Candy Crush, you sweet, sweet, evil game.