Bird’s Eye: That bird’s eye… it’s staring at me… OMG, it’s an Angry Bird! Game of the year, top seller in a variety of app stores, yadda, yadda, yadda. I write a personal story of my descent into Angry Bird addiction. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… you’ll download the app. We also offer sophisticated strategy for how you can win at Rock, Paper Scissors. And to everyone’s surprise, the top-selling Wii game of the festive season was their implementation of Waiting for Godot!
* Angry Birds Peter Marmorek Tikkun Daily Blog
It has been a very long time since I’ve encountered a game as addictive as this one, which certainly makes the question “why?” of personal interest. But Wikipedia’s explication adds that there are currently over four million hours per day worldwide spent playing “Angry Birds”, and that over 50 million people have downloaded the game for their iToys, Androids, or other similar platforms. So my addiction is not unique, which broadens that “why?” question. Two days ago the Mac App store opened, which allows Mac users to buy apps online from a single source. I checked it this morning, and not to my surprise, the top selling program across all categories, was “Angry Birds”. The addiction is real.
How ubiquitous has the game become? Enough that a satiric Israeli TV show (‘Eretz Nehederet’ A Wonderful Country) did a very funny skit on Israeli/Palestinian peace negotiations as an attempt to get the pigs and birds to stop fighting and divide up the eggs fairly. (It was never made clear who was which animal, which given the tref/haram nature of pigs was probably the safer route.) But the audience must have gotten the joke, and the youtube video has been seen over 3.5 million times, so there is an audience.
* How Do I Win Rock Paper Scissors Every Time? Cha-Cha
* Waiting For Godot For Wii Breaks First Week Sales Records Newsbiscuit
A Wii game based on Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot has become the fastest-selling computer game in history. The adaptation produced by Nintendo has shifted two million units in its first week of release, easily outstripping initial sales of Wii Sports, and without the attendant negative publicity surrounding repetitive strain injury. The game, designed for two players, offers a series of increasingly futile activities such as arguing, exchanging hats, discussing whether this is the right tree for the arranged meeting, and contemplating suicide – all to ‘hold the terrible silence at bay’ as the advertising strap-line promises.
Godot for Wii is the latest in a series of hugely successful gaming adaptations catering for the new ‘slow gaming’ movement. Slow gaming favours quiet contemplation and existential despair over such traditional video game skills as manual dexterity and the ability to slaughter thousands of innocent bystanders without compunction. Recent successes have included the 30 million-selling adaptation of Bergman’s The Seventh Seal for Xbox 360 and a series of short Pinter plays for the Nintendo DS, described by the makers as ‘the first game it’s OK play in the quiet carriage.’
