Come view my virtual zoo

– Everything is an Adventure: Column by Julia Wolf –

I am a sucker for animals and, apparently, I’m not alone.

For the past couple years, I’ve played a game on my phone called Wordscapes. Basically, the app gives you five or six letters, and the goal is to find all the words those letters can make. As you find words, they are laid out in a grid similar to a crossword puzzle, so there are letter hints.

I finally gave in and downloaded the app, after being bombarded with ads for the game on another app I use. Mostly, I figured if I had the game downloaded, they would quit advertising. They did, but by then, I was starting to enjoy it. It makes for a great game while I’m on a long phone call with my boyfriend or need something quiet to do while I wait somewhere.

There is a daily puzzle, which I tend to do in the morning, because it is fun and helps me start thinking for the day. Each month, there is an opportunity to “win” up to four pictures of animals, by solving the daily puzzles. Not to brag, but I have quite a few animals’ pictures that I can do absolutely nothing useful with.

The regular puzzle levels also frequently feature portraits you can win and many of those are portraits of animals, too. All those must be fairly popular, because Wordscapes added a butterfly garden section not too long ago, where you play levels to win butterflies to put in your virtual butterfly garden. Again, you can’t really do anything with the portraits or butterflies, other than collect them virtually, but there they are.

I am fully aware the game designers and marketers are capitalizing on players’ love of animals, and competitive spirit to get people to play more. After all, more people playing for longer, means there are more advertisement views, making more money for the company.

In the last few weeks, the Wordscapes added yet another animal-themed section to the app. This time, you have to earn hearts to hatch eggs. Each egg contains an animal and the animals run on a timer, doing activities like eating, drinking, playing and dancing. At the end of each timer, the animal gives prizes toward more hearts, and the portraits or butterflies. That way, once they get you hooked, they keep you hooked.

So far, the most entertaining animal I’ve hatched is a camel, out of a blue egg. Needless to say, that portion of the game is not very educational. That won’t stop me from playing more, though. It’s free. It’s relatively harmless and it gives me cute graphics of animals I don’t actually have to take care of.

Plus, I have 13 more animals to hatch. I at least want to see what all of them are. I’m sure they will keep me playing after that, too, because each animal has levels. I don’t know what the levels do, but I am sure it is something that will keep me playing.