Tag: iOS

The App Hole: Something Trivial

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One of my greatest talents is my ability to retain useless information. State capitals. Stanley Cup champions. Complete discographies of classic rock bands. The rules of curling. I soaked up trivia like a sponge. I’m not sure what the trigger was that set me down that path. As a kid, my favorite game shows were ones that tested facts, The Joker’s Wild and Card Sharks especially. My dad used to bring home yearly editions of The World Almanac and Book of Facts and I’d read them cover to cover. I spent hours playing the same tapes of 2XL over and

Gaming While the Baby isn’t Looking

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Last week, the Los Angeles Times informed me that I am weird. This, I already knew, but it is nice to see the confirmation in print. It turns out that only 1% of married couples with children of a certain age include a stay-at-home dad. Since this March (more or less), I have been one of that particular one percent. I wrote a little bit about what it’s like to be my particular flavor of new parent before. It involved much moaning and wailing about finding time to play videogames. I can report that a couple of months on, things

Rookie of the Year: A Fine Line Between Success And Failure

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The following is the latest in a series of journal entries chronicling the author’s descent into next-gen gaming degeneracy and assorted geekery — from getting his first television in years to trying to figure out why the @$@$&@@ you need two goddamn directional pads just to walk down an effing hallway. I’m writing to you today as a simple gamer, with a simple dilemma: What happens when you’ve achieved everything you can in a game, save for its one final challenge – and that challenge is so tedious, so time-sucking, that achieving it actually makes you feel bad about yourself?