It isn’t you, it’s me… Cold turkey quitting Archero
I tend to be a daily habit player these days. Well who am I kidding… I have been since I had kids. Gone are the late nights and weekends grinding through deep experiences that are best when binged.
I keep a nice folder of my key habits so I can easily cycle through them at various times of the day. Some, like NYT Crosswords are once a day (night before) and some have appointment mechanics that keep me checking in regularly during the day like Archero.
NYT Crosswords has been a daily habit for over three years now. It doesn’t expect much of me. I’ve improved over the years so that it’s a daily challenge ranging from 20 or so seconds to 1.25 hours depending on puzzle and day of week.
On the other hand, Archero is about to be deleted cold turkey. I spent money on it. I enjoyed it immensely (and was a payer). But like AFK Arena (dropped LOTS of money) and various idlers… Paperclip Factory they tend to run their course. At some point they demand so much attention that I can’t relax and consume other media (games, reading, videos) during my spare free time.
Moreover, there was no sense that I could “complete” the game and that to really max out my experience there were years of game play and hundreds of dollars to spend. So, better to drop out now and spend my time and money elsewhere.
So, out they go!
Regrets? None.
But it did cause me to reflect more on why I quit games I love. Obviously as I mentioned above, amount of time investment is one factor. Sense that I could never complete the experience was another.
Closely related to both is something that caused me to quit Spelling Bee (another awesome NYT game) cold turkey even though I loved it.
Here was a game I could complete… But the effort taxed my brain just a bit too much. What I was looking for in this game was something similar to other anagramming word games (I lovvvve to anagram!) Nice time wasters where I can just consume content and blow through puzzles.
Spelling Bee was balanced in such a way that it was easy (at least for me) to get to “Amazing,” the level just below “Genius” (which is the ultimate goal for completionists who like a challenge). Then the grind began. Trying more and more obscure words. Guessing words. Not super fun. But I felt compelled each and every time to “complete” the puzzle.
It would have been so much more enjoyable if I had just thought “Amazing is plenty good enough.”
But, no, the emotion this game balance tapped into was completionism (and domination). And the effort to go from relaxing challenge where I could stop and feel good about myself turned into a slog that was draining enough that it ended with me quitting one of my fave word games.
So how have other anagram games enticed me to stay and play — and never feel like it’s a grind?
Games like Text Twirl (and all the newer more polished variants) were all about time wasting with an evergreen mechanic that I enjoyed.
Games like Boggle (and Griddle from an old FB games post of mine) satisfied the competitive itch and were addictive to me because game time was finite. Time’s up and a winner is determined.
Anyhow, this is a long winded way of asking… what are some other anagram games I should be playing?
