Parking Wars and other games -- you're addicted to WHAT???

P.L. is not yet the owner of a car. She doesn't even have her driver's license. But she routinely parks vehicles of varying shapes, sizes, and colors in streets -- often illegally -- and then attempts to move them before they are ticketed or impounded. Even stranger, she takes delight in writing tickets on her own friends' cars!

What madness is this? It's Parking Wars, an online game she plays through the social networking site Facebook. The game was inspired by the A&E television series by the same name. P.L. has several friends and a few unknown neighbors who compete to get badges and higher scores by outwitting each other. (They also help each other, as P.L.'s best friend Emily could tell you!)

Of course, P.L. has now adopted Pet Pupz and Cute Catz, and the Hatchery Eggs which turn into funny little monsters when she and others nurture them.
She has planted a Lil' Green Patch so she can tend environmentally-friendly plants and help friends with their own virtual gardens. She sends hugs, wild animals, and SuperPokes to others, so she always has a lot to keep her busy when she gets online.

But probably the most annoying thing she has done with all these social networking games is to infect me with the darned things. Weren't Solitaire and Bejeweled II Deluxe enough? Now I have to check my account, even before I open my email, to see if someone's parked in an illegal zone on Lorilei Street. Worse yet, I have to worry that the parking signs will have changed while I was away, and someone may have ticketed one of my cars. Oh, no! Another violation!




What can be done? I'm sure the fever for the game will cool after a while. In the meantime, it's all good fun that keeps us off the streets -- so to speak.








I'm making a new mousepad for P.L.'s computer desk with the Addiction to Online Games design on it. In fact, she's getting a t-shirt like this, too. You can get one to remind yourself (or your roommate) to get back to work! You can check your cars after a few hours, as a reward for keeping on task.
(That's right. It's only a game....)