‘Free’dom jam
I took Mythily to the local Novatium store, curious to see her reaction to the superior cloud computing experience I had been bragging about discovering. She spent a good half hour aggressively testing one application after the other at the store. Somewhere along this test drive, she logged onto a site called freearcade.com and
checked out the Navigator Plus, on some of the online games she usually plays. I was dismissive of the rather ordinary-looking site, and suggested she upgrade to more refined free sites for high-quality word games.
Days later, I finally checked out freearcade.com, and once again realised that tacky home pages and graphic design I don’t care for, don’t mean a thing! The selection of games is fabulous. Text Twist is first rate. And absolutely free! In a very finite amount of time, that loudly tick tocks away as you’re running out, you quickly make as many words as possible from the given word. Place holders indicate the number of words you’re expected to fill. It’s particularly gratifying to hear the chime when you clock in the longest words, and then maddening that you can’t fill up the wretchedly elusive three-letter beasts!
I finally made my way to her current favourite. A really beastly looking game called Sido Word (page 13 of the puzzle games category). The jelly fish-like word tiles wobble up towards you as you click and drag them into position. The background score repetitively washes over you in annoying waves. And to my horror, you’re allowed to move letters out of the way while making your words! That’s ridiculous. No self-respecting word game would ever allow that!
My professed enduring love for word games is clearly a fickle thing. A little while later I discovered ‘Curling’, that curious winter sport where stones are curled towards a target circle (called the house), and the path before them vigorously swept with a broom to help trajectory, spin and such like. I’ve seen the sport on TV and was charmed. I finally got to play. I will return to Text Twist. But first a little more Curling!
— The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com
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