zwolanerd

This game was huge for a couple of weeks about eight months ago.  everyone was playing it, everyone was having fun with it, and then, bam. Nothing. Stopped. Everyone was so over it.

Well, most people, anyway.

I still play, and I’m glad I have a few friends who still like to play or I wouldn’t have any one to play with.  One friend and I have a streak of over 500 turns going, and I have a couple more over 300.  I have a couple of friends who play daily, even multiple turns per day, and a few more who play a turn at least once a week.  It was a whole lot easier to earn in-game coins when more people were playing, that much I can tell you.  My list has 10+ people who haven’t played in weeks, and at least one who hasn’t taken a turn in 239 days.  I could probably delete that game, but I am loathe to lose the opportunity – I mean, what if he decides to draw some day?  I don’t want to miss that!

The biggest complaint people had with the game soon after it was huge was that you draw something, then people say what you drew.  There’s no guessing, really, unless the person is a terrible artist or is purposefully trying to lead you astray. How much fun is it to guess “giraffe” when the thing drawn is very clearly a giraffe?  Well, lots, as it happens. At least for me. But I have to admit that I might be finding my fun in ways the game makers didn’t intend.

When it’s your turn to draw, you get three choices – Easy, Medium, and Hard. Correctly guessed drawings earn 1, 2, or 3 gold coins, and the coins can be used to buy more colors or bombs. Originally the bombs were used to take out unused letters so guessing would be easier.  After a while, though, a feature was added where you could use bombs to give you more choices to draw. Using three bombs, for instance, will let you have choices from a “Videogames” category, and correctly guessed drawings from that category might earn from 5-9 coins instead of the usual 1-3. I haven’t done the math (yet) to see if the coins earned are worth the price (in bombs) of the category. Sounds like I need to talk to my accountant friend again.

I get my enjoyment from the game in three ways:

1. Seeing what my friends will draw.  If I get the word “seal” as my suggestion, I immediately think “animal that balances things on his nose” and will do my best to draw that. So when my friend draws a singer getting kissed by a rose, it happies me because I was surprised by it but still got it.
2. Seeing how my friends draw. Some start with the background, some go for a minimalist style, some add as much detail as they can – everyone draws differently.  For a while I had games going with a couple of guys who draw webcomics and their process fascinated me.  There would be some seemingly random lines here and there, and then some more, and then all of a sudden there was John Lennon and I still couldn’t exactly figure out how they got there from where they started.  I love to see how people create.
3. The impermanence of the canvas. I don’t tend to draw on paper much. Sure, I might scribble something while I’m on the phone (much like Elaine’s transparent cubes, smiling suns, and houses with smoke curls), but I don’t ever set out to draw. I just don’t feel driven to create in that way.  But there’s something about the mix of the digital canvas, the ideas given, and the fact that nothing I draw will remain that I really enjoy about this game.  There are times when the medium has affected me, making me want to stretch how I present an idea, and it helps me understand what a real artist goes through.  It’s the smallest glimmer of that idea, I know, but it helps me understand a little more, and that wasn’t at all what I was signing up for when I installed the game.

There are other apps out there that let you doodle on the screen and even save your drawings (a feature Draw Something finally added after a while) but they don’t hold any enjoyment for me. The social aspect, sharing your drawing with someone else – even if it’s only for the 13 seconds it takes them to guess it – that makes it worthwhile. Is art really art if no one sees it? The true artist would say a defiant “YES” while rolling their eyes at you.  Me, I’m an entertainer, not an artist. If there’s no audience, there’s no point.

So what I’m saying is, please take your turn in our game.

Tags: apps, Draw Something, iOS, Windows Phone

Written by: Mark