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 webslinky: online puzzles
This week, it's your turn. Sometimes, logging in to Facebook can feel like stepping onto a crowded city street during rush hour and immediately being bombarded with pamphlets, having to fend off badly disguised pyramid selling scams and invitations to support groups or opinions you have no real interest in. And then being bitten by hoards of zombies (tramps) and poked (flashed at by the tramps).But it isn't all a nightmarish microcosm of modern living. Some might say it isn't even slightly. And Facebook also plays host to the Scrabble - sorry, Scrabulous - “application” which lets you enjoy a strangely familiar turn-based word game with friends. First developed as a standalone website and community by a pair of brothers in Calcutta, Scrabulous is no doubt responsible for some of Facebook's longevity once the novelty wears off. It's an example of a traditional-style game that translates very successfully to the web, but it's by no means unique in this respect. Sudoku remains, of course, the inexplicably popular solo logic puzzle, and not much can be done to jazz it up. The humble jigsaw, on the other hand, has been given the surprising cyber-treatment at JigZone, where not only can you play a daily puzzle, but you can design your own by uploading a photo. Imagine the fun you could have hiding messages in the puzzles for your friends. Or soon-to-be-ex partners. "Dear X, bad news I'm afraid - I've met someone else. Simply complete this 500-piece jigsaw to reveal who it is." You'd expect chess to have a strong following online, and you'd be right. SchemingMind has developed from the friendly traditions of “correspondence chess”, when turn-based gaming via snailmail must have made games interminably long. Thankfully, if you enjoy the more social elements of traditional gaming, you should be able to find a multiplayer offering to satisfy you amongst Yahoo!'s huge online arcade. Why not try the ancient Chinese game of Go? It may be a more intellectually satisfying activity than attempting to play Yahoo!'s online Pictionary clone in which every round is ruined by penis-sketching pranksters – unless that was the actual point of the game, and we've been getting it wrong all this time. No wonder unambiguous Scrabulous has done so well.
David Thair
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related info
 useful linkswww.scrabulous.com www.websudoku.com www.jigzone.com www.schemingmind.com
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see also
 webslinky #153 online art webslinky #152life after flashmobs  webslinky #151ghosts  webslinky #150healthy eating  webslinky #149dressing up  webslinky #148island life  webslinkyarchive books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. art  art archive Watch artist interviews and see images from British exhibitions. |
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