[lbo-talk] tablet idiocracy

[Wojtek S]

Some time ago I caved in and decided to get a tablet.  The main appeal
was a bigger screen, as I hate reading emails on a little dinky phone,
let alone trying to reply to them. So as an email reading device and a
Kindle replacement, the tablet seems to be working OK - not a
replacement for a PC of course, but OK for quick checking the email or
the weather or reading an e-book.  However, I recently tested some of
the popular games.  I started with the all time popular Angry Birds.
The idea of shooting bird-shaped objects at pigs using a slingshot
seemed appropriate for someone of mental age about 7 - but I can see
it can be mildly entertaining for those wanting to kill time on a bus
ride from work.   However, after about 15 minutes of playing, the game
is highly repetitive and utterly  boring.

Then I decided a seemingly more "high brow" game advertised as
"solving puzzles"  (this particular one was 80 days around the world,
which I selected for sentimental reasons.)  The game has nice
graphics, and that is about it.  "Puzzle solving" involves swapping
two randomly highlighted  tiles on a board to align three in a row,
which causes them to move.  That is it.  There does not seem to be any
strategy involved, just swiping random tiles.  That is even worse than
Angry Birds, where I could at least control the trajectory of the
shot.

The PC based RPG games involved a lot of skills, mostly dexterity, but
skills nonetheless.  The PC based strategy games (e.g. Civilization)
involved substantial strategy skills - long term planning, balancing
conflicting interests, etc. But this whole tablet craze seems a one
giant stride toward pointa-clicka-no-thinka idiocracy - especially the
scene in which hospital receptionist pushes buttons that show icons of
different ailments.  Any thoughts?

-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."