They say the first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem. Well I am an addict. I am addicted to the Facebook game Word Challenge. Even as I write these words I am rearranging the letters in my head as fast as possible to form other words.

Word Challenge is as simple as can be. There are literally dozens of games that you can find all over the internet or your fancy pants phone that are variations on the same anagram theme.

For example, take the letters I R V S R E. You could make RIVERS, RIVER, ERR just to name a few. Of the few anagram or word scramble games I have tried, Word Challenge is the best (Please do not suggest others. I am already struggling with one anagram addiction. I really don’t need any others). You have 2 minutes to rack up as many points as possible. You get bonus time for any word 4 letters or longer, and you can go to the bonus round (where you try to guess the name of one your FB friends from the scrambled letters) if you manage to guess the 6 letter word.

My bosses at Wingdamage have been patient with me while I ignored writing assignments. They were tolerant when I stopped playing other games so I could concentrate on my anagram skills. They laughed when I passed on games like Metroid Other M and Medal of Honor so I could play a free Facebook game. But things have reached a point where they’ve realized just how addicted I am.

I can’t sleep at night sometimes because I am running through anagram exercises in my head. Whenever I meet someone new I start rearranging the letters in their name to form new words. When I get a friend request on Facebook I have to decide if their name will work well for the bonus challenge. If you have a weird name and you sent me a friend request that I denied, just know it’s not you, it’s Word Challenge.

This isn’t a review. Does a crackhead review crack? His addiction alone is a testament to its potency. I wouldn’t even know what to review, this is a game about finding as many words as possible from 6 scrambled letters. My only complaints have to deal with the words the game fails to recognize, like orc and drow, which probably reveals more about my reading habits than the game’s shortcomings.

As I write this I am constantly aware of the fact that the game is just sitting there, one mouse click away. I can pop over to Facebook, let the boss know I’ve managed to start writing a couple things then maybe play a quick game. What’s one game going to hurt? It’s only 2 minutes. Maybe my friend Nate or Tynan have played since I last checked. Maybe they have a higher score than me.

Tags: addiction, Casual Games, Facebook Games, Word Challenge

This entry was posted on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.