Bejeweled – Or How an App Stole My Heart
Ok, so lately I’ve had a major crush. HUGE. I can’t stop thinking about this crush. When I close my eyes, I see my crush. I can’t help it. It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last thought on my mind as I drift to sleep.
I – what? A boy?! Ha. Hahaha. No, no, dear friends. I’m clearly talking about only the best game ever out there on Facebook: Pop Cap’s BEJWEWLED BLITZ!
So I’ve played a lot. Obssesively, one might say. I have the 2nd highest score of my “friends group” in this application and I’ve been trying my hardest to beat silly Katie for aaaaages now. I’m not going to even try to count how many hours I’ve spent looking at this application. But I will say: it’s a lot. And I’ve been wondering: What is Bejweled doing with all these minutes?
I think these are lost minutes. Sure, I know now that Pop Cap is the creator. That’s been drilled into my head by the opening credits. But beyond that, what are they doing to gain an advantage over other applications? Eventually, I fear, I will lose interest. And then I will drift away. And what is Pop Cap left with? An ex-user who used their application for free for many hours and then walked away. What did Pop Cap benefit from that?
There is a small link to Bejeweled 2 at the bottom of the end credits. Is this what their aim is? To get users to buy Bejeweled 2 $19.99? Becaue unless you visit the site, I had no idea the software was even for sale. I think they should really ramp up that marketing message because unless you accidentally clicked on the link (which I’ve done, many times, and then immediately closed the window without even looking at the content), how will you know about this?
On the other hand, I do like what they’re doing here:
See at the bottom there? The more you and your friends play, the better prizes you could possibly win? Every week, the game starts anew. I like this for three reasons:
- I like free things. A lot.
- It makes me want to invite as many friends as possible so the chances of winning the better prizes is larger.
- It appeals to my competitive streak to see my progress right there. If I only play 600,000 points worth of games in the next 4 days, I could win a laptop! Holy smokes, right?!
And so when I log in today to play the ever-addicting game, I see this:
Eeee! I can’t wait! I want way more awesome. I want to go to that place. (As Liz Lemon would say.)
I’ll let you know if the way more awesome Bejeweled Blitz is an improvement over the current one. And if they do anything useful with all those minutes I’m throwing their way.
So what do you think? Any applications on Facebook that are doing some things right? Or maybe some that are wasting away good opportunities? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
