This Week's Waste of Time

Make your own wave

While researching Tom Bissell's new book, Extra Lives: Why Games Matter, I came across an argument that games were not art because there is a goal. This can be debated (and is), but I started to think about games I play that have no predetermined goal. Everything interactive is a game if you want it to be. See for yourself below the fold.

For example, I have a friend who, every time he gets out of the shower, races to see if he can dry himself faster than the day before. Ridiculous? Yes. But it's a game. What about racing a roommate home? Drinking games? These activities do not inherently have an element of competition, but it's human nature to introduce an element of play to almost anything.

So, this week's wastes of time are two "games" that don't ask anything of the player.

First off is Falling Sand Game and is pretty self-explanatory. Different minuscule pixels (sand) fall from the top of the screen and you can alter almost everything. Build a wall to catch the sand, plant some C-4 and see what happens, or just get hypnotized by the tiny particles floating around the screen. Where's the fun in that? I'm not sure, but it didn't stop me from playing for hours in an effort to create the most kick-ass explosion. That's a game, I guess.

From the visual realm we move to a sound creator. Make any Atari and Nintendo sound you can think of with this noise maker from Super Flash Bros. Choose a source tone and mutate the sound in any of 22 different ways, or you can just see how to make your favorite 8-bit sounds. Wondering what the sonic ingredients are for the sound of Mario collecting a coin? Find your answer here. You can even export the sounds you create as a wav file. OMG, new ringtone! How do I play this game? I try and make the weirdest noise possible, and I'm still playing.

Click here for fun with sand and here for fun with sound.

Enjoy.