Re: Gamers These Days

Rick Pikul wrote:
Something that may clarify my position: I never go _to_ the computer to
play solitare, and often do take a deck of cards with me if I can't bring
enough reading material to cover how much 'sitting around' time I expect
to have. (But I will say the the variety of solitare games I play is
muach smaller with a physical deck, and includes no games with elaborate
layouts or layouts I constantly have to fiddle with.)

That's all true for me too. I'm actually very impressed with the
Pretty Good Solitaire package that Thomas Warfield has put together and
maintained for years (http://www.goodsol.com). I continue to upgrade
my copy, and when I happen to be at the computer and don't have time
for a long game, I'll sometimes click the PGS icon and play a quick
game or two--maybe trying a game I've never played before.

But I originally bought PGS for my wife. Because unlike me, she has
always had a distaste for most computer games. Years ago, when I was
spending hours on end playing turn-based strategy games like Conquered
Kingdoms, she wished she could do something on the computer too. So I
bought her a copy of Solitaire's Journey, and she was delighted with
it. So delighted that it puzzled me. That's when I said, "You don't
even need a computer for that; all you need is a deck of cards." But
she replied that she'd never play solitaire if she had to use real
cards. The convenience of the computer made it all worthwhile to her.
She's big on efficiency, and she appreciates the time-saving freedom
from having to shuffle, deal, or refer to a book to find the rules to a
game.

Meanwhile, I'm intentionally making myself shuffle, deal, and memorize
the rules to solitaire games. That way I can always have a pastime in
my pocket as long as I have a deck of cards handy. I'm less concerned
with convenience than with self-reliance and getting away from the
computer.

--Patrick

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