Why Windows Solitaire Eats So Much Time 261
An anonymous reader writes "This article suggests that Windows Solitaire may be the most-often played computer game. It's not so much an article about Solitaire, but rather an article about Windows and human nature and socialization. If you play FreeCell, there's a interesting paragraph about its inventor." Can Solitaire really eat up more hours than have been sacrificed to Tetris?
Screw Card Games! (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously though, I have Quake, SimCity2000, and Diablo on any computer that I use just in case I do get bored. Those titles will run on pretty much anything.
Origins of Solitaire? (Score:4, Interesting)
A few years ago I was cleaning out the records room where I worked. Among all the old manuals of long dead software, I found a four floppy install set of Windows 3.1 (or 3.1.1? It was a very long time ago). On its list of features was Solitaire, listed as mouse practice software of all things. Needless to say, a joke quickly circulated in the office, that we weren't playing games; we were training for better hand-eye coordination with a computer mouse.
That aside, if anyone has an old copy, or knows of an image online, I would very much appreciate the correlation of ecidence.
It is an addiction (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the ultimate casual game (Score:5, Interesting)
One can have similar experiences from playing board games vs. computer opponents, or from the crafting aspect of MMOs. But solitaire is by far the simplest way of achieving them.
Where is the Community? (Score:1, Interesting)
On the other hand, several years ago my son got involved in playing Age of Empires to the extreme, and then posted hundreds of times to a AOE strategy discussion board, discussing the various ways to advance civilizations and wipe everyone out. The end result: he could type like Superman with zero errors. And he could compose logical sentences, which doesn't happen with todays teen text messaging scene. Made a difference when a summer job came along.
I doubt 5000 straight victories in Freecsll will amount to anything good.
There's a tetromino game in Emacs too (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Can It? (Score:5, Interesting)
On a Per-Person level, I think there are more people that have spent 20 hours in a day playing Tetris, than Windows Solitaire.
But, I think more people play Solitaire than play(ed) Tetris, so collectively its more hours.
now personally, i have over 13,000 games of WC3TFT, which translates to roughly 135.416*(infinitely repeating 6s) days of warcraft 3... and i know free cell is probably not even the second game, for my list, that right belongs to the first (us release) of Advance wars, with well over 1000 hours (over 41 days straight) free cell isn't even my third favorite game, I've probably only done 500 hands of it in total, but i am an atypical player.
It makes me wonder, how exactly did Microsoft figure out which programs are used the most? does windows XP and later 'phone home' the top 10 most launched applications? if it does that, that number can be skewed, if the Microsoft coded apps are going by 'games played' using built in statistics, then how can they compare to ordinary video games that don't provide these statistics to Microsoft? after all, i would only launch wc3 once a day, and get in as many as 50 games a day... but if the statistics are of launching the application, I've known some people who 'think' they get better game hands by exiting and restarting free cell than by normal means of getting a new game...
seriously How is Microsoft getting their numbers?!?
* = based on an average game length of 15 minutes, but my average game length might be longer, i can't recall and the statistics are only for one season, not the whole time I've been a warcraft player.
Re:Perfect steps... (Score:5, Interesting)
Solitaire is a good thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
Although it probably seems foreign to most of us here, mouse hand-eye coordination is not automatic.
And for new users or even new users at a business, our IT people encourage people to start with something like solitaire and just let people goof off until it becomes automatic. (Notice the stores or businesses that have mouse driven software and the users take FOREVER to move the cursor on screen to make selections. Giving them a week of play time on something like Soitaire would increase their productivity in the long run, and reduce customer frustration. (Not that I recommend a Mouse UI for checkstands or small business invoicing, but there is a lot of crap software out there in specific industries that rely on it.
It is also a good tool for users moving to touch pads, pens, thumbsticks, etc as it is simple, mindless and yet lets people master the abstract motor neural control of input devices.
Everytime we have a proficient tech that 'hates' an input device, our policies are to make them use that input device, at least for stuff like solitaire if not general work until it becomes second nature. Especially if the tech is ever going to be using it in public or assisting corporate clients where the device might be widely used. (Touchpads and Thumbsticks being #1 on this list.)
Re:Screw Card Games! (Score:2, Interesting)
So if Windows came pre-installed with "Alien Munchies" [goodtimeretrocafe.com] or "People Pong" then THOSE would be the most played computer games ever??
Re:Can It? (Score:5, Interesting)
Some quick calculations [google.com] using stats from the xfire [xfire.com] site show that on today, a non-holiday sunday, approximately 44 man-years of time have been played only in the game World of Warcraft. Not to mention that leaves out all Mac WoW'ers (we do exist), and ever so rare wine linux WoW'ers. And even on top of that, all the people who did play on windows today but don't have the Xfire client installed.
Re:More truth than humor here. (Score:3, Interesting)
However... I came away with the impression that Windows "still included" the games (this was XP release era) because of the reason that it has always included the games. The games were there as a test for graphics and the ability to create random numbers. I am unable to find anything online to add to this however and would love some insight/thoughts. Saying, simply, "That's what I was told." Surely isn't going to cut it with the
I'm not sure how or why you got modded down but them's the breaks.
Re:There is one simple reason for this.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Infact all the windows games have been re-written using WPF and look very sweet.
Re:Can It? (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the designers have a copy of bomberman for when we play out of hours network games while I rebuild servers, and Tetris and online poker and any number of games, yet time and again they play Solitaire (or MineSweeper). Why? Because you can swap out your window and it doesn't really matter - with Tetris generally the game doesn't pause (perception might not reflect reality), and requires a lot more concentration as you get into the higher levels.
And let's face it, users are just DUMB. Something like tetris is pretty intensive on their minds, solitaire is simple, reliable, and hide-able.
Re:It is an addiction (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd sit down to write a paper and get in a sentence or two. Just as soon as I didn't immediately know what to type in next, I'd open freecell and start a game. 2 hours later, I might have only written a few more words. It was bad enough that starting up the program became instinctive (thank you windows "most recent programs used" list). I distinctively remember catching myself on several occasions where I didn't remember starting up the game; much less what I was supposed to be doing instead. Of course, once you had started a game, you had to finish it. Heaven forbid you quit the game half way through and damage your winning streak.
7 months without the game, and I more or less lost interest in freecell. Instead, I've ended up playing a lot of Go [smart-games.com]. (no, I'm no afiliated or pushing an agenda here; just merely admitting to my most recent game addiction.) As of yet, it's not as bad as solitaire or freecell.
Honestly tho, I think I just feel like I need to be addicted to *something*. It would probably be World of Warcraft if that one would load up a little faster.
it's a progression (Score:2, Interesting)
(going to domino night was a special treat while growing up because I couldn't go if it was a school night. my mom didn't want me going to bed at 2am for some reason
Most people I've heard say they play minesweeper.
Re:Screw Card Games! (Score:2, Interesting)
That's one thing that I've always wondered (Score:3, Interesting)
E.g., the biggest madness in console gaming that I've personally experienced was a game where I didn't find a save point for 10 hours straight. Luckily it was on a Sunday, but I can tell you that by the end of it I had almost lost even the will to live, not just to play that stupid game any more.
Other games prey on people's social instincts, and essentially create situations along the lines of, "see, if you quit 39 of your guild mates will be boned, and might get really annoyed at you. It's not nice to let your guild mates down like that."
See the bloody 40-man raids of pre-BC WoW. I wouldn't know how the new endgame grind is, I have no desire to even try any endgame grind again.
Or see the "taskforces" of COH and "strikeforces" of COV, where if you quit, they can't even invite another player to replace you, so the group is really boned. It's as heavy handed as it can possibly get.
And to make it even more blatantly heavy handed, at least one of them (wossname, the Clockwork King one) contains 3 missions which are identical. In a row. It's 3 instances of the exact same mission, with the exact same maps and opponents, one after the other. For no obvious reason than to prolong the agony of that TF to a whole 12 to 14 hours. In which you can't quit without shafting the other 7 players.
E.g., even in PC games the idiocy still exists of either
A) making one replay the whole level when reloading or failing. Apparently just so that the publisher can claim X hours gameplay, on an otherwise ridiculously small game. Or
B) limited saves, so better not waste that precious save token on a quick 10 minutes gaming session.
Etc. I could give more examples, but you get the idea already.
And it just makes me wonder what do some game designers think they're gaining there.
Incidentally, I'm still convinced that this is a major factor in, well, creating conflicts and the gamer scare in some people. E.g., the parents see "OMG, he's addicted! I told him to come to dinner 10 minutes ago, and he's still glued to that damn console!" When probably the poor kid is just looking for a save point.
And, while I'm at it, when _did_ it become perfectly normal to prey on people's niceness and social instincts for a quick extra 13 Euro? (I.e., an extra month of that subscription.) Isn't that what we'd call "sociopathy" if someone did that in real life, face to face? Forget Milgram, maybe we have MMO design as a better example of how people can be turned into sociopaths.
Re:"Read more" (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems that Wes would himself prefer Robotron 2084 to Solitaire.
Pinball (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously.
You'll find that it comes back when you restart the computer.
Re:Screw Card Games! (Score:5, Interesting)
The unsolvable game is #11,982. (And yes, I know that it hasn't formally been proved to be unsolvable, but there are a zillion solvers out there and all of them has failed, so for all practical purposes it is unsolvable.)