zwolanerd

Good luck sleeping from here out

The last time I talked about Draw Something it inspired some of my friends to take their turns, so this site has made itself worthwhile, I feel. I now have about 10 active games taking place, which seems about right. Too many would turn the game into a full-time job, and the virtual coins don’t buy as much actual food as you might think.

Since I wrote that article I’ve jumped to Draw Something Pro. It’s the exact same game, but for my three actual dollars I got these benefits:

• Unlimited bombs
• Bigger drawing space
• An exclusive color pack

I figured three bucks wasn’t so bad for a game I’d already gotten so much enjoyment out of, and I liked the benefits. It’s a good idea to financially support stuff you like, otherwise it goes away and you get sad.

The color pack wasn’t a big deal for me.  I currently have 56 colors and still can’t find the exact shade of red I want at any particular time. It would be very nice if there were some way to organize your colors, or at least have your most-used ones first. I use peach, dark green, dark blue, and orange a lot, and scrolling through to find them is bleah.

The bigger drawing space is both nice and frustrating. I have no idea what it’s like for those who receive my drawings, but I know on the plain vanilla version a person’s drawings would dip down below the letter selection choices and it could be difficult to see them, and grabbing the drawing to temporarily pull it up and see it was, let’s face it, less than ideal.  I always try to keep my drawings in the upper two-thirds of the drawing space for that reason, but I’ve been less careful about that with the added space, and I imagine receivers of my drawings frequently “Argh!” me.

The way they’ve given me more space is by rearranging the guessing letters and making them smaller. The unintended side effect, though, is that it messes with my guessing. The letters used to be in two rows (of six? I think?), but now they are in a single row. If I don’t know what a drawing is, I can often figure it out from the letters given, but having them spread out hinders my ability to see the connections between the letters. A weird small gripe, I know.

But, hey, unlimited bombs!  This has singlehandedly changed the whole game for me, in unexpected ways – ways I’m not sure I like yet. Bombs let you delete unused guessing letters, narrowing down your choices. Bombs also let you get rid of suggestions you don’t like – at least, that’s how it use to work. Now, rather than just exploding the three suggestions and giving you three new ones, you have the option of spending 1-4 bombs on a “Special Words!” category. Each category will have seven category-related suggestions, and these suggestions are worth more coins. Coins let you buy more colors and bombs and you see where I’m headed with this.  I already have more colors than I need and I no longer need to buy bombs. The one goal  the game gave me, “do well so you can get more” has been taken away, leaving only the “draw some stuff so people can guess some stuff” goal, which is fine but not as driving a purpose.

The effect unlimited bombs has had on me is to turn me into a sort of Robin Hood, only I’m not really robbing anyone. I specifically choose words from the special categories so those playing with me can earn more coins, as I’m assuming I’m the only one in my drawing group who shelled out for the Pro version.

While I do want to help people get more coins, but I also want it to be interesting for those playing with me and, frankly, for me as well. I have fallen into patterns here and there, but I have trouble keeping track of who I’ve drawn my standard baby for, so I’m sure people occasionally get repeats from me. That’s no fun. I’m trying to branch out. This past weekend I announced a Q*bert Day, where all of my drawings incorporated him in some way. I’ve included one of those drawings on this post – that mermaid Q*bert was one of about 30 Q*berts I drew that day. I enjoyed it and I hope the receivers of those drawings did, too, although that mermaid is kind of freaky-looking.

I’m still finding it strange how these tiny little throwaway creations are affecting me. The act of creating – no matter how small that act is – produces feelings of satisfaction and joy unlike most other things, at least for me. Most of the drawings I do will never be seen by more than one person, and that only for a few seconds. Frankly, I wouldn’t want them all to be saved for posterity and be seen by many people (Q*maid aside, apparently), as they pale in comparison to not only actual works of art but also some Draw Something art I’ve seen posted. While I do know of at least one person who’s been inspired to pick up an actual physical paint brush and create some art because of Draw Something, that isn’t likely to happen to me. I’m content (for now) to “brighten the corner where I am” by making it easier for people to amass more virtual coins and to get a smile or two from a visual pun now and again.

After all, “do what makes you happy and see where it leads you” is a driving philosophy behind this very site.

Tags: Draw Something, Q*bert