Last weekend, I was crossing through the kitchen in my underwear, en route to work out on my rowing machine (for the first time this year, sigh), when I paused to watch the Sober Husband fire up a game on his laptop. "What is that?" I asked. "Pirate Poppers", he said. "Want to try it?"
I shot through the first several levels quickly, then went upstairs and worked out. After my workout, I walked downstairs to shower, but decided to cool off with another level of "Pirate Poppers" first, then make dinner. I was interrupted by a fussy husband and children.
"It's their bedtime, and you're still playing that game!"
"No way!"
"You've been playing for OVER FOUR HOURS!"
It was like a science fiction movie. It felt like only fifteen minutes had passed. "You were in a fugue state," noted the husband.
I didn't eat that night. I didn't check my email. I just played "Pirate Poppers."
The next day, I played more. The husband got extremely irritable. "I feel like I don't have a wife," he said. Now, he went through some dark days of the soul earlier in our marriage, when he became obsessed with "Barrack", a game involving little balls bouncing about. So one would think that he would relate, but no. He's been quite judgmental over the whole thing. One would think I'd been smoking crack by the way he takes on.
8 comments:
i googled "pirate puffs" and this is what i got ;
5 storks, Liza Minelli, and a guy dressed up like Liza Minelli walk into a bar. The bartender say’s, “No way.”
uh... does this mean anything?
I thought Pirate Puffs were that product at Trader Joe's where the nutrition info was a big buncha lies.
Any more about the game? Why is it so compelling?
I had the name wrong when I first wrote the entry; it's not Puffs (so unpirately sounding! albeit in the Johnny Depp eye make-up wearing pirate spirit). It's Poppers (even more gay sounding, and I mean that in the nicest possibly way).
wait, you work out in your underwear? ew.
Given that I work out in my study, where the rowing machine lives, which is private (the blinds are closed to spare the neighbors' delicate sensibilities), yes, I sometimes work out in my underwear. If I were going to be working out in public, I would dress accordingly.
The same thing happened to me with "Caesar." I don't think they make it anymore (improvements, etc), but the basic idea was that you'd construct a Roman outpost, complete with trade, temples, housing, theaters, games venues, granaries, even barracks and defenses. If you reached a certain level of peace and prosperity, they'd bump you in rank and give you a bigger challenge (larger city, more restless natives, more arid landscape, whatever). The goal was to get to Rome, I guess, though I never got that far.
When I was in school I borrowed it from a buddy and took it home for Thanksgiving break. I started playing at 5pm and I didn't stop until 11:30am the following day, when I had to take a nap. I might've taken one or two breaks for the inevitable natural processes. But no food. No water. Just 18.5 hours of territorial governance. I didn't even notice the time passing.
Jim, there's a newer game like that, where you build civilizations and you can play against someone. The Sober Husband was playing that one day, and I burst out laughing when suddenly his computer chirped, "Spain Loves The Dictator!" (He was doing so well that his populace spontaneously declared "We Love The Dictator Day").
p.s. Jim, you haven't entered the photo contest!!! you actually have a huge advantage because you live in Maine (you actually live in the same area as my grandparents, cousins, etc.., good old PoGo). So get snapping with the camera!
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