I Can Quit Any Time I Want
Breaking My Wordscapes Addiction
“I’m clawing my way back to third place,” I tell my husband.
We are in a cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, surrounded by towering pine trees and the freshest air imaginable. But I don’t look up from my iPad. It’s tournament weekend.
Of course, every weekend is tournament weekend for Wordscapes. The game is kind of a Boggle knock-off. The screen shows a random group of six letters, and what looks like an empty crossword puzzle. You have to fill the puzzle using only the letters given. There are 15 rounds per game. The amount of games you can play is endless.
The tournament begins at 6 pm on Friday and ends at 11 pm on Sunday. I have good reason to know this. Last night I had to play right up until 10:59 pm to secure my place in third. Some joker named KimWordFish was dogging me. When I went to floss and brush my teeth, she jumped ahead. I couldn’t relax for a minute.
During the tournament, the rounds are timed, and if you complete them in less than two minutes, you get extra points. I’m a very fast player, so this gives me a competitive edge.
And what are we competing for? Crowns. Digital crowns. For our digital avatars. My playing name is “Tired Kate.” My avatar is a smug-looking dog, currently…
