Diner Dash 2
I have to admit, I am out of the loop when it comes to what is cool with kids these days. I do not have children, and I do not really keep up with children things. However, my 10 year old cousin, Lily is coming to stay with me next week for her Spring Break. She could have done any number of cool and exciting things for Spring Break but she chose to come spend it with me. I must say, this touches my heart and makes me wonder what is wrong with her. I love Lily, but she is a busy girl. By busy, I mean she likes to be entertained and involved in something all the time.
Lily is very smart and loves the computer, so I decided to go to Best Buy and get her some computer games. I asked the folks there what was cool with the kids these days and they sold me on a few games. One sales associate said the game, Diner Dash is really popular. I had never heard of it, but it looked neat enough.
There is a big business mogul named Mr. Big (nice Sex In The City reference) and he is trying to shut down all the mom and pop restaurants in the area so he can bulldoze them and build a huge food plex. The main character is named Flo (nice Alice reference) . Flo has come in to work shifts at the restaurant to help out so they can pay their rent and escape the clutches of Mr. Big. Oh the drama.
I decided to go ahead and download some of the games and give them a shot so I would know what I was doing if Lily wanted me to play the games with her. I just knew Diner Dash would be a breeze because after all, I used to wait tables and I was a hostess at a restaurant--not to mention this is a CHILDREN'S game.
Let me just tell you that this game is kicking my ass.
You have to take orders, get food, clear dishes, get high chairs, clean up messes, drop checks, give impatient people Italian sodas to keep them happy, put cell phone users away from tables that do not like noise, etc. It really requires methodical thinking and quick movement- both of which I am grossly lacking.
We have been having home renovations done for the past couple of days, so I am stuck at home, playing freaking Diner Dash 2 like a woman obsessed. I need to do something constructive like pay bills, or vacuum, or paint my nails-- but the brunch group at table 4 with the crying baby only left a 5% tip. What the hell? Revenge is mine. Brunch eating bastards.
If you have kids, try out Diner Dash.
It is a challenging game. No violence or robots or anything crazy like that, but challenging none the less.
Have a great day and do not forget to tip your waitress.
posted by Parisjasmal at 10:02 AM
3 Comments:
Where's the mystery? She wants to hang with you because you're cool.
Oh, and your post is really timely. I just had my students read a research article linking sex differences in video game preferences/aptitudes with differences in spatial/lingual skills. Although I usually hate research attempting to prove that women should, in fact, be cleaning tables and feeding babies (NOT skills covered in this article--I'm being illustrative), the article did a good job linking gender-linked skills with game aptitudes. Girls/women tend to do better with games that require multitasking, whereas boys/men tend to excel at games that require 3D spatial rotation skills. There are other differences as well. The focus of the article was on the "flow" state achieved when skills and difficulty are perfectly matched, which explains why you were able to waste so much time on that game! It allowed you to keep being challenged as you built skills!
Beware video game addiction! ;-)
Hi K-
Thanks! If I am nothing else, I am cool-*rolls eyes*. HA
How interesting that you just had your students read something about gender and video games. As a child when I used to play video games regularly, I never really liked games that involved 35 spacial rotation. I also did not like Frogger. I hate the thought of animals getting hit by cars.
I am generally anti-video game. My husband has often talked about an X-Box or PS2 or whatever they are called. I quickly squelch the idea. I think they are fine for children, but I fear it would (like you say) become addictive and a huge time waster. I have already wasted WAY too much time on freaking Diner Dash.
Lord!
Have a lovely weekend!
I am a closet game addict, so I cannot ever start playing, or the entire weekend will unfold; not one time will a thought of feeding my kids or bathing enter into my brain. It's crazy. I love this game, too. It is hard. How cool of an aunt are you?
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