Friday’s Rant from the SoapBox in MY Living Room – is it just me that thinks this is weird?

Welcome to Friday’s Rant. My little space in the week where I get random things off my chest. It makes me feel better. Sometimes a good rant can be therapeutic.

So it’s not a secret that I play the occasional game of Candy Crush, and happen to have a fondness for pretending to be a farmer whilst playing Hay Day. I enjoy passing the time, occasionally or sometimes (ahem) wasting a few minutes playing to distract myself from reality. 

I enjoy it, it’s harmless and probably a bit silly but hey, it’s not hurting anyone. 

But, I am struggling with something that I personally think is a bit weird and a bit over the top. 

I am part of a group, within HayDay, which is a farming game. There a quite a few people in the group, and the aim is to help each other with your farms, and we play against other groups, and get prizes and points. It seems like a bit of fun to me, and I try and join in when I can. However, some of the group are taking it all very seriously, and have started to comment when players don’t join in regularly or contribute as much as others. There have been people kicked out of the group, nasty things said, and it’s all got a bit serious and weird. I personally have stayed out of the fight that is going on, I like to play as a hobby, and frankly, I work, I have children, I have a life, and I don’t take the game so seriously that I need to be playing 24/7 or being online all the time. It has now got to the point where the people who run the group are asking group members to let them know when they won’t be around to play, so they can “keep track” of who is playing and who isn’t. They also want to friend us on Facebook.

I want to shout “Come on guys, it’s a game. We all have lives!”. I am not going to be reporting in to some virtual stranger and letting them know my plans and when I will or will not be popping in to milk my cows or harvest my hay. 

I get that some games and gamers take it seriously. That’s fine. I don’t think this falls into that category. I think asking people to report in, is basically crossing a weird line? 

So, I left the group. The whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. I just want to play my little game, have a bit of fun and not take it too seriously.

It’s weird, right?