| Junior bravely faces addiction and overcomes it (4/08) | | Print | |
| Written by Camille Smyth | |
|
Late nights working on The Lowell consist of many discoveries. While
waiting for my editors to mark up my drafts, I have learned that
chicken and bread is the best dinner possible, that the Lakeshore
Starbucks lady is half as pleasant in the evening as she is in the
afternoon and that Taxi Gone Wild is just as addictive as crack
cocaine.
The goal of the online video game, offered by Yahoo Games,
is to drive a taxi as quickly as possible down a highway while dodging
and jumping over stationary cars. As the level of play increases, a
user must jump over more cars in less time to get to the next level.
The game itself is a race against time, on a computerized highway. I never used to find the idea of sitting in front of a screen and shooting aliens, monsters or robots appealing. The only thing I liked about Halo was being able to talk to the other players using the headset, and I'd much rather sharpen my guitar skills with a real one rather than the controller version offered in Guitar Hero. I was never able to wrap my mind around why these games were so addictive until I started playing Taxi Gone Wild. Every time I play Taxi Gone Wild is a new adventure, a new rush of adrenaline. When I mistakenly bump into a car, my heart stops, but immediately picks up speed again as I approach the flagpole with only two seconds left. I am hooked. When I came home after learning about the game at late night, I could not push it out of my head. My mind was continually dodging and jumping over cars. While attempting to fall asleep, I would reach levels I never even knew existed. In my mind, I had become a crazy taxi driver who ignored speed limits. In reality, I wasn’t even remotely close to getting my license. That Monday when I returned to school, I found myself drawn to computers, determined to beat my high score. Every free mod that opened up was an opportunity for me to further enhance my digital-taxi driving skills. My obsession with the game began to bother my friends. No longer was I was interested in going off campus for lunch; I had to stay at school so I could reach the next level in Taxi Gone Wild. When my friends told me that I needed to stop playing and suggested ludicrous ideas such as venturing outside, I brushed them off. I didn’t have a problem, I was just playing a computer game. When I finally did pull myself away from the computer, I realized I was in fact a Taxi Gone Wild addict. Faces that I had forgotten greeted me in the hallways and a quick trip to Lucky’s showed me what I had been missing while I was glued to the computer screen. I haven’t completely kicked Taxi Gone Wild. I can still sometimes be found in front of the computer beating everyone’s score, but I have cut down on my playing time. Not all addictions must be quit cold turkey; some may be indulged in moderately. And although the point of Taxi Gone Wild is to go as fast as possible, I have learned that it's best if I slow down. |
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to listen.
