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May 07, 2004
Playing Freecell: How free?
I bought a new Dell laptop a few weeks ago and as with any new electronic device I decided to explore the laptop. Unlike my previous desktop where the games were under the accessories icon, games have their own icon in XP (by default). So I thought I'll try a few games. I was once addicted to card games, especially Solitaire and Freecell, and decided to try them. I played a Freecell game for a few minutes and then got bored so decided to quit. As I closed the game a menu popped-up with this message on it, "Do you want to resign the game?" I've played hundreds of Freecell games, literally, and I had never really paid any attention to this message. But this time, I just couldn't ignore the message and bring myself to click "yes." Just the thought of "resigning" the game made me feel so uncomfortable that I ended up playing the whole game. I won in the end, which I knew I would since I've played so many of them, but this incident made me think about the power of words, and the things they can make us do. It also made me think about the interaction of language (an old medium) and the digital medium (a new medium) and what they can make us do when they come together. The words on a pop-up menu, the timing of a pop-up menu, the option to click "yes" or "no" and the head of the King moving with the cursor, these little elements combine to create a whole new experience, and as a result, a whole new reaction. The digital medium has a power to persuade that goes far beyond any of the previous media.(Disclaimer: This example was earlier cross-posted on my personal blog)
Posted by Aditya Johri at May 7, 2004 09:53 PM
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