A tribute to the stuff that makes life less boring.

14/02/2011

Stick Cricket (Online Game)

I first started playing Stick Cricket long ago, before the emergence of www.sticksports.com, a website which enables you to play stick-everything.  Stick Cricket was, as far as I'm aware, the first of the stick sports.  Essentially, these are internet games where sports are reduced right down to their very essence.


In the game of cricket, scoring a four is an achievement.  Not in Stick Cricket.  At the level I am currently playing, I need to get 500 from 20 overs off a New Zealand bowling attack that swings it both ways (ooh la la).  In these circumstances, 236 not out from 63 balls is just not good enough.  Fuck you, Don Bradman*.  Fuck you and your  strike rate of 374.6 per 100 balls.


It works thusly.  The bowler bowls.  You have to hit said ball using the directional keys traditionally found on the keyboard.  Time it right, and you hit a glorious six, with some sort of red fire trail coming off the back of the ball. The crowd go wild.  Time it wrong, and you get out.  Stumps splattered, or an easy catch snaffled at cover. Or, most hilariously (or annoyingly, depending on how you look at it) the ball cracks you in the skull, killing you and spreading your prone corpse over the stumps.  Then you've got almost everything in between, depending on how you time the ball: 2, 3, and 4 (somewhat weirdly, you can't get singles).


The main thing I have to say about this game is that I am not addicted to it.  I am of course lying.  Sure, it's not the same kind of addiction I used to have for football manager ( oh God oh God i need it just let me play it for a few minutes it's like crack lovely sweet crack oh God). But still, I am addicted.  The genius thing about Stick Cricket is that it takes such a small amount of time. 20 overs takes 10 minutes, and there are 5 and 10 over modes as well.  I can't even play it for longer than half an hour without getting annoyed, but I always come back to it.


I think the way I use Stick Cricket encapsulates both today's world of New Media and a culture of doubling up on one's entertainment.  I play it when Come Dine With Me isn't quite enough.  I play it when I want to listen to music, but don't necessarily want to do nothing while I do it.  I don't feel bad about playing online games in this way, because that's what they're for.  Console gaming is not the same, it's too involving.  But, as soon as laptop usage became widespread, entertaining oneself with two screens became inevitable.  Think of it this way:


Watching TV = Fun
Playing computer games = Fun
Playing computer games + Watching TV = Slightly more fun


Online games lend themselves perfectly to this, because whilst being fun, they're mostly too crappy to merit a high level of seriousness.  Sadly, the very fact that I've written this post shows that I'm an unfortunate human being who can often be found hunched over his laptop while dinner burns, playing a 'crappy' online game and cursing at every ball missed.










*On the 'World Domination' mode you play as an all star team of cricket legends. Brian Lara doesn't even get in the team, worse luck.