The life of an iPhone game
- Hear about a fun game
- Download the game, which puts its icon on the fourth or fifth page of the springboard
- Forget about the game for now because when the App Store opened it found some trivial updates for apps I barely use but I can’t leave that badge just sitting there
- Happen upon the game’s icon a week later after someone actually called me (with a phone!) and I need to hunt down the Phone app (which is banished to a “Cannot Delete” folder with Stocks and Weather and whatever else) so I can get rid of that missed call badge
- Play the game. Hey, it’s kind of fun.
- Later, have a desire to play the game and swipe-swipe-swipe to that last page to reach its icon
- Repeat the previous step at increasingly shorter intervals
- Get tired of swipe-swipe-swiping and simultaneously realize the game is among my five most-used apps
- Decide which first-page app is getting bumped (Maps, again) and move the game into its place
- Resume my usual Twitter/Reader/SimpleNote/iPod/browser usage of the iPhone. Between each one, I see the game’s icon which begins to gnaw at me because this is “work time”, I will play the game later during “game time”.
- Think of increasingly pithy comments about the “cute” character in the game’s icon every time I pass over it to tap on a “useful” app. Begin ignoring it out of spite.
- Realize I never play the game anymore. Remember how much fun it was, but struggle to get over its smarmy little icon who thinks it’s just so important because it’s always on my goddamn home screen all the goddamn time.
- Delete the unfinished game, making a mental note to stop spending $2 on “games that I never end up playing and just sit there taking up space”
