Macenstein

As anyone who’s ever spent an extended period of time with me will attest, “familiarity breeds contempt”. And while I am used to this saying applying to human interactions, I never thought it would sum up my relationship with some of my favorite iPhone apps. Yet here I am with a score of 528 in Flight Control, and I practical dread playing it now.

So, what’s turned me sour on what was at one point my favorite game? Well, quite frankly I’m just too good.

Yes, I know I am not even close to being the top Flight Control player (I have seen scores of 20,000-plus) but a 528 score is apparently still good enough for me to be placed in the top 4% of Flight Control players worldwide. And while Flight Control still holds a coveted spot on my first page of iPhone apps, my finger rarely seeks its soothing, blue embrace. Why? Well, what started as a wonderful casual game has now turned into a serious time commitment. I have calculated that it takes me a little over 5 minutes to land 100 planes, meaning that in order to break my record, I’m looking at laying out about 30 minutes or so of my not-so-valuable time. Faced with the near certainty that my attempt will end in frustrating failure in the 400’s, I more often than not will pass on Flight Control for a more casual, compartmentalized game like Peggle or Puzzlings.

I had a similar issue with the pie-wedge-placing game Frenzic, where in order to beat my 2300 score (again, nowhere near the top score) I would have to devote quite a bit of time, and invariably not reach my goal. Frenzic is similar to Flight Control in that both are fast-finger games, and although both have pause buttons, resuming a game a day later usually ends in disaster as you invariably forget your place.

Addicting, but not fun

To me, Flight Control and Frenzic both suffer from the same underlying problem – their gameplay is not inherently fun in and of itself. The only real reason to play Flight Control is to see if you can break your previous high score (or a friend’s high score). There is no rich story, cute animations, hidden cheats to uncover or characters and levels to unlock. The only reason you play is to try to get a higher score than last time. Faced with the very real prospect of spending half an hour or more only to fail at that goal, I usually find myself passing.

I can’t quit you, baby

Of course, like most abusive love/hate relationships, this one is hard to quit. In fact, I have played Flight Control twice since starting to write this article. But the thing is, I didn’t really want to play, and that’s sad. I’ll admit the dream of beating my high score DOES keep me coming back for more, just as the dream of winning the lottery has me buying two Mega Millions tickets each week. But most days now I feel I have a better chance of my numbers coming up than beating my Flight Control score. Every loss is an ego-crushing disaster, and I am left feeling my worthless time could have been better wasted on a different game.

It’s like the great Joan Jett once sang… Flight Control, “I hate myself for loving you”.