I Deleted Temple Run from my iPhone

Ever heard of Temple Run? It’s the most popular smartphone game out there. It was taking over my life. Instead of doing something productive like reading, I was obsessively trying to pick up golden coins and jump over obstacles. It felt like I was really running at top speed (running – something I would never do in real life). It was an adrenaline rush. If you play you’ll know what I mean.

All my life I never really got how people were addicted to video games. It never happened to me, till recently in my late thirties and fourties. It just felt so ridiculous and embarrassing that a fourty something woman did not have better control. I am not some teenaged boy, but I was behaving like it.

photo by bookjunkie

I confess. I have an extremely addictive personality. It’s all or nothing for me. I used to be addicted to Facebook and games like Pet Society and later on Farmville. After I realized I was wasting my life away, I deleted my account. Recently that obsession was replaced by Temple Run on the iPhone.

Last night when I found myself playing at 2am in the morning I deleted not only that game but all the game on my iPhone – Angry Birds, Cut the Rope & Swampy included. It was like ripping a bandaid off. I felt trepidation before but such relief after. If you’re so addicted that your eyes are hurting, just hit delete. You won’t regret it.

I tried other ways, like telling myself I’d only play 5 games a day, but that certainly did not work. The game is rigged such that you want to keep playing. Each time you play you will collect some coins and coins can be used to buy angel wings that allow your character to come back to life when you make a wrong turn and get burnt by fire or something. I was kidding myself. Nothing except deletion would help.

Having said that I am glad I played all these games. At least I now can understand how addictive video games can be, just like any other addiction. It seems that even Justin Beiber is addicted to it. I am still amazed at how he got a score of 9 million. Even after playing obsessively for a month, my highest was only 1.8 million.

Anyhoo, Temple Run is evil. Like those creepy creature who come after you when your explorer character trips over a tree trunk. Ingenious creators though. They must be collecting real millions.

photo by bookjunkie

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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11 Responses to I Deleted Temple Run from my iPhone

  1. ThinkPinkToo says:

    Sorry for getting you addicted to this game 😛

    • bookjunkie says:

      LOL it was fun though and I don’t regret playing it. At least now I will know what everyone is talking about when they say that Temple Run is like crack. Also have fond memories of Farmville 😉

  2. ThinkPinkToo says:

    You can always join me on smurf’s village now!! I’m such a bad influence LOL

  3. Lady J says:

    Funnily I only heard about Temple Run recently, tried my hand at it on one game and kinda fell off the bridge. But I know what you mean about the ‘addiction’. Was juggling too many games at one point in time and am now just stuck on one game that I’ve played for close to 1 year I think.. hehe

    • bookjunkie says:

      I am relieved to hear I am not alone in my addictive ways 😉 Yeah when I first played it I wasn’t fascinated and fell off too. Thought it was going too fast for me. And then I tried again and soon it got easier and more fun and I was totally hooked.

  4. mf says:

    You actually deleted games – that’s removing all the evil roots! I’m really bad at these games so I don’t really get addicted but every so often when I’m bored, I do like to go back to play again..

  5. Crystal says:

    I had to do that with sorority life. I was wasting a ton of time on that stupid game

  6. Pingback: Life with an iPhone vs Life with an old Nokia | White as milk

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