throwing out the needle...

For the last 61 days, I have been completely addicted to this game called Mafia Wars on the Facebook.

If you are among the millions of people on the face of the English speaking part of the earth, you already have a mild idea of what I'm talking about (in fact, you don't even need to speak English, as Facebook is available in many languages including "pirate" English, -aye matey, arrr...)


But for some reason, if you have no idea what I'm talking about (like my dad in Japan that reads this blog who probably has no idea what I'm talking about), it is basically a game where you earn experience points, mildly similar to the RPG games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

What makes it slightly more interesting about the game compared to the RPG games is that you can interact with other players and play cooperatively.


You may be wondering, "why was I so consumed?"

Part of the reason is that I just don't like to lose; so when I started playing the game, the top 10 of the friends that have been playing for months were at levels over 100.

After about a week, my character was moving relatively quickly through the levels, and within three weeks, my character's level was at over 100, which was mildly satisfactory, but still short of making the top 10 list.

My aspiration was not being #1 on my own list, but to overtake the friend that introduced me to the game.

I made the top 10 list in my small group of friends in about a month, but I was at least 40 levels away from the friend that introduced me to the game.


As you may have guessed already, today was the day that I finally overtook my friend in the rankings, at level 239. Now, I can put the game to rest, and focus on important things, such as this blog (haha).


(...on a side note...)
Although my regular character had not achieved the number 1 spot on my list, I actually have another account that was geared to level up quickly, and that character took less than 30 days to get to level 560, which is sitting currently at the number 1 spot on my top 10 list.


Ok, enough recreation (including this blog),
I'm going to get back to serious business...


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