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released in 2001 , when I was only five years old , but I still remember playing , after watching my older cousin spend hours at a time on popcapgames . com playing Bejeweled , Zuma , and Peggle . I would watch patiently as she played through levels and levels of Bejeweled until she finally made a mistake and lost , at which point I would get to take a turn . Granted , my turn ended almost as soon as it began , but I still loved having my opportunity to play . When I got my first smartphone , Bejeweled was the first game I searched for and spent my limited App Store budget on . It has always been one of my favorite games because you can become a master of the game playing only 5 minutes a day . I can drop the game for days at a time and come back with my game paused on the same level . Bejeweled can get away with having more interruptibility than games like Kim Kardashian : Hollywood because the game itself keeps players coming back . They don ’ t need to impose a time limit or have a cliffhanger to convince anyone that the game is worth continuing .
I remember the original Bejeweled so fondly ; it seems almost sacrilegious to reinvent it in such a limiting way as Candy Crush . For me , one of the key characteristics of Bejeweled is the possibility of playing forever , so adding a limited number of lives and tempting players to spend money on it seems to go against the game ’ s tradition . PopCap has been profiting for years off of the same casual computer games - Bejeweled , Peggle , Bookworm , and Zuma . Their website allows users to download these games for a one-time charge , and their transition to iPhone games mimicked that , with a one time fee to purchase the game and occasional ads within the app , but no in-app purchases . The ability to play the game without limits , without having to worry about how many lives I have left or having to invite friends to play in order to unlock new levels , is refreshing . I enjoy the fact that I can pick up my phone to play Bejeweled for a few minutes , lose track of time , and look up two hours later with no interruption , or I can choose to play in five minute bursts on my way to class . This is the epitome of what casual gaming should be - the ability to play a game of your choice at any given time , not having to wait for more lives or energy .
“ The prevalence of in-app transactions , in both Kim Kardashian :
Hollywood and mobile games in general , is a disappointing shift away from the decades-long standard of allowing players to enjoy a game for a one-time fee .”
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