Take Away From Everwing

I use FB messenger to communicate, and when someone shoots me a message it’s a perk. One Saturday morning, seeing five notifications, I thought my friends missed me or my crush remembered me. Checking it out got me disappointed.  No messages, they were all invites to play EverWing.  I ignored it.  Days passed, more friends flooded me with invites. I couldn’t help but ask, “What’s in this game?”

To my curiosity, I tried the game and learned that to date, 13 million FB users are already hooked in it. At first, I found it confusing, “What should I do? No instructions on the menu.” I saw a fairy-like character and thought, “Oh that’s me. Cute little fairy.” The only instruction I got was a left and right arrow with a note, “drag to move”. I started dragging the character. Self-figuring the mechanic of the game is simple, kill as many colored gargoyles and catch as many coins as you can to get upgrades for your bullet, character and sidekick. Days playing it, I entitled myself for upgrades. I am already firing 4 bullets a time, and unlocked characters and dragon sidekicks that I can train.

Technically, I find the game interesting. Creativity of the storyboard is not unique, but the graphics and colors put life to the game. Simplicity of the mechanics made it user-friendly. Funny-faced gargoyles, and cute guardians and dragons could catch the interest of young millennials. Older millennials like me would appreciate it better if the programmers could add instructions in the menu. Sound effects perfectly fit the environment of the game. It gives additional thrill to kill the enemies. Voice effects of the guardian give life to the character.  Animation suits the characters movement. Changing the image of the guardian as it catches special icons like clover leaf, jewel, mushroom, etc., emphasize the power of the items collected.

If I am to rate the game from 1-5, 5 being the highest, I rate it 4 because I could relate the game in real life. Guardians represent us, the protagonist in our life story. Sidekicks are the people to whom we will pass on our knowledge and life learnings. Colored gargoyles represents the different obstacles that we must face, categorized as easy, average and difficult. Upgrades are our level of maturity and how we perceive life. 

I like the idea of training dragons which means we are not alone in life. As the saying goes, “No man is an island.” We are created to help and take care of each other to overcome difficulties. For the character to get in to another stage and earn upgrades in the game, she must kill and surpass number of gargoyles. Similarly, for us to succeed, we must face our problems and get into the solutions. Never give up and fight for life long principles. Ranking represents our eagerness to be better. As I played the game, I learned to strategize and be patient. Strategies are important for us to keep up with failures, make good decisions and never to do the same mistakes. Patience teaches us to wait, never lose hope and work hard to achieve our goals.  

Games are made not only to entertain but to virtually represent real life situations. Played moderately could result to self-realizations, de-stress and enjoyment but played addictively could result to waste of fruitful time.