By Min Park
News Reporter
Students sit on the floor and press intensely on their smartphones without a word. One wrong move and they could end up losing the game. It is fun and competitive,. You can even challenge your own friends to play.
Stop, Trivia Crack, and Clash of Clans are games that emphasize friendly competition. Recently, they have gained a lot more popularity at South than games such as Temple Run, which was popular several years ago and only involved one player.
Sophomore Phillip Kang thinks that games like these are great for killing time, and he enjoys playing games like Stop because the game is played in the company of your friends.
“I guess some kids need to release stress or something and they can do that with other friends, which is more fun,” Kang said.
Junior Amber Lee does not play games very often, but she also likes to play games such as Stop because of the competitive edge.
According to Lee, trying to beat your friends at a game is a lot more interesting than trying to beat yourself.
Sophomore Adam Netburn enjoys playing Pokemon, but does not like playing other games because they are overwhelming and challenging.
“I lose interest because some people are just so interested in it and I like it’s a lot pressure, But I appreciate them. I see them for what they’re worth,” Netburn said.
He believes, however, that live Pokemon is more interesting because you are able to communicate with a small group of friends.
“The problems with online gaming is that it’s in a lot of groups that you can hate, but if it’s more one on one then it’s safer, there is no bullying type thing and it’s more fun,” Netburn said.
Teacher Adam Desimone says that he is unaware of any smartphone games that are trending. Instead, he enjoys playing regular video games, reading and playing board games.
“I tried to get into Words with Friends again, but I just couldn’t do it. My sister would take forever to reply,” Desimone said.
Indeed, the appeal of such games has eventually faded when it comes to gamers such as Mr. Desimone.
However, he is not surprised that there is a multiplayer craze at South because he believes that the school possesses a very collaborative environment in general.
On the other hand, game design teacher Carol Ober says she has witnessed many popular games eventually fall out of trend.
“It was about 5 years ago and during all my J blocks in the Media Lab, every student played Minecraft. I had up to 15 people playing Minecraft every day and they were really good,” Ober said.
However, she also witnessed Minecraft slowly diminish and lose its popularity.
She says she is also very interested in games like these because of how deep and rich these games were built in general.
Seeing many successful students in her class, she believes that the reason of success is because building these games are always very competitive and are prone to experiencing turnovers.
“If I had to lay my money on these new games, then I would say no it is not going to last as long as some games,” Ober said.
