Big Fat Ostrich

Ok, I’ve got serious issues with the word ‘Addicting‘ and it’s rampant use on ye olde internete (plus it’s a slow blogging night)

I know, I know, the debate over addictive and addicting has been raging on for what seems like decades (in internet time). And really, how seriously must we debate language on the net when so much of it is bastardized anyway? Most of the Internet is made up of bad writing, porn, and well, that’s pretty much it.

The thing is, it gets under my skin EVERY TIME the word Addicting pops up in a search, an ad, or a blog, so something must be done about it. Common examples are as such:

A quote: “That game is so addicting!”
An advert: “Free addicting games!”

The worst though, is when you start typing addictive in Google’s search window and the auto-complete gives you “addicting games” after you’ve only typed the letters “ad”. This tells us that we, those who fight for Addictive‘s contextual supremacy, are losing the battle. Why? Because when the majority of people are wrong, then advertisers must stoop to their level to reach them. At this point, I must digress.

Apparently, Addicting actually is a word (yet I haven’t actually found concrete proof in Websters online dictionary) but it’s a transitive verb. Addictive however, is an adjective, and we don’t replace adjectives with verbs. Why? Because those are the rules. If we break the rules, we end up like this and destroy the human race. So based on those rules, addicting does not mean addictive.

Man, I even checked Wikipedia for addicting and came up with nothing. And the internet never ever lies. There’s an article about Addiction and addictive comes up in the text. No addicting though, so maybe there is hope after all.

Bah. I’ve said all I care to say about this. I’m going to stick in some Google ads just to annoy myself further. Trust me. They’ll say addicting.

Line Rider is highly addictive and can really tap into your creativity. It’s like this: You’re given a blank slate and you start to draw with a pencil tool. When you’re done, press the Play button, and see if the little man on a sled can “Ride The Lines” without crashing or falling into infinity. What you draw essentially becomes the map.

If you’re unclear on the whole concept, your first drawing/map will suck, but probably still be better than my best map. You definitely need to spend some time with this one to get a feel for the physics of the game which really is a great concept with infinite possibilities.

I won’t be adding any of my works of art here, so just trust me on this one when I say that they’re not worth seeing. Just check out this video for an example of just how much you can do with Line Rider when the creative juices start flowing. The only limit is your creativity. Insane.