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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2001)
Features Editor: Lisa Toth lisatoth@dailyemerald.com Tuesday, October 16,2001 ■Snood is a downloadable distraction that is gaining steam in the world of video games By Anne Le Chevallier Oregon Daily Emerald Attention: Students prone to procrastination or concerned about their GPAs should not read this under any circumstances. With the television, telephone and AOL Instant Messenger a click away, many University stu dents have tools of procrastination readily available. However, a new, downloadable distraction is infest ing college campuses. The name of the game is Snood, and the reason Snood is popular, said sophomore Rob Dunne, is because it’s simple and free. “You don’t have to think too much,” said Dunne, who was a introduced to the game by his J fraternity brother last year. ■ Dunne quickly found ^ Snood consuming. When he should have been writing pa SNOOD ALERT: Procrastination ahead pers, he played Snood. I “A game turned into three or four or five games,” the business and political science k major said. “Then it’s 11 (p.m.), and I didn’t have any thing done.” CIS major Cooter Harrison, who was introduced to Snood by the same person who initiated Dunne, said, “It’s addicting. You just can’t stop playing.” Procrastination, it seems, was the game’s original intent. Snood’s creator, David Dobson, start ed writing the game in 1996 to avoid working on his Ph.D. Now Dob son has a degree, and Snood has a Web site, a store, a new Game Boy Ad vance game and more than 10,000 registered users. Even Snood candy and a Snood TV show are plausible, said Dobson, a geology instructor at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. Dobson, who said he is surprised by Snood’s popularity, said the game is silly and meaningless. But like its predecessor, Tetris, and the many variations of it since being developed, he said, Snood “gives people pleasure.” To win, players must free all of the “snoods” at the top of the screen by launching other snoods at them. There are differ ent colors of snoods, and when the player links three snoods of the same color together, those snoods — and all of the snoods below them — fall off the screen, earning the player points. However, the player must use 1 snoods carefully because / every snood launched in Ik creases the danger meter. When the meter fills to the top, the whole playing field moves downward. If the snoods reach the bot tom of the screen, the game is over. As the difficulty increases — from levels “Child” to “Evil” — the sizes of the snoods decrease and more fill the screen. Although Snood is therapeutic for some, losing games can cause additional stress. For those who downloaded the free, fully func tional version from www.snood.com, frustration can o o Tv-'" : ' be aimed at the short, cheesy po ems that appear on the screen af ter every five games, begging the player to register. If ending the Snood poetry is not reason enough to register, for $14.95 players can access all dif ficulty levels, de sign their own puz zles, download others’ designs and compete in puzzle tournaments. Howev er, with all these added features, students who do purchase the to tal Snood package might not write their papers at all. The creator did point out that Snood has uses beyond procrasti nation. Dobson said he has re ceived mail from people claiming that Snood has helped them stop smoking and lose weight. Teachers use Snood to help their special-ed ucation students with color matching. Stroke victims use the game to practice motor skills. Be cause Snood has unlimited reac tion time, older adults play, too. Dobson said grandparents like few games they can play with their grandchil dren and win. Dobson said some people claim to have lost their boyfriend or girlfriend because of Snood. The creator, on the other hand, found Snood romance. “I wrote my first game for my wife,” he said, “so she didn’t have to go to video ar cades.” Now, he said, “we play tour naments, and she al ways beats me.” Although Dobson does not play daily anymore, he said he occa sionally enters the Snood time vortex. “Every once in a while,” he said, “I realize it is 3:30 in the morning, my contacts are crusty and I really should have gone to bed long ago.” Anne Le Chevallier is a features reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. She can be reached at annelechevallier@dailyemerald.com. Couple’s fate predicted in sweet ‘Serendipity’ By Jack Beeson The Maneater (U. Missouri) (U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, Mo. - OK, to all the people who walked out of the theaters with tears in their eyes, yes, “Serendipity” is a heart warming film with an ending and plot enjoyable to everyone. With that out of the way, “Serendipity” is basically an unoriginal story line with totally predictable results. The film is the adventure of Jonathan (John Cusack) and Sara (Kate Beckinsale), two beautiful young people who meet in the holi day rush at Bloomingdale’s while try ing to buy the same pair of black gloves. This leads them to have a drink together at a little shop (named, of course, Serendipity), engage in flir tatious conversation and develop an obvious crush on each other. There are only two problems with this disgustingly sweet, bud ding romance. First, both Jonathan and Sara have significant others. Second, Sara is completely con vinced that if they’re meant to be to gether, then fate will make it so. Following this belief, she writes her name and number on a book and sells it to a used bookstore while Jonathan jots down his digits on a $5 bill, which he promptly do nates. The motive: One day fate will place these items in the other per son’s hands, proving that their love is meant to be. The rest of the film is a frustrat ing, teeth-gritting comedy of errors in which they come close to finding each other only to have that oh-so predictable timing mess everything up. John Cusack is awesome in his role as the diligent pursuer. Adding to the movie’s hilarity are Molly Shannon, of “Saturday Night Live,” as Sara’s quirky best friend and Eugene Levy, also known as the dad from “Ameri can Pie,” as a humorously overzeal ous Bloomingdale’s salesclerk. With this comic team in action, no movie can go wrong. And make no mistake, it’s the actors who make “Serendipi ty” a worthy experience. Too bad the same can’t be said for the plot. In the classic “turn around-you-idiot, she/he’s-right there” theme usually seen in horror flicks, “Serendipity” never once surprises. The story has a very “Sliding Doors” feel, only happier. Yeah, this is a palatable, funny and without a doubt crowd-pleas ing movie, but there’s still some thing to be said for good, old-fash ioned originality, which seems to be disappearing more and more in to day’s filmmaking. “Serendipity’s” one saving grace is the sheer innocence the film por trays. The human in me did like the little shenanigans that paved the way for this couple to live happily ever after. I also must admit that even though I knew what was going to happen, I still found myself writhing from the excruciatingly funny close calls. I was cheering along with everyone else and pray ing fora similar case of “Serendipi ty” to lead me to true love. UO Bookstore Open Thursday evenings 'til 9:00 p.m. stay up past your bedtime and come see... Watercolor Painting with David Goodman FREE! * October 18th * 6-8 pm * Downstairs Wt BOOKSfroRE (541) 346-4331 or log on to www.uobookstore.com
