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.
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