(i’ll preface all this with: im not a big gamer)

years ago people would sit around playing a computer game. friends, strangers and enemies would try to out do each other for years on end on a particular game. documentaries were made about high scores – of games that were built, sold and played and played and played.

the other day i bought a game called doodle jump for my ipod touch. it has some really nice features, you can send you score to your facebook profile, you can see how you’re getting on in comparison with your friends or with all players in the world. of course, i was doing really bad in comparison with the worlds best – getting a fraction of their score. the other day a free update (version 1,3) was waiting for me in itunes. i installed and started a new game. a minute or so into it i saw a change – the character now had the chance to pick up a jet pack. fantastic! but of course this makes it easier for the player to get higher scores. nothing necessarily wrong with that – but it was my first experience of playing a game of this type where it was updated in this way. i can compare scores now with friends / strangers but i’ll have to enquire as to what version of the game they’re playing first.