The ESP addiction

I am not much of a gamer. When I was seven, I would get what my parents called Nintendo thumb from playing Mario Brothers at the next-door-neighbors for hours at a time. I loved it simply because we did not have a Nintendo system at my house. My real passion was, and has always been reading. I don't even like to play solitaire online. Although, online Jeopardy is okay. As part of an assignment this week, we were asked to play the ESP game. I thought that I probably wouldn't like it, but I logged on anyway.

The challenge in the game is that you don't know who your partnered with or what they're thinking. It makes you realize how subjective cataloging could be because it takes a while to come up with the same label, if it happens at all. The other element is that the game is timed so you want to get as many matches as you can before you have to start over. I played for over an hour last night just to see if I could establish a rhythm--think outside the box. Sometimes the most off-the-wall images in the picture provided a match. It was at times mildly frustrating, but I loved the randomness of this game. When you hit the same wavelength with someone you don't even know, it's rewarding.

Check it out:

http://www.espgame.org/