George the Time Sucking Bluebit

There is a reason I swore off playing games on a computer. His name is George.

George is the name of my battle rabbit in a new Facebook application game, “Pets.” On Friday, I enlisted in the war against a brood of giant scorpions, ants, spiders and praying mantids. Productivity immediately went down to 50% as I alternated between attacking insects and feeding my rabbit back to full strength. Although I spent more time Saturday battling real insects while hiking in the woods with the boys, I have had enough exposure to James Lin‘s virtual army to confirm that I was write to chase away all those computer games in the early 1990s. Now working my way up to level fifteen, I can only imagine how little of my life would be my own if I substituted Pets with World of Warcraft.

There is no head-to-head dueling with other warrior rabbits, although that is in the works. Pets does have some communal element to it, in that you can pet and poke the pets of your friends to help inch them toward a higher level. If this should happen while in combat, the rabbit does benefit from the change in level (although you are locked out from feeding a battling rabbit back to health). I’m sure at some point you will be able to tag team higher-level insects and split the rewards.

For now, my obsession is all on me. So, … I will pet him and feed him and call him George the Bluebit.