TSTO Anonymous… Bridging the Generation Gap?

Well hey there Addicts?  How’s life?  The Christmas event is over and I don’t know about all of you but I’m exhausted.  Seems like the perfect moment for another meeting of TSTO Anon.

Ah crud… someone broke the coffee pot.  Well, if y’all want to hit Starbucks in the Springfield Mall real quick or head on over to Tsarbucks in Little Ukraine, I completely understand.  I can wait….

OK Addicts, now that we got those caffeine fiends gone we can begin.  Just kidding… I could go for a Cup of Joe myself.  One sec…..

For today’s meeting I figured we’d do something a little different.  I often wonder why people tap.  Even more, I notice the wide span of different folks playing TSTO and love that we come from different countries, cultures, walks of life and even, dare I say it, generations.

In my personal life, I find it strange that 3 different generations all play the game and enjoy it.  This left me wondering why.  For a strange little experiment that hopefully will entertain and enlighten you, I actually asked.  While my Mom, Daughter and I have lived in different eras and had our own experiences, I thought it’d be fun.

First up, my little Ewok.  She may never have carried a pager, typed on a typewriter or rewound a VHS, but she amazes me every day with her command of the world we live in today.  Thank Jebus she didn’t inherit my technological stupidity.  Anywho… here’s why my daughter plays the game in her own words.  Apologies for all the run-on sentences and teenager talk.  I blame the California Public School System and the breakdown of language due to texting lol.

3 words… MY DAD DOES.  I tap because I’d be sitting on the couch, playing on the phone and my Dad would be like, “Hey, if you do this with Homer, you’ll get a free prize,” and he would keep doing this every single day while I was on my phone and he would bug me with it and be like if you don’t do it you won’t get the prize and it’s a prize you can’t buy.

I first started playing because my Dad kept talking about it and because it’s kind of my Dad’s addiction.  He’d go into a funk because he just didn’t like his town and wanted to remodel it and would be all “look at my town, I remodeled it” and I’d just be like “oh cool” and he’d just keep doing it!

During Halloween, I didn’t really play at all and maybe only got 2 or 3 of the prizes.  My Dad kept saying if you collect the goo, you’ll get more prizes.  I guess he was right.  My Dad swears he told me to get neighbors but he didn’t, just said collect goo.  I was kind of bummed not to get all the prizes because some were really Awesome Sauce.

I didn’t really play during Thanksgiving.  My Dad kept buggin me and telling me about the 3-eyed Sushi but I came in at the last minute and got it.  Couldn’t place it though as I didn’t have Squidport and was only at Level 9.  I’m still collecting turkeys because I didn’t have Moe.

For the current update or what I like to think of as Grandma’s competition, my Dad continued to taunt me about prizes I could get and then I went on his blog and got friends and now I’m done with all the Christmas stuff and have all the prizes and I feel accomplished.

Another reason I started playing is when my phone broke, I had nothing to do and I started playing the Simpsons on my Grandma’s phone and then she got tired of me being the only person doing things and started playing on my town and I asked her not to and then she got her own town so I couldn’t use her phone so I started playing on my Kindle.  My Grandma likes to brag about what level she’s on.  I don’t compete with her because I just like to play the game.  I don’t think of it like a competition, it’s just a fun game to play.

Then I kind of formed this “friendship” with all the characters and all the funny things they say and then I don’t know, I just started finding myself going on The Simpsons every day and tapping on people’s towns and now I’m just like… “Oh hey Homer!”  I just really dig the game, it’s kind of snazzy.

You know, sometimes when I get home from school I might like to talk to my Dad.  He spends way too much time on the blog sometimes stressing out.  Can I borrow him every once in a while?  P.S. I think Bunny’s really funny.

And there you have it… the thoughts of a teenage girl who taps and why it’s all my fault lol.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have my beautiful, amazing mother, giver of life and nagging, errr, I mean love.  (She knows I love her!)  Let’s see what her thoughts were on why she taps and maybe we’ll discover what Abraham Lincoln was actually like.

My son has been playing the game for quite a while.  I listened to him talk about his town all the time and had no interest in playing.  His daughter and sister talked about it too but I was not interested.  It was their thing and I was not even mildly interested. It was the Simpsons, a show I never liked when my son was young and that I rarely allowed to be on my television.  

I don’t play games on my phone.  I am not good at them and I get frustrated.  I am a cranky old lady and I don’t want to play a silly game.  I had even quit playing games (Farmville mostly) on FB because I just was not enjoying them.  However, I was surrounded by my son, my daughter and my granddaughter all playing this silly game and me being not interested.  

Fast forward to the end of last year and suddenly my home life is filled with TSTO, TSTO Addicts, and the show on my television every Sunday.  I go on vacation with my family and they HAVE to visit both parks at Universal Orlando so they can go to Springfield.  I decline and do not join them in Springfield only to have to listen to them tell me how great it was.  

My son tells me about a book that was written about the game and I buy it for him.  Then I read it because, Hey, this mom has read tons of books just because her son had to read them in school.  It’s one the things I have always done. Speaking of books, I even wrote a review of it on Amazon and then was misquoted in the print version but I digress…

An addiction leading to a vacation followed by a book leads me to when my granddaughter’s phone breaks and she bribes me with dog walking at night for an entire month if I will allow her to put the game on my phone so she can play.  A great bribe so I agree.  I get bored at work one day and decide to visit her town to help her.  No bueno.  I am told I am not to help with her town, it is hers.  

But I enjoyed the little bit I had played when I visited her town?  I decided to get a town of my own.  At first I was only playing once a day.  The Christmas event began shortly after I got my own town.  My competitive nature and OCD take over.  I just had to get all of the prizes.  I learned how to add neighbor-eenos, and I did just that.  I ask stupid questions of my family and they laugh.  Things like “will the raccoon lose his sweater when the Christmas event is over?”  Made sense to me, he won’t need a sweater in summer.  

I then discovered I needed to be at level 15 to get Moe’s and I needed Moe’s to do a bunch of the Christmas tasks and I started playing whenever I could take a few minutes, even in the car at stop lights (not good but hey the car was stopped so I figured it was safe).  I am hooked.  I had to get to level 15.  XPs were a major consideration.  I am reading TSTO Addicts, checking the walkthroughs to see who I need to keep open, what buildings I will be buying and how much they cost.  Post-it notes with this information is put on the back of my phone.  I am watching the show on Sundays and enjoying it.  The humor I found so offensive years ago is now funny. I am telling friends about the game and the blog.  I am sitting at Disneyland waiting for a show and talking about TSTO to another Disney fan and then we are becoming neighbor-eenos with each other too.  

So it’s now just about 6 weeks since I started playing and I am at Level 21, almost 22.  I am plotting how to earn more money so I can build all the buildings and get more land.  I am learning how to log in to my i-tunes account so I can buy donuts.  I am reading the TSTO Addicts blogs and using the information to determine what premium stuff I want to buy.  I am plotting how to design my town because right now it is just a mess of buildings with little organization.  I am visiting my neighbor-eenos every day so I get more money and XPs.  I am spinning that stupid wheel and finally getting all of the prizes.  I AM AN ADDICT!  

I would never have believed it could happen to me but it has.  My family may laugh at me but talking about our towns and what is happening is fun and as long as it is fun I will keep tapping.

Any clues as to who gave me the gift of rambling?  I’m sure my Mom was so caught up in typing she forgot to mention how handsome, well-spoken and funny I can be.

As for me, I’ve probably written more than any grown man should on playing TSTO.  It’s really quite simple how I got started.  I wanted to add a game to pass the time on my iPhone and the app store showed me a game about my favorite show.  How could I not start playing?  Several co-workers played too and I added neighbors.

Got one of my buddies hooked on the game and still have the text thanking me for his non-future with the ladies because of me.  Said friend discovered online how to get free donuts and the Jebediah Springfield statue leading me to finding blogs about the game.

Hooked on the blogs and seeing other tappers enjoying the game like me, TSTO was starting to be more than just a game.  After a couple months, I saw info on a TSTO community over at www.tapped-out.co.uk. and joined there while simultaneously joining a Flickr group.  From these two places I met Alissa and Bunny and the rest writes itself (unlike this post).  Why I tap?  Because I love it. The Simpsons is amazing and TSTO makes me a part of it.  I get to enjoy the piss out of a silly, little game and have met some of the Coolest. People. Ever.  Add to that sharing the experience with my family and it really doesn’t get any better.  I honestly don’t know if I could stop even if I wanted to.  That seems to me to be the very definition of addiction.

And there you have it.  3 generations of my family and why they tap.  Who knew a mobile game could become a common bond between 3 generations?

Why do you tap?  Do other members of your family join in your addiction?  I’d love to hear all about it in the comments.  Well, let’s end this meeting with the TSTO Anon Serenity Prayer:

“EA, grant me the serenity to accept the updates I cannot change, the courage to recommend the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Well, hope the read was worth it.  I had the time of my life including my wonderful family in this meeting.  TTFN… Wookiee out!

Love ya Boogs!  Love you Mama!

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