When I asked Alissa about doing another edition of “You Might Be an Addict If…” I was surprised to hear that it has been a while since one has appeared. The fact is, the game has changed a LOT since 2014, and some of the reasons we tap, as well as some of the tell-tale signs that we are truly addicted, may have changed as well.
It is one of those topics that actually appeared in the book that I wrote with good friend and fellow tapper, Ryan Kagy, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in December of 2013, when we were only at level 37, and the final chapter on updates was Thanksgiving 2013″ Man. That seems like it was years ago!!! Oh. Wait. Because it was.
The fact that I am still tapping, and blogging after all of this time (I started in October 2012), is testament to one of two things; my love of the game, or my complete addiction to it.
The following examples start with one of Ryan’s “You May Have a Tapped Out Problem If…” (we were concerned about copyright issues with Addicts), and continues with an updated version of my own, on the same topic.
You Might Have a “Tapped Out” Problem If…
By Ryan Kagy- reprinted from the book, “The Simpsons Tapped Out – Tales, Tips and Trivia”
- You think of time as existing in blocks of 4, 8 and 12 hours and when someone reminds you there are 24 hours in a day you laugh and say that’s an inferior rate of return.
- You think of your day as consisting of indoor tasks and outdoor animations.
- You can’t stop at just one…DMV limo.
- You have push alerts turned on for the game.
- You find yourself hiding iTunes gift cards around the house.
- You cut your finger and your first thought is, “How will I stop those pesky gremlins?” …Then you stop the bleeding.
- You have neighboreenos you visit more frequently than your real life friends.
- You have an “aha moment” walking through the town where you live when you realize most prisons have two layers of barbed wire fence (this is also a sign you should probably move).
- You see a picnic table in a local park and exclaim, “But they haven’t come out with those yet!”
- You try to pay for donuts by taking out a small business loan, justifying it by saying that “Lugash’s Gym” is a small business.
- You try to write off your purchase of the Springfield Museum of Natural History as a charitable donation on your taxes.
- You read more stories on “Tapped Out” blogs than national news articles.
- You can name more “toughies” than U.S. Senators.
Here is my UPDATED Version of “You Might Be a TSTO Addict If…” for 2016
You Might Be A TSTO Addict If…
- You voted for Trump because you understood the cultural importance of being able to scream, “AHA!!!! THE SIMPSONS PREDICTED THIS!!!”
- You wrote in “Lisa Simpson for President,” because she looks better in a pantsuit than Hillary.
- You were so concerned about “getting everything” during the Halloween 2016 Event, that you took your padular device with you into the voting booth on election day, and were embarrassed when you hit the wrong icon, and the “Old Jewish Man” screamed, “YOU SMELL LIKE COBBLER!“
- You go to the local “Dunkin’ Donuts” shop to use the “Free Wifi” and end up spending more money on virtual donuts than real donuts.
- You realize that you are just a little bit surprised when you see cars and trucks located on the streets of your town, and actually MOVING!
- You make a FaceBook post about the “Good Old Days” when the worst thing a kid ever did in your hometown was graffiti “El Barto” on Moe’s Bar.
- You find yourself getting REALLY MAD at EA for making it so hard to find and tap the turkey’s, snakes, and rabbits in your town, because you keep getting them confused with the NPCs you won from previous Thanksgiving, Easter and Whacking Day updates, that don’t earn you pelts!!
- You actually decide to upgrade your padular device, at a cost of several hundred dollars, because the “Freemium Game” you play on said device is getting jerky and unreliable on your current device.
- You spend waaaaaaaaaaaaay more time designing and decorating your virtual town, than you do cleaning your own kitchen or doing yard work in your own yard.
- You find yourself setting your social calendar around the TSTO Event Calendars, and are perturbed when your friends can’t understand that an Event is Three Acts of two weeks each, so meeting on the “third Wednesday of the Month” just doesn’t work for you, because that’s when most of the Major Events start and end.
- The word “Grinding” has taken on a completely new meaning for you.
- You have segmented your day into 4-hour increments, because it maximizes your return during major updates. And, when they change the cycle to 3 hours during the current Thanksgiving Mini-Event, you rationalize that you “get to tap more often, now,” and find yourself excited that you get to change the countdown timer on your phone from 4 to 3 hours, because you can change the ringtone alert from “xylophone” to something more festive.
- You find yourself getting frustrated and weary of the repetitive nature of “week two of every act in an event,” because it’s so repetitive and redundant, and relentless, and you say this while you log on for the 5th time that day…for the 5th time that week.
- You convince your significant other that the blue wig that came with the Marge Simpson costume for Halloween, adds a bit of fun to “special time” the rest of the year.
- Your “significant other” has stopped looking up when hearing the sound of Maggie’s pacifier coming from your direction.
SHARE YOUR SUGGESTIONS for “You Might Be a TSTO Addict If…” in the comments below. We LOVE to hear from you…and this is a “safe place” where you can share. The donuts and coffee are on the table…you can just use your first name if it makes you feel better.
When you set your alarm for work earlier than you need to in order to tap before you go to work because you know you wont be able to tap until 8 hours later
Xx
You might be an addict if like me you’ve already finished this mini event.
You spend waaaaaaaaaaaaay more time designing and decorating your virtual town, than you do cleaning your own kitchen or doing yard work in your own yard – LOL! Fits. me to a T.
First task of the day is to get your game caught up because otherwise you might not win ALL the prizes and buy all the items you want from Halloween 2016 or other current event.
And when you actually socialize you’re relieved when your friends FINALLY leave at 8:30 because you’ve been away from your game more than four hours!!
… you have to say “DOH!” because you sent Maggie on a 4 hour task without playing the Where’s Maggie mini game first.
When you have no shame to use your phone in the middle of a lunch or a business meeting and say “sorry but my city is full of bunnies”…
Your wife gives you that “I’m in the mood look” and you say, “Let me send 117 characters on their four hour task first.”
Uhm…Wow! Even I won’t pass up tapping for…well…er…tapping.
I suppose TSTO in that case could be called a form of digital birth control!
I don’t care who you are, that there is funny.
You might be a addict 1st for coming to this site everyday lol and reading all the comments to see if folks are having the same issues as you .
You say to yourself “it’s only my B game, it’s ok if I don’t get the last prize…..”, then get up at 4am to tap in your B game.
I would say just having an A and a B game should have been a clue we’d developed a problem….😊
Boom! Even I don’t have an A/B game!
YMBATSTOAI…
you understand all of Patric’s acronyms
Lol! A true addict !
When you can mentally add 16 hours much faster than you used too.
LOL…happy side effect to tapping! Improved math skills.
That bit about tapping snakes, rabbits and turkeys from previous events – well, I wouldn’t say really mad…
Oh my! I’m all the above….. and love it. Keep tapping tappers.
If you tell your coworkers you have a spastic colon to justify going the the head every two hours
Your glad it’s raining so you can stay in and tap.
Your angrier when the game crashes for a few hours than the cable being out.
Your sad when you don’t find Maggie.
You put more money into donuts than retirement.
If the decision of when to upgrade your device is primarily based on your device’s ability to handle the most recent TSTO update/upgrade.
You spend time on your main town tapping to get all the stuff you want then worry that the wholesome and sons publishing house just doesn’t fit where you want it to go…..at least your second town which is free I’m so that showing EA that you are no patsy and sometimes you even post pictures of this whilst waiting for your 3rd town to load……
When you lose your phone and the first thing that comes to mind is, “HOW WILL I PLAY THE EVENT??”
…..when your name is TSTO Addict 😀
Two or three of these apply to me. Many do not apply at all, and I’m not too sad about that.
You point out things outside, such as buildings, trees, etc that look like something out of your Springfield to family members. They sigh.. LOL.
You visit several TSTO sites and read all the comments in search of clues in what is coming up for the latest event and what new characters or buildings you are going to purchase regardless of price.
The pacifier didn’t bug her, but the countdown turned up to max so you know the sound was working got me smacked a lot, especially when it happened as we we were settling in for the night.
…..When you spend more time tapping than you do on breathing
……..when you’re waiting for your new 7 plus to come in and all you can think about is, “I can’t wait to see what TSTO looks like!”. Pretty freakin’ sweet, that’s what.
Lol…Busted!
Oh no! I am a addict!
Nothing to do with this article, but there is ONLY one week left to vote for our youngest addict Riley #195012 in the Gerber Photo contest!!!!
…if you have to delete more-and-more “unnecessary” apps to fit the latest TSTO update onto your 16GB iPad.
Bingo!
Patric, love your work… Regards, John
…if you want to start a real “Mayor Quim-by for President” campaign, to promote your sex-is-ok-in-politics agenda. For those unaware look up the meaning of “quim”. 😉
#7 is so spot on. I tap on an iPad and I know my eyes would be bugging out if I had to find and squish those critters on a smaller screen.
Haha! I’m past the embarrasing pacifier part. No more comments from my wife/kids.
You take a day off work and your spouse says “So you’ll be playing Simpsons all day?”
She won’t be completely right, but the most exciting parts of my day will be sending 30 characters on hourly zombie tasks EVERY hour of the day.
Hello Analogvinyl…welcome to the group…
Lol. Grinding
My boyfriend overheard me taking to a fellow tapper and he heard me say ‘in getting sick of all this grinding”. He freaked and was like “what are you doing on grinder?”. Took a while to explain.