Candy Crushed

If you’ve never played the online game Candy Crush, you might only know it from the requests to play that clutter up social media. That, by the way, is a problem with your privacy settings on Facebook. If you’re getting anything you don’t want on your page, it’s your fault. You can prevent it. But people would rather complain. And I digress. 

Candy Crush is as addictive as, well, candy. I’ve played for a couple of years, on and off, and have never once sent out a play request to anybody. I play in secret. It’s my guilty pleasure. It’s also my guilty irritation. I once accidentally clicked something I shouldn’t have and deleted the app on my phone. Usually when that happens, you go to the app store, download the app again and you’re right back where you started. Not with Candy Crush. I had to redo all of the levels to get to where I left off. Currently, I’m stuck on level 91 and have been there for weeks. I swear there aren’t enough moves to allow me to complete it.

This is how they get you. For a dollar here and two dollars there, you can buy extra moves and booster candies that will “crush” what’s in your way. But I refuse to give them a cent. So I get stuck a lot, playing only for free.

Imagine my delight when I read last week that the company behind Candy Crush is making less money these days. The Swedish firm’s shares dropped 8.6% and revenues fell from $516-million to $460-million. The game is only three years old and it’s already losing momentum. It’s gone from a must-have to a meh. Also falling out of favour with gamers: Farmville. That’s one I’ve never played although I used to get Facebook requests for things like livestock and crops until I blocked them.

People who don’t play these games can get very judgy about those who do. Just because a person has a little fun blowing up pieces of candy, doesn’t mean they can’t be a fully functioning adult in other areas of their life. I spend a maximum of about 15 minutes a day playing games: Trivia Crack, Word With Friends, Draw Something and Candy Crush. And if I don’t get past level 91 soon, I may join the others who have been quitting Candy altogether.