A few weeks ago, I was really bored and couldn’t find anything to do. I mean, yes, I could’ve written, but we all know how that goes. Anyway, I went on the Play store and searched around a bit, looking specifically for a game I could buy so I wouldn’t have to deal with microtransactions.

What I found was Lego Tower.

No, it’s not a paid game; it has microtransactions. But it is possible to do well in the game without spending any money (although it requires a lot of grinding). I downloaded it, set it up, and started to play.

And I was absorbed, to the point that over the first four days with the game I played more than 23 hours. Now, I wasn’t just playing the game — I had it running while I was watching TV (because I just had to glance at the screen every now and then to see if I had to do something), and I went to a concert which required about eight hours of driving (round-trip); I had nothing to do since I wasn’t the one driving the car. On day five, I worked from home, and I kept the game running on my screen… which was a mistake, because all I wanted to do was mindlessly squeeze dopamine out of the game instead of actually doing any work (and I did have work to do).

I tend to get absorbed in games. My last obsession was Tiny Kingdom, which I spent about 40 total hours playing, until I defeated it. It’s not a mobile game, but I spent a lot of time in front of my computer playing it.

When I don’t have a mobile game to play, I sit like a zombie in front of the TV and watch Chopped. I should be writing, I know, but I just… don’t.

I get absorbed. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.