A good way to pass time during the day or night that is addictive and fun is playing an application on an online social networking site like MySpace. For the few minutes (or hours) that you play a game, you will start feeling the competitive nature of acquiring things you desire (materialistically and financially) that come so much easier virtually that they ever are realistic. Sorority Life is such an application. On Sorority Life, you create an avatar or character that is a virtual representation of you (or ideally you) and you "attack" other users to acquire money, material things and to establish oneself. As you advance in levels, you will win a lot more attacks than you lose (but there are times that you lose because there is always someone who is "bigger and better"). Also, you join houses and "befriend" other users who in return act as your virtual support system. The more "sisters" you have, the more likely you will win attacks. And as you advance, you can do social events that will give you points to get new gear. The better your gear, the better you "intimidate" other girls. Finally, as you complete levels, you get points that you can put towards your popularity, stamina, integrity, and energy. These aspects help win attacks and do the social events. These events require a certain amount of the aspects named to complete. The thing with increasing your house is, when you want to add another user/ "sister" to your house, you have to add them to your friend list on your MySpace which you may not want to do (especially if you are the type of person who only wants to add people you know). Another flaw in the application involves acquiring points. There is an easier way to get points that don't involve attacking other users (which is essentially the point of the game). A user can complete surveys and complete offers that will award them points if completed. But these offers are risky, such that they tend to ask for a lot of personal information (name, address, phone number) in order to "sell" something and possibly be a source of spam.
The application itself is addictive, mainly because you always want to increase your money and your points. But dont forget to write that essay you need to turn in soon. The money and points allow for the acquisition of materials that in turn make you a stronger competitor. Some users do get too attached to the game and will leave insulting, angry comments for other users after being attacked and "robbed" of money and points. In cases like this, one can opt to block a user, making sure there is no further contact with that person. But overall, Sorority Life is quite fun, once one gets the hang of it. Is it easily outgrown? That depends on the user and whether or not they get all the satisfaction they are going to get out of the game.
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