The Top 10's: July 2010

1. Halo

Obsession with this galactic first-person shooter is a serious condition amongst the young people of the United States. While at first the game brought people together in groups to play against one another, it has ultimately forged a society of predominately young males (along with games like Medal of Honor or Call of Duty) who live behind a flat screen television and communicate to other gamers via a headset.

2. Call of Duty

Call of Duty, is a first-person “shooter” (a game in which the gun and the hands are the only visible parts of your character) Xbox game depicting the lives (and deaths) of American and British special forces soldiers as they combat a worldwide network of terrorist regimes who threaten to overthrow the United States of America and its allies.

3. Starcraft

Starcraft is the bane of the online strategy gaming world. It is strikingly similar to Warcraft. The setting of the Starcraft strategy game is composed of an unrealistic intergalactic array of atmospheres and space stations set up specifically for unique battle strategy implementation. Players war against one another online by building armies in real time, massing attacking, and choosing a “race” of species that best fits their fighting style and personality.

4. World of Warcraft

The World of Warcraft series, aptly named because of its capability to totally immerse gamers into an alternative reality, has shot down countless young men who would have otherwise been experiencing the thrilling heights of their late-teens and early-20s sexual prime.

5. Magic, The Gathering

It’s Friday night and just down the street at the local gamer store a crew of men and women (mostly men) between the ages of 12 and 65 are assembled at ping pong tables which have been covered by animated playing cards depicting fantastic fictional characters and beasts. The men slap the cards on the table, talk, jeer, laugh, and occasionally raise their voices at one another.

6. Curling

Curling did not become widely popular until recent decades. While it is not typical of the games on this list, it has made the countdown on the basis of its absurdly arranged rule system and abnormal appearance. Players in half-slick-half-sticky shoes converge on an ice rink to push giant metallic discs toward a two-dimensional bulls eye painted at the far end of the ice.

7. Texas Hold ‘Em

If you’re between the ages of 11 and 110, odds are you’ve heard of, or participated in, a game of poker. Odds are that the game was 5-Card Draw or 7-Card Stud. However, if you’ve played at a contemporary poker table in the US within the past 15 years, the chances that you’ve participated in a game of Texas hold ‘em are also extremely high.

8. Beer Pong

We have seen the tables in the hallways of frat houses nationwide. We have seen the beer-stained floors and the smashed Dixie cups. We have heard the urban legends about oral herpes and AIDS being spread from cracked lips or cut fingers pulling ping pong balls out of cups of beer. The game of beer pong is a somewhat underground symbol of the lifestyle of college students, the freedom to enjoy their selves in a garage or behind closed doors; beer pong is a monument to the young person’s ability to maintain athletic prowess even amidst the heavy consumption of alcohol.

9. Pogs

It was Easter in the early 90s and the White House was, as usual, hosting their annual Easter Egg Roll. The theme that year (the idea that the nation’s marketing experts assumed could turn the largest profit) was Pogs. Pogs are small, cardboard discs, which probably cost nothing to make. Children across the nation have become enamored by the game, which involves stacking the discs an inch high and smashing the stack with a larger Pog (made of plastic, more expensive) which will then cause the stack of cardboard Pogs to flip. Depending on how the Pogs flip, one person will win and the other will lose. The winner will take the Pogs on, say, heads, and the loser will take the Pogs on tails.

10. Chess

Should you laugh when someone tells you that they are the President of the Chess Club? Probably not to their face. The truth is that the obsession with chess, as with many other games, is not always a bad thing. Chess has been linked in several studies to improve mental health and sharpness in individuals who play it and learn it on a healthy and active level.

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