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You know all that stuff I say about Facebook games being entirely useless? It’s true, completely true, but greater men than me have tried, and failed, to withstand these potentially addictive wastes of time. With that bit of knowledge, I’m not entirely ashamed to say that I’ve been sucked into the grasps Packrat.

The game is addictive in the most definitive sense of the word, but don’t confuse that for it being in the least bit useful. It operates on a simple enough premise, acquire items by buying, finding and, most importantly, stealing them. One you acquire five of a kind/set, you can horde them in your vault just like a packrat.

Now these items are stolen from your friends who also have the game installed, so it does facilitate some communication between people who you already know, though it’s communicating through the act of larceny, so I’m not really sure what that’s saying.

Nevertheless, I found myself clicking mindlessly for well over two hours yesterday in an attempt to build up a cache of items and level up, so that I could get more items, which in turn enables further leveling. See? Pointless — and yet totally addictive.

I think what sets this game apart is that it’s different from the others. It’s not ground breaking or anything, but it’s definitely based on a discernible awards system that delivers positive reinforcements for clicking your time away. That’s the only plausible explanation that I’ve been able to reach (mostly because I’ve been too busy packing to think about it in any depth).

Packrat is an addiction that I soon hope to break, but for now it’s riding my back in a serious way. For now though, I have to fess up: My name is Blake and I’m a level 14 Packrat. Sigh.

Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook apps, packrat

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