The main reason I never played Flappy Bird until 7:00pm on February 8, 2014 is because I don’t like to get frustrated. It’s annoying. It’s unpleasant. I am so competitive, that I would rather not compete.
While laying on my couch after a slow-paced Saturday, my roommate threw his phone at me. On it, was the Flappy Bird start screen.
“You need to play this.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
I started playing, not even voluntarily. The first few rounds were about what I expected. My eyes began to widen as my frustration grew unexpectedly from the now infamous game mechanics that were erupting a global uproar.
16.
That was the score I had to beat if I was to surpass my roommate’s high score before the game would be taken down. (I did not realize that you could still play the game even after the creator took it off the App store the next day).
20 minutes passed.
My roommate was once a child prodigy with the piano. He was playing professional symphonies when he was 6 years old, competing with some of the best pianists in the world until he was 15. I knew this, but I didn’t know this at the same time.
As I continued my frustrated assault on this torture of a game, sound effects on, my roommate wandered to the piano in our living room. He began to play notes that coincided flawlessly with hums and down beats of the game I was fixated on.
It slowly built to a majestic chorus, and something almost mystical awakened within me as the music guided my ability to guide the large-lipped creature. An unmistakable rhythm began to overtake my movements. It was as if the music was really playing, and I was merely the instrument.
I had 42 points by the time my roommate completed his impromptu composition.
Being good at something that someone else is terrible at makes us feel great about ourselves. It could be the most mundane, reverse-prosperous achievement there is, but it’s still something that will evoke superiority from our delicate egos.
For my roommate, he’s probably the greatest composer of Flappy Bird Symphonies in the world. I happen to be decent at tossing a bird around virtual pipes. Between the two of us, I’m probably the most egoistic about this achievement, while he couldn’t bring himself to care less.
I learned nothing from this experience, but I am sharing it to let you know that the only real difference between our generation and anyone else’s is that we get a little too excited about the things in life that are terrible. Meanwhile, other people are producing unnoticed works of art.
As it stands, my high score on this devilish game is 117. I don’t know exactly why, but I do know how: The Flappy Bird Symphony.
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I didn’t even know it was going to be taken down. I’ve been hearing everyone talking about it and I tend to avoid the flow, so I put it off. Last night I said, “FINE! I’ll check it out”. I couldn’t find it in the Google Play Store, so I figured either I misspelled it or it wasn’t on Android. Then I woke up and saw you had posted (I was actually starting to worry because it’d been a few days), and when I saw the title of the post I decided to look it up on Google. That’s when I learned the truth.
My point is, of course, that I always miss out on everything!!
Well, I did see that someone is selling their phone on eBay with the game installed for
$99,000. So if you’re rich, you may be in luck. Otherwise, you may have to wait until a knockoff or flash version comes along! Or, you know, live a more fulfilling life than the rest of us.
LOL! In a way, I’m kind of glad I never played it. All my friends who played it either called it the biggest waste of time ever, or instantly became addicted and posts about it nonstop. I feel I dodged a bullet with that one.
My sister is pure evil. Just saying…
Wow yea, as soon as I heard of it, it was down.
But a recommendation, search ‘First person Flappy Bird’ it is harder (obviously) and surprisingly considering it was made fairly quickly it has better graphics than the other rip-offs.
Makes me think of the one episode of Chuck where the key to beating a game of Missile Command lay in a song by Rush.
That thing about unnoticed works of art…I’ve long been bemoaning the fact that the greatest artists in the film industry, the people who compose the scores, are relegated to the credits while the audience is just pushing to be first out the door. (The wife and I make a point of it to remain seated through the credits, even when we rent a dvd.) But it definitely happens on a smaller scale as well, as with your roommate.
I do love that episode (and that entire series). The idea of math and music flowing together has always interested me, especially in the world of marketing and commercials.
I watch movies while I cook, and I find myself listening to the music from the credits while I wash dishes. It truly is a habit that more people should fall in love with (appreciating the credits, I mean).
Agreed!! I have an album saved as a playlist on Spotify called “Alfred Hitchcock and His Music”. One of the tracks is Bernard Herrmann talking about composers in the film industry being looked down upon, but he says that even Mozart and Bach did “smaller” pieces at weddings and plays, and that in the modern era, scoring films is the same thing. I’ve been listening to Hans Zimmer lately on Spotify. He did the soundtracks to Man of Steel, Sherlock Holmes (the Downy Jr. one), The Simpsons Movie, Pirates, Da Vinci Code, The Ring, among other major movies. But none of my friends even know who he is. They can name who directed, produced, and starred in those movies, but they don’t even think about the score. Heck, most of them didn’t even know who John Williams is! (Star Wars, Close Encounters, E. T., Indiana Jones, Harry freakin’ Potter!!). It’s really sad.
Every time that stupid bird dies, I’m just wondering how it can touch the pipes as it’s falling but not when it’s flying.
the thing you said about competition being reverse prosperous is false because we wouldn’t be here today without it hunting would be impossible because nobody wanted to be better
the successful chimes of passing each pipe actually mimics the warning chime that sounds on my fridge when someone leaves the door open…My Daughter was playing in her room (before I was ever exposed to Flappy Birds) and my son got up and went to the kitchen…he was baffled that both doors to the fridge were closed. It was several days later when my Daughter wanted us to try the game that we realized what had happened. In the same manner we questioned who was playing ‘Birds while my Wife was cleaning out the fridge!
*egotistic not “egoistic”
Flappy Bird is like a drug. It feeds the part of our brain that has to do with addiction , not pleasure. Addiction to me is doing something over and over that you know is bad for you. I play because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I play. It’s a vicious cycle of flappiness.
Don’t you mean unflappiness?
Wow. I’d love to hear this “arrangement.” :]
Playing the game to achieve a high score does not make one anything better. It’s mainly a waste of time. I mean like after getting the highest score among your friends, the best you gain is bragging rights to it.