Playing Metropolis

I woke up around six but only got up around eight. I don’t know why I’m so sluggish in the mornings – I usually enjoy getting up before sunrise; at least last year I enjoyed that! And it’s not as if my cats are particularly morning-cuddlers – not at all, actually. They just lounge around by my feet looking at me to let me know ‘Get up already!’

So, I get up, I open the door – and it rained overnight. Not much, just a damp layer on the ground. That doesn’t deter any of my cats – yet they hang around me, under my feet, lounging and rolling around the floor and on the window sill.

Romeo comes in and goes straight for the food bowls. He is HUNGRY! He didn’t come in to eat at all, yesterday – far too obsessed with The Terror. Snowball also strolls in, but he’s more interested in the toys than food. Oh, he eats, but not really a lot. It’s that catnip chaser he is crazy about – he smells the catnip and wants to get at it. That toy is VERY popular with all cats – with and without catnip! The ball just goes round and round in circles, but it keeps them intrigued!

For myself, I’m currently obsessed with catching up on one of my Facebook games: Metropolis. I’m exploring cities like a maniac – but the funny thing is: I’m nowhere near top Explorer in the past 24 hours! Okay, so I explore and populate (two clicks) whereas the top explorers only explore – but still, I explore and pop maybe 2000 cities a day at the moment. Top explorer is something like thirty-odd thousand! Well, I guess they must have a better internet connection, for one thing. Anyway, I’ve collected enough favour points to be paid-up until February 2019. And I’ve brought a few more collections into the Top 100 lists. At the moment there are two very scarce collections available and I’d like to get them into the Top 100 lists as well. They have been available two, maybe three times so far (once, when they created them, plus now – I might have missed a third time, though I doubt that). They’ll be available until the end of May only.

Basically, it started out as a very simple game. You get a city (no moving graphics, though, just images – which is low on data requirements). Your city has people, who need jobs to generage income. And they should be kept happy. Over the years new buildings have been added, but the principle stays the same: some are good for income, some are good for happiness – and then there are buildings which improve your indexes (Education, Health, Crime, Fire Protection and Accommodation). You can also get people or happiness from visitors. So you want lots of people to visit your city to help it grow. You can connect with up to 1000 other cities. The connection has to be mutual – one sends a request, the other accepts (or declines). When the game first started, you could only connect with Facebook Friends – so you’d first have to send a friend request, and if they accepted, you could send a connection request. That’s where a host of my Facebook Friends come from. But now you no longer need to be friends to be connected, and a lot of us have ‘culled’ our friend lists. But people get bored with games, so every now and then you need to ‘cull’ non-active mayors … and hope you find active ones to replace them.

The minimum daily activity is a) buy buildings that keep your people happy and b) auto-pop all connected cities. And then, every now and again, buy buildings which employ your people to continue to increase your income. I usually wait for one of those special events called ‘buyers market’ when all buildings are cheaper than normal.

That auto-pop costs income, unless you have a membership. You can buy memberships with favour points – there are different types of memberships, but the better ones require a bit of real money, which I don’t spend on games. So I get the ‘Silver membership’. But for that I need 70 favour points per 30 days. Those favour points are also available in the game – free of charge.

A feature which made the game interesting again was added quite a few years ago: Souvenirs. When you go visit a city, in addition to populating or entertaining you can also explore the city. When you explore, you can either find nothing, or find people or some coins – or souvenirs. Every souvenir is part of a collection, and every time you get enough souvenirs to level up a collection, you get 5 favour points. So now you can go outside your connections (some fellow players have created lists, which anyone can access) and explore all cities for souvenirs! Your best chance is still with your connected cities – active players. The more Souvenir shops these cities have bought, the higher the chance of finding a Souvenir when visiting. So, that’s what I’m doing at the moment – going through the list (by country) exploring as many cities as I can for souvenirs, to level up my Collections and get favour points. I’m keeping 500 in stock, and whenever I reach 570, I buy another month’s membership.

Oh, of course there is more to the game, or I wouldn’t still be playing after 10 years! And I’ve met a lot of fun and interesting Facebook Friends through this game.

And a good thing, too, that I’m so obsessed with the game at the moment, or I would have lost my patience with Mewthos today! I don’t know what to do with that kitten! Last night he jumped onto the counter again – I don’t know why. I carried him to bed, but he stretched out on the floor. I went to sit with him on the floor for a while, after which he came to bed and curled up next to me. Today he is being impossible! Jumping on the table, then on the counters, on the kitchen window sill – and he’s crying, crying, crying and I don’t know what to do. He doesn’t want attention, he doesn’t want to be held, he doesn’t want food … I don’t know what he wants. So I gave him some catnip. That seems to have calmed him down a bit, since he’s now napping. Finally!

Lady Jane has also come up for their noon Siesta. So I have no choice but to quietly play online games – if I move, they will awaken!

Yup! I went to get some milk from the fridge, and everyone follows to see “What mommy doing?” It’s their favourite game!

Snowball is a strange cat. He just comes here to play with the toys and then settles down to spend the rest of the day sleeping here. He doesn’t eat much food, just the occasional nibble now and then, mostly he just naps. The Mips are not happy with this intruder, regardless how benign. He never growls or hisses at my cats, just ignores their growls and hisses. Rose suggested maybe he’s just lonely.

The workshop just called. They’ve replaced the CV joints, taken the car for a test drive and say the only thing they hear is an occasional misfire (spark plugs need replacing) and a ball bearing. Oh, and my right rear tire needs replacing. Well, let’s see how it sounds after that.

Around four, Snowball gets up, goes outside, sniffs my Alstroemeira. Sprays them and saunters off … probably home. Urgh does that stink! I’ve tried washing it off, but that seems to just have made it worse.

In anticipation of having to go to the workshop, I shut my cats inside – all three came to munch after Snowball left. But I’ve let them out again. It would cut a whole hour off their outdoor time – and I have no guarantee they will finish today. So, if they do call now, I’ll ask to collect tomorrow after rush hour. The Mips are used to being shut inside on mornings, and I so rarely go out after noon – no need to stress them unnecessarily. Mewthos gives me enough stress as it is – like when he lies on top of the wall outside my door with his splinted leg hanging outside! I am petrified of him falling off any wall with that splint! Yet I can’t shut him in, either.

Well, it’s past five and no call. So I guess they’ll call sometime tomorrow. Hopefully in the morning. If they call when the Mips are happily running outside, I’m gonna have a heck of a time trying to lure them in!

Mewthos is still being difficult. He cries for attention, but doesn’t want any when I sit down with him. Ai ai, an injured kitten is difficult! I wish I could give him pain killers – but I don’t want to experiment with exceeding the prescribed dosage. Cats are a pharmacological nightmare – they need their own medications, can’t use dog meds or any other animal’s meds. And with that unique pharmacological reaction, research is naturally limited. After all, people care more for horses and dogs than they do for cats – there’s not much commercial value in researching medication for cats. Same goes for food and toys – go look at any supermarket: you’ll find the dogs take up twice as much shelving as cats do – even though cats need more than dogs. Dogs don’t need litter or scratching surfaces or litter boxes, etc.

Well, Ziva came in none too late, so I divided up a sachet for them. Ziva still sits hopefully by my side, while I eat dinner, but she doesn’t beg nor does she put a paw out nor does she meow for food. She just sits there, upright, big eyed, watching me eat! And sometimes I give her a piece of meat or potato.

Well, let us hope today is the last day I’m stuck at home without a car. Not that I mind very much, I don’t go out much anyway – but it’s nice to have the choice!