Dartmouth College requires every student to have a computer. Computers are very useful tools. With computers students can look up the average yearly rainfall in Uzbekistan, research golden retriever breeders in the northeast or find pretty much anything else they might desire. At Dartmouth, computers also come equiped with handy tools like word processing and BlitzMail.
However, what do most students use their state-of-the-art iMacs for? Snood. This highly addictive computer game consistiently grabs the attention of Dartmouth neophytes.
A pair of '02 females who wished to remain anonymous revealed that freshman year, they created a list of the top 10 indications that someone played too much Snood.
One of the signs was that the player sang along with the music. According to one of the students, the number one telltale sign that someone was playing too much snood was that he or she owned a registered copy of the game, which is easily downloaded from the Snood website.
Why is snood so addictive? First of all, it's deceptively simple. Players are presented with a screen with multicolored evil heads that must be obliterated by connecting three or more of the same color. It is so easy, that it can be played while doing multiple other things. Another '02 female who wished to remain anonymous said she always plays Snood while she talks on the phone, which is how she explains the over 10296 games of Snood she's played.
Also, it is such a short game, players can easily say, "Just one more game, it'll only take a minute." Despite the 'Just one more game' feature, which quits the Snood program after your game, many still say they often re-open their snood to continue playing.
A third reason for the Snood addiction are the multiple games you can play on Snood.
For beginners, there are the five regular levels, Child, Easy, Medium, Hard and Evil. Then, once you've beaten all of those, there is Journey, which takes you through all five levels in one game.
If players get bored of Journey, there's always Puzzle, which consists of 50 different screens or "levels" that you go through one at a time. Beating Puzzle is a major feat, requiring hours and hours of time and patience -- or active use of the "save game" feature.
After beating Puzzle, there are very few mysteries left in Snood, leaving addicts with only two options. First, snood-heads can leave their computers and go outside, spend time with friends, read books, or even do some work. The other, much more realistic option is switching over to the Evil Bunny game.
