How Random Number Games Compare to Writing
I just love playing 2048!
You know, this game is where you use arrows or the mouse to cluster the numbers together to add up to 2048. Each time you push the arrow a new number tile appears in the grid. The higher up the number squares add, the fewer empty squares are available for grouping tiles together.
The game is super hard! It comes in numerous varieties though to keep drawing players in.
This is the 1–11 version I won!
They have a cupcakes version!
You’ve got to have the Tetris version also!
Oh yes, this game is so fun, alluring, and challenging! It was created in 2014 and is available on numerous internet platforms and smart apps. There are numerous versions out there to choose from(from which I’ve shown but a few). Truly, such a simple outline for a game(a series of numbers in a small square grid) takes on an unbounded complexity of its own with innumerable possibilities for development.
I can never get very far in the game, honestly. Most of them end up like this:
A “game over” before you reach the magical 2048 square or equivalent.
Other people can surely play the game and win on most occasions. It is just not my forte. Either that, or I use the game more for a chance to let my mind wander.
2048 certainly has its charms. But isn’t it true that in the world of writing(a craft that is also unboundedly complex with unlimited possibilities), there is much more room for testing, error, and discovery? There is not just an irreversible one way linear path. You can edit parts or even revise an almost-ready version. There is also not just one set number you try to reach or the game is done. Sometimes the simplest piece to start becomes a lengthy, extended piece of prose. And sometimes that attempt to craft a whole complex fiction work becomes a simple poem or short story.
As shown above, there is a Reverse 2048 version where you can start at 2048 and try to go back down to 2. But it is still a one-way linear journey with a set end point. I guess in this infinitely wondrous world of ours there are activities or domains that are like 2048 where you start out on a set, planar path that forces you in one direction towards a fixed endpoint. Archery, two-legged sack races, or preparing eggs Benedict (to name a few) are such logical, procedural activities. And then there are activities and domains like writing, painting, jazz improvisation, or pottery (again, hardly scraping the surface) that are much more open-ended and non-linear. These allow for a spiral-staircase approach to growth and development, where as you go up the rounded stairs you seem to cover the same ground and even backtrack at points. Both types of activities — the linear and non-linear, the sequenced logical and the unpredictable sporadic — are similar in that they demand discipline, full attention, and care in order for one to succeed. And of course, for both types of activities the simple attempt to start is an immeasurably rich success in itself. Whether I open a fresh page to write or launch a new 2048 game, it turns my mind in a new direction where I can direct new concentration and energy.
There are a lot of games similar to 2048(as well as innumerable variations). In fact, coding and development of such games is a whole art form and discipline in itself for which I know nothing about. And in reality, writing is a whole boundless cluster of different forms and modes of the craft. Some are more linear and direct than others, while others have that unlimited multidimensional nature. Perhaps the only juxtaposition to the game of numbered cubes on a square grid and writing in general is when writers like myself have the game(or other games) open in another browser as they strive to peck words on the page. There are certainly others out there who have probably already put the two activities side by side like I just did, and uncovered insights far beyond anything I could have unearthed myself.
