Tag: Game

My Favourite Games

By Sandeept

On July 21, 2025

In Game, Blogging, Gaming

This post is a response to the WordPress Daily Prompt on July 19, 2025:

What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?

Although the prompt expects a single favorite game, I will list out my favourite games from all three categories.

In this post…

Favorite Card Games

I don’t play physical card games, but I used to play card games on computer. Windows came with different Among them my favourite were Hearts, Spider Solitaire, and Solitaire

1. Hearts

I enjoyed Hearts a lot although I don’t know how to explain it. Here is a gameplay found on YouTube.

2. Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire was probably the first game I play on my PC. The goal is to arrange all the cards into clubs, aces, diamonds, and hearts. It’s a simple game that does not demand much thinking. Here is a gameplay video:

3. Solitaire

Solitaire has the same principle as the Spider Solitaire, but it is tougher and more luck-dependent. Here is a gameplay video:

Favorite Board Games

1. Carrom

Carrom is one of the most popular board games in Nepal and India. My parents had bought me a board when I was seven and I used to play all day long with my sister, during my holiday (sometimes even alone). I was so passionate about the game that I had to win every match. When I didn’t, I often threw tantrums. I still have the board and discs at home although I have not played in a long time. I didn’t know there are international carrom tournaments and leagues.

2. Ludo

Ludo is another household name in the subcontinent. Based on both luck and tactics, ludo is a game that can be enjoyed by everyone. Online ludo apps are also highly popular.

3. Snakes and Ladders

It often comes as a companion to ludo and can be played with the same dice and pieces. The 10 × 10 board numbered from 1 at the bottom left to 100 at the top left with snakes that slide the pieces down and ladders that take them up add thrill to the game. Like ludo, it can be enjoyed by everyone.

4. Chess

Also called the Royal Game, chess is one of the oldest and popular board games. Despite catering to niche audience, its international tournaments are prestigious. As a rule-based strategic battle game, it attracts many sharp-minded people. Although I enjoy chess, I am not good at it. When I was young, I used to hear about the feats of Garry Kasparov and Vishwanath Anand. At present, Magnus Carlsen rules the game.

Chess is also one of the widely produced computer games with artificial intelligent bots playing and solving the game. Stockfish is the best bot till now, and it exceeds the capabilities of even the grandmasters including Carlsen.

Favorite Video Games

1. GTA Vice City

In 2006, a brother in my neighbourhood introduced this game to me, and I became almost addicted to it. I still play it sometimes. Although I have never completed the game, exploring its world is fun. It can also feel violent at times, so I often find myself taking long breaks before returning to playing it.

2. FIFA 15

This football game is one of my favourites of all time. The gameplay can be clunky, but I absolutely love the soundtrack it has. I often play it when I want my mind to relax a bit.

3. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

I got this game for free on EA Origin and loved it the instant I started playing. It begins with the training of a new recruit and end with the Omaha Beach Attack during D-Day. Although the storyline is linear and there are only a limited number of missions, I loved the gameplay and the range of missions for the year it was created (2004).

4. PUBG Mobile

In 2018, PUBG was so hyped that me and my friends all started playing it. For a mobile game, we found it smoother than many PC and other mobile games. The decreasing playing area also added to the thrill. I don’t play it now, but it influenced me so much that I read the Battle Royale book and watched its movie adaptation.

PUBG Ban: An Analysis

By Sandeept

On April 16, 2019

In Blogging, Family, Gaming, Nepal

It’s been about a week since the Government of Nepal imposed a ban on the First Person Shooting Battle Royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (popular as PUBG). The reasons cited were:

The game is addictive.

It is violent.

It affected the grade of students.

It lowered creativity.

The number of complaints that parents and teachers registered was the trigger behind the restriction.

Some reactions that I saw are:

“Excellent! Such violent games should be banned.”

“Good! Our children will focus on studies now.”

“The government encroached our freedom!”

“I had not played once before the ban!”

“As long as VPN is available, no worries!

Now, let me analyse the cause and effect.

#1 The game

As it is an FPS survival game, PUBG is inherently violent. However, this is not the first violent game. In fact, I have seen that most popular video games are violent. And they have been around us in silence for decades.

So, what exposed PUBG? I believe it’s the interactive mode. It can be played solo, or as a squad of two or four. In most cases, you need to move together. Communication is important. The words “kill”, “help”, “fight”, “guns”, “bombs”, and so on are going to attract the people around you. If you are a teenager and if your parents hear this, they might believe you are involved in something unpleasant or that the game is promoting violence.

Another problem the game has is that it is for teens. However, the nature of the game and online interaction be difficult even for adults. There is high chance of cyber bullying and it may be disturbing for some. But teens (and even pre-teens) play mature games (which have not been banned) all the time.

#2 Parents and Children

I see problem in our parenting. At the age of two, when a child does not want to eat food, they are shown YouTube videos. Soon they get addicted. By the age of three, the child starts scrolling the “smartphones”. When they reach four, they become aggressive when they don’t get the phones. They also start playing games and get furious when the parents don’t want them to play.

Though most teenagers today have not come through the path, they are naturally curious and are also dependent on peers in making decision. If someone says, this game is nice, they decide it is nice. As these teenagers also have access to smartphones (parents buy phones for them to meet their obstinate demands), they soon get addicted. Notion is that a child should stay at home. If a child does not go out, all is well! However, parents seldom take care of what their children do at home with phones and computers at their hands.

Parents themselves are also ignorant of the effects of social media and long hours of gaming on their children. So, they don’t talk with their children. They try to impose a restriction without proper reasoning. That’s counterproductive as restriction evokes curiosity.

#3 Government and the limitation of restriction

The government did what parents wanted and imposed a ban on the game. They recognized the problem but without understanding the limitation of the restriction.

As said earlier, there are numerous interactive, survival, strategy games available on and off the internet. Internet is the modern Hydra. You cut a head, another takes its place. Today PUBG created problem, tomorrow some other game will. How many games will government shut down?

Not just games, social media could also be behind poor performances and violent inclinations. Will the government ban social media? If there is enough complaints, there is a possibility that they will be banned.

Until then, let me enjoy my freedom!

Why I love ‘Temple Run’

By Sandeept

On January 26, 2016

In Blogging, Words

Almost everyone who has Android phone must have been acquainted with Temple Run. I do not intend to describe the features of the game (it’s there on Google Play Store and several other websites) but compare it with life.

Life? Does Temple Run have anything related to life? Yes, it has. And I realised it as I was “running” a character on the screen one day. Yep, I was looking at him and (SLAM!) he hit a tree. This was the moment I correlated the game with life for the first time. No matter how much, how fast one runs, death is inevitable. You DIE ultimately!

I, then winded my mind back where the game had started. The race starts as an idol (which is both a blessing and curse) is taken from a “temple”. “Take the idol if you dare,” the game challenges. One can not control their ego and begins the race immediately.

As already said, the idol has a blessing as well as a curse with it. As soon as one takes it, three(?) monkeys start chasing the character. In the sequel, Temple Run 2, one ursine monkey(?) chases. There are perks, however. The more you run and at a faster pace, points and gold increase. But whatever amount you gain, death will come up.

Let’s compare this with life now. The race of life begins once one becomes conscious of lives around them. One starts learning things, then they are sent to schools, colleges, universities and then the race for job begins. There are perks during the race- money, family, friends. But there are also troubles. One might even have to confront enemies. Ultimately one dies.

One thing about the game makes it different from life- “Run Again”. Even after a number of lives, I can make the character “run”, and resurrect. Resurrection and Reincarnation have been described in the Geeta, I am not sure when it will happen. In the game, I can opt for it in no time. This is why I love Temple Run.