CANDY CRUSH- ARE YOU AN ADDICT?

The rules of Candy Crush are indeed very simple. Players have to move a variety of brightly coloured sweets around a grid and line up at least three of the same sweet in a row. Every time a row is completed, the line explodes, making way for more candies to drop in. With more than 400 different stages, each more difficult than the last, and more being added all the time, players never run out of challenges.

When I first started playing Candy Crush, which was because friends and family around me were going crazy about this new game that they said was addictive and challenging, so, I had to see what the fuss was all about. I finally downloaded the game and began to play. But, until the first few levels I had still not understood what the hype was all about because I had yet to figure out the different combinations that are made using the striped candy, the toffee and the colour bombs. That, for me is the most addictive factor, but for some people the sound in the game is very addictive. Apart from that, advancing through the levels doesn’t only give one a feeling of being successful but also gives a sense of  achievement. Like any other addiction, completing levels gives you an uplifting feeling whereas, being stuck at a level brings you down.

Studies show that women aged between 25-55 are the main buyers of the game. They don’t only purchase the game but also buy lives, extra moves and boosters regularly. The difference between people playing in Pakistan and people abroad is that we find other cost-free methods to get away with a game such as candy crush or even buying a song off iTunes. People here, including myself, would not pay to buy extra lives, I either wait for the 5 lives to come back, or ask a friend to send me a life or if I really want to play I would change my phone’s time to get the lives then. The creator of candy crush receives at least $400,000 per day.

Now an interesting fact about candy crush. In the UK, they have started a candy crush rehab program due to the increasing number of calls they were receiving on being worried about a family member or friend. The symptoms of this addiction are playing for 4-5 hours a day, not socializing with others around, not being able to concentrate on anything else, etc.

It’s a great game, but too much of anything is bad for you, so play but be careful! 

Raina
Lahore School of Economics

Aeromodeling Culture in Pakistan

Aeromodeling is basically the flying of radio controlled airplanes and Helicopters. All over the world aeromodeling is considers a very good hobby as well as a sport. Since my childhood I have also been fascinated by anything that either went really fast or could defy the laws of Gravity. One of the reasons for this could be that most of my childhood was spent on aeromodeling Airfields & my house was like a minute away from the airport. My father  was one of the few people in Pakistan who had taken up this hobby and was always very involved in this in the 90’s. As the times progressed the engines of these remote controlled planes kept getting bigger and bigger. The fuel used for this is a special mix of methanol and another type of oil( commonly known as mitti ka tail). As the engines became bigger so did the planes, some of the planes were scale models of actual planes which were either used for commercial, Aerobatics, Military fighter purposes.

The newest craze in the market is the turbine propelled planes which have the capability to exceed speed of 450 kmph. This thrill has its own price tag, these planes are equipped with a miniature turbine, airbrakes , all all the things you will find on a real aeroplane.The price of one of these turbine planes ranges from 600,000-1,000,000 Pak rupees.

In the start of the new millennium there was a new trend in the market these planes were now being evolved people started to make their planes and paid attention to detail like never before and aeromodeling started to gain awareness and more and more people took up this hobby. This brought a revolution in Pakistan and rc-controlled things started to gain popularity.People started to invest in this hobby from a business point of view and started opening hobby centres for the people who were interested in buying these kinds of things. The

Names of a couple of these hobby centers in Lahore are Hobby Lobby (which is at center point Lahore), Aero Hobby (Lahore),  Xtreme Machines (Lahore), etc.

This culture was promoted by the creation of different  Remote control clubs in the country. The names of some of these clubs are IFC (Islamabad flying club), Maal (Lahore) , RFC( Rawalpindi flying club), MAC (Multan Aeromodeling Club), Bahria town Flying club (BFC) etc.

Other than these some universities also promote this sport for e.g there a DBFC( design, build, fly contest in Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIKI) which promote speople to come and design and build and then display their flying  talent at the university.

This is an ongoing process and Paksitan like many other countries is also becoming a part of the few countries in the world where aeromodeling is practiced at a large scale. Some events  were also held at national  level where individual as well as club representation was welcomed. These tournaments were divided into different categories according to the aircrafts and the skill levels of the pilots.

Posted by

Ahmed Rafeh Nasir ,

Lahore School Of Economics