Apptitude: Steal My Booty

Welcome one and all (and at this point I think one is all) to the maiden installment of Web Scout's first regular feature, Apptitude.  I'll be doing quick takes on the best, worst and funniest new Facebook applications, and with perhaps 1,000 new apps being launched every week, we (that's us two, reader) shouldn't have much trouble finding grist for the mill.  In fact, I'd like to invite you to contribute suggestions for the most or least interesting apps, and we can be a dynamic reviewing duo!

I'll heave off this little feature with a look at Steal My Booty, a Warner Brothers app-vertisement for the Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson Valentine vehicle "Fool's Gold."

"Fool's Gold" is a romantic comedy about treasure hunting, a conceit so easy and tired that fully 38% of all stories ever told have made use of it in some way.  Likewise, "Steal My Booty" follows in the footsteps of thousands of apps before it, existing less as a game than as a computer worm, designed to functionlessly propagate itself onto as many profiles as possible.

The object of the game is to steal treasure from your friends' chests. Stealing a fistful of doubloons is not difficult -- nothing so complex as hand-eye coordination or puzzle-solving is required. All you have to do is position your mouse pointer over the desired plunder and press the button. 

Key to the game, the creators remind you, is "gaining experience points earned by inviting people to play." Translation: You win by inviting more people.  Puts one in mind of good old elementary school magazine drives, where publishers and distributors cadged door-to-door sales labor off young children by rewarding them not with wages but with Weeples.

The above image tells the story-: Play Steal My Booty for a few minutes and you're sure to find that, try as you might, you're unable to grasp the point.

-- David Sarno