Shameless Media Plug: San Jose Mercury News

The Merc ran a story on how smartphone games lure folks who'd never look twice at an XBox into compulsive behaviors. Author Sue McAllster and I had a pleasant conversation on the topic last weekend, and she integrated some of our chat into the article.

"These (games) are sort of brief vacations that we can carry with us," says Andrew Wood, a professor of communications studies at San Jose State. "The idea of being able to get out of your work zone or transportation zone or even family zone and dive into a highly vivid, interactive medium is a real treat."

Wood calls mobile games such as "Angry Birds," "Fruit Ninja" or "F.A.S.T." -- a jet-flying game he was hooked on for a time -- "the high-fructose corn syrup of entertainment," providing delicious pastimes without much nutritional value, so to speak.

Read the entire piece: Games on smartphones snare a new breed of player