Recently, this account turned seven years old!

I created it as a subaccount of the original @curatorcat account because I wanted a place that was more creative and didn't just revolve around posting cat photos. Not that there's anything wrong with cat photos...

Anyway, I sort of lost interest after the old "Steem Engine" 2nd layer token exchange fell by the wayside.

I would still check in here from time to time, curate a few posts, and that was about it... until I stumbled upon the @steempro.com front end, and with it the rather cool "SteemHeights" mini game.

This, in turn, made me interested in exploring some of the other growing number of games that seem to be cropping up, here in the Steemit community.

The cool thing about the SteemHeights game — along with any other game that has leaderboards and seasons — is that they tend to serve as a draw that keep people coming back to check how they are doing, and then to strive to do better.

In a sense, it is "gamification" at its most basic.

Like it or not, most of us tend to be competitive — even if only with ourselves — and we like to see our name on some kind of "list."

One of the most successful Steemit endeavors of all time was the now defunct "Engagement and Curation Leagues," participants in which — at one point — accounted for 7-8% of all activity on Steemit, with several hundred participants jockeying for position on the weekly league rankings.

It was such a cool feature of the community, but above all it drove activity!

Now I am seeing — with cautious optimism — how some of these new games are starting to get a bit of traction. And that can only be a good thing.

Sadly, it seems like @faisalamin has taken SteemPro's "Steem Heights" game on hiatus... I can only hope that it comes back to life again! In the meantime, I plan to keep exploring other game options here, including some of the "retro games."

And there you have it, for this update!

What do you think about mini games on Steemit?

=^..^=