Free rice is another of those charitable websites, where your jumping through hoops is rewarded by a tiny donation to a good cause. Usually this involves pushing buttons, but the people behind this site have been smart enough to make a proper game out of it. You’re asking to guess the meaning of an uncommon word and if you guess right, you get to donate ten whole grains of rice to the UN! The longer you get it right, the harder it gets of course. It’s a very addictive game to those of us who are fond of words and vocabulary anyway, playing on the innate geeky loving of learning and competitiveness.
Nevertheless, it still reminds me of China Miéville’s short story “An End to Hunger” with its sarcastic putdown of such sites. If the people behind it are so concerned with ending world hunger, surely there are more effective ways of doing so? Because this way, it’s only a p.r. gimmick, a way for the companies sponsoring the site and the people playing the game both to parade their own goodness.
Does that mean you shouldn’t play their game? Not as long as you know it is a game, a put-on.