A raft of new online games are emerging, allowing you to play straight from your browser.
The quality generally remains weak — because of limits on interactivity posed by your broadband connection.
King.com, a European company with $43 million in financial backing from Apax and individuals, has just released one of the more expensively developed games so far: American Idol. It cost more than $250,000 to make (not much compared to full-fledged download games like WoW; remember, we’re talking pure Web-based games)
King has an exclusive commercial relationship with Fremantle Media, the producers of American Idol.
We reviewed the game early last week, and we weren’t that impressed — though this may say something about 1) our expectation that the quality of the latest online games would be better, or 2) own taste of games, or 3) our own dreadful performance at playing the game, or 4) finally, gender; 75 percent of King.com’s users are women. King.com targeted the game at women aged 25 and up, and we note some women find the game quite fun. Significantly, older women have become a target for similar games. It helps if there is some interactivity built in. King.com lets you play against others. It also gives you a profile page, where you can share gifits.
With King.com’s American Idol, you get to select an avatar, and then you click on your arrow keys to match the keys coming across your screen (sort of like Dance Dance Revolution). If you don’t do well, your avatar starts singing badly and the audience starts booing (happened to us). If you do well, the avatar starts to look better, and sing better. The prize is two tickets to the American Idol finale and a share of a $30,000 jackpot. King.com licensed real songs, such as “I heard it through the grapevine.” The basic version is free.
King.com was funded in 2004, back when online companies were having a hard time. It has since grown to 50-plus employees, from eight three years ago, says Toby Rowland, the co-founder of King.com.
Meanwhile, Winster, started by Jerry Kaplan, former chief executive of Egghead, is offering games oriented toward older woman, giving them ways to play very simple games, and socialize at the same time — but letting them work toward winning prizes, such as movie ticket, for example, after they earn enough game points. (We tried out Winster’s games a couple of weeks ago, and again, nothing about the experience to write home about).
We should mention ClubPenguin.com, a flash-based game, with millions of kids aged 6-11 hopelessly addicted. This game is a huge success, bootstrapped by its founders (see screenshot below). We tried it out, and loved it! (Thanks Susan Wu, for the tip).
Here are some other games:
www.wildtangent.com
www.bigfishgames.com
www.pogo.com
20 Comments
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Jeffrey McManus said:
I have a hard time buying the concept that bandwidth is the barrier to adoption of these kinds of games — there are plenty of them around. Puzzle Pirates is a good example.
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John Welch said:
I read this to mean limitations posed by what can be done in a web browser using commonly available plugins like Flash. At PlayFirst (www.playfirst.com) we provide free web playable demo versions of our heavier-weight download games. They are much higher quality than the examples above, but most require installation of an ActiveX control and then a meg or so download for the game content. Flash is great, but the games you can make with it are limited. C++ is a far more powerful platform, but the (web-based) user experience isn’t optimal. Puzzle Pirates was developed in Java, which comes with its own set of challenges around file size and user experience.
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gamerNM said:
There are also Pogo games on http://www.iVillage.com. You should check it out.
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Alyssa said:
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laney said:
i like amaracan idol
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Flash Games Dude said:
Alyssa said….
“fgmnj hsml;hjlsjklhmjklhnl”
Whats the heck does that mean? lol
I think bandwidth is not the sole limitation… but it is a factor.
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Daniel said:
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Online games, your cup of tea? American Idol, ClubPenguin and more, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
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bam bam said:
hi
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Hope said:
i luved the american idol game
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Hikari said:
I cant find american idol in king.com
it seems banished xD where is it???????? -
Diane Bushem said:
Thanks for your helpful review on the american idol game. I’m a big idol fan, so hopefully they’ll improve it a bit. Thanks again.
Diane
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samantha said:
YOU R ALL WIERDOS!! oops did i just say that? My bad. (No Offense)0:):p :o
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AGGELOS said:
SKATE 4 EVER
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Pinkey2we said:
everyone please go to http://www.luhy.wordpress.com its amazing!
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Free Online MMORPG Games said:
I can’t see how Idol could be a game. Penguin is OK. Hello Kitty looks pretty good and there are heaps of free online games nowdays.
Good Free RPG Games -
lillian said:
I love American Idol it’s one of my favoite show in the world tell me about it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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denisha said:
YOUR STUPID I HATE AMERICAN IDOL
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denisha said:
THE JUDJES SUCK THERE STUPID I HATE THEM THEY SHOULD BE NEW JUDJES FOR AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!!! SHOUT OUT FFFFUUUUCCCCK YOU
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cup said:
Nice article there. I find it very useful that you have mentioned so many developers of somehow different games than mainstream gaming.
Thanks for the comprehensive info.
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Dan said:
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