Community of Million Gamers - Online Gaming Communities

Are online gaming communities the new member's clubs or will the next generation of online gamers will be lacking any social skill who cannot recognize a three dimensional object even if it falls on his head? Looking at some of today's online games shows that despite all the gloomy prophecies, virtual games create a new, bigger, world-wider form of communities based on human interaction.

One of the most ancient and common claims against online gaming was directed towards its anti social nature. Internet opponents saw online gaming as the community enemy, which causes people to prefer the solitary act of playing internet games over taking part in more traditional types of social activities such as playing sports games, visiting the local bingo hall, etc.

However, the growth and the development of online games, made this claim a little bit irrelevant. About ten years of broadband internet access proves the opposite: online gaming is a social activity by nature. From classic card, board, puzzle, and sports games to massive multi player online games (Second life, World of Warcraft, etc), online games are nothing but isolated and/or antisocial.

Let's take online backgammon for example. Backgammon, the ancient board game, was traditionally played in backgammon clubs as a one-and-one game or a tournament. Backgammon rules used to be spread around in the old fashioned viral marketing - by word of mouth.

But what would do a small town backgammon player who has no backgammon clubs nearby? Online gaming solved this dilemma. The largest online backgammon rooms host hundreds of thousands of players who can practice backgammon games against each other, chat with one another, discuss game tactics and strategy, share information, gossip and do whatever members of community do when gather together.

Another game that proves the importance of the social aspect in today's online games is Second Life. The relatively new game has become a phenomenon. Although defined as a game, Second Life had shed all traditional characteristics of a game: it has no rules, no strategy and no actual competition or goal.

Instead, Second Life players, excuse me, residents, can keep themselves occupied in various social activities including buying and selling stuff, throwing parties or being invited to ones, exhibiting art objects or visiting art exhibits and involve in other life like behaviors. At the same time they can make new friends and/or foes and experience the entire scope of human emotions towards one another.

These were only two extreme examples – the classic board game turns virtual and the embodiment of the cyberpunk authors' visions. However, online gaming communities are far richer. Online gaming communities can be based on a shared interest in a certain game or on the abstract idea of interaction. Either way, the basic need in human communication did not pass from the world with 3D web technologies.

Saul Rivers is a new media expert who covers the online gaming industry and related topics. Rivers contributes articles to various skill gaming websites including online billiard, chess and backgammon sites such as [http://www.play65.com] for example.

Kids Online Games: Get Phat!

Kids online games are games that kids can play when they are connected to the Internet using either a computer or a video console [Examples: Playstation 2, Xbox]. Kids love games, and with kids getting net-savvier by the day they have latched on big-time to online games. If you compare today's kids online games to how kids used to assemble together to play board games, you will be surprised to see how fast kids are growing and how rapidly they are maturing.

Kids Online Games: Devices And Games

Kids can play online games using – (1) A computer: In this case the games are most likely to be browser-based, simple, fun or educational type, involving sports (racing, baseball), knowledge (Hangman, Scrabble), arcades (Space Invaders, Mario), etc. Many kids cannot play massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) because there is a monthly subscription involved. However, companies such as Disney have started developing MMOGs for kids. (2) A video console: Kids really freak out on a video console. They just love video console gaming because the learning curve is easy and there are not too many buttons to push (as in PC online games).

Pros And Cons Of Kids Online Games

Online games can keep kids entertained, and apart from that, improve their knowledge too if they play educational games. In fact, the University of Victoria is developing a game called "Let's Face It" that teaches autistic kids to recognize faces. While playing MMOGs kids can learn real-world skill concepts such as commerce, barter, mining, chemistry, all of which can be useful in real life. Kids online games also teach them interactivity, and also how to talk to strangers and how to make friends.

The flipside is that if playing these games is not controlled then kids might get addicted to them and this addiction is dangerous – almost as dangerous as taking a banned substance or even as dangerous as smoking. If kids squat for a long time playing these games, they might get obese. Some browser-based games can be graphically violent and leave a deep impression on their psyche (e.g. some browser games may involve shooting a politician). While playing multiplayer games online, a kid might get in contact with a stranger who might be up to no good. Many video console games feature too much graphic violence and that is not nice for a kid at an impressionable age.

Conclusion

There is a silver lining to this dark image depending on how you look at kids online games: statistics show that 62% of the video console and 66% of the PC game market customers are over the age of 18 years. Also, stricter laws related to kids and online games are slowly being passed across the major game-playing nations. And sooner or later, the entire hullabaloo is likely to settle down.

For more information on online games uses try visiting http://www.internet-marketing-dot-com.com/onlinegames, a popular website that provides online game tips, advice and resources to include information on online gaming.

Fun Free Online Games & Social Networking

Computer and video games have become very popular. In particular the interest in playing fun free online games over the internet is increasing strongly.

Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities.

Sites like Yahoo Games and EA's Pogo.com offer users access to a wealth of advertisement supported free online games, where sponsors have options for branding opportunities, and display and banner ad placements.

Online games on the consoles could become a $10.5 billion business by 2011 from $981 million in 2007, according to market researcher IDC.

In 2007, online console revenue is at 2.5% of total global video game market revenue, including console and handheld hardware and software revenue. By 2011, revenue from connected consoles will represent 18.6% of total market revenue.

Although subscription revenue for premium online services and games will grow from $476 million in 2007 to over $2.4 billion in 2011, its share of online console revenue will decline from 48.5% in 2007 (already down from a high of 86.5% in 2006) to 23.2% by 2011.

Downloadable content (DLC) consisting of games and game-related items, which at $35 million in 2006 represented a 13.5% market share of online console revenue, will become connected consoles' primary revenue source in 2007, growing from $493 million in 2007 to $7.2 billion in 2011. In 2011, game-centric DLC will make up 68.6% of online revenue.

Advertising revenue from sponsored services, in-game ads, and product placement in connected consoles will reach $12 million in 2007, posting the first significant online console ad spend. Advertising revenue will grow to $858 million in 2011, with an 8.2% market share of online revenue.

Video game growth will be strongest in the Asia Pacific region, its largest market, with a 10% annual growth rate through 2011, but will increase in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region (10.2%), the U.S. (6.7%), Canada (9.4%), and Latin America (8.2%) as well.

Certain trends hold steady across most regions: For instance, driven by increased penetration of broadband access, online gaming is surging. In the U.S. and Europe/Middle East/Africa, online gaming represents the fastest-growing consumer segment (19.3% and 24.6%, respectively); in Asia Pacific and Canada, online growth came in second only to wireless (at 16.1% and 13.9%, respectively). Other trends are more regional. The in-game advertising market is expected to increase 64% in the U.S. And in China it is expected to rise at a compound annual rate of 14.3% to $2 billion in 2011, most all of that growth will come in online games.

Spurred by the new generation of consoles and handhelds, and by increased penetration of broadband and wireless technologies, the video game industry is ripe with opportunity. "Growth in platforms allows you to hit new demographics," says Stefanie Kane, a partner with PwC's entertainment and media practice, noting that handheld game devices have brought more women into the market, and that the entrance of cable and on-demand TV channels will further widen the base. "There is a lot of unlocked potential."

You might think the face of one of the hottest areas in gaming right now is a young male in his 20s who owns the latest supercharged gaming system from Microsoft or Sony - or both.

But you'd be wrong.

Instead, the epitome of the new-era gamer is a woman in her late 30s or early 40s who plays on an average PC.

Yes, the video game industry seems to have been turned on its head.

For years, the dominant themes have been faster game machines, increasingly realistic graphics, more immersive play, as well as the old standbys - blood, guts and blowin' stuff up.

But that picture has begun to look increasingly outdated. While young men dominate the gaming industry as a whole, casual games are one of the fastest-growing parts of the industry and attracting a whole new demographic.

You can find signs of the revolution everywhere. One of the fastest-growing parts of the game industry is centred on so-called casual fun free online games, PC-based titles that users can generally start playing in minutes and usually don't require the mastery of some combination of multiple buttons to enjoy.

The upheaval has spread to the console market, as sales of Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld, both of which stress fun-to-play games over powerful processors or realistic graphics, are far outstripping their supercharged competitors from Microsoft and Sony.

Revenue streams enabled by active online consoles in this cycle show the strongest growth in the sector and will not only determine the future success of the console vendors but also be crucial to the success of many third-party publishers.

Further information on fun free online games and business opportunities combining Online Games and Online Social Networking can be found at my blog.

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Noel I Crowe

Skype: noel.crowe1

Noel Crowe is based in Sydney Australia and has full time interests in online home based businesses which include social networking sites involving online gaming and entertainment activities in new generation 3-D spatial virtual worlds.