By Margaret Wong
A snapshot count shows the current traffic to be 49182 at www.pogo.com,
a free online game site recently acquired by EA.com, the online division
of Electronic Arts. The site offers many games, such as classics like
Solitaire, Checkers, and Chess; free casino games like Blackjack and
Keno; and arcade games, trivia games, bingo, and puzzles. The incentive
for a portion of the traffic is monetary jackpots and prizes. The
puzzle game Poppit!, for example, currently has 8008 people playing
for the $1200 jackpot.
The way it works is simple. A registered player can play any game
once logged in. In Poppit!, the player tries to pop all the balloons
on the grid. Balloons can only be popped if there are more than one
of the same color in contact with each other. Bonuses can be collected
if less than X number of balloons are left and so on. The points won
can be redeemed for "tickets" to enter in the jackpot raffle.
Therefore the more points you have, the more tickets you can enter
in the drawing. These games become addictive based on their very nature
and advertisers are having a blast flashing their banners while the
players absorb them subliminally.
However the jackpots are not the only incentive for playing games
on www.pogo.com. The variety of games to choose from, the option to
chat with people you are playing with, and even a humorous gossip
and current events section provide the daily entertainment for its
audience. These functions supplement the main attraction of the site,
which are FREE games.
Games on the computer are very popular today. Though the games offered
on www.pogo.com are very basic and
cannot compare to the large-scale graphics and sounds of games like
Doom, it provides enough entertainment for the non-hardcore gamers.
Based on the popularity of games like Bridge and Bingo, the demographic
of participants probably include a large percentage of adults and
senior citizens who has the time to play games for long periods of
time. The ability of the site to provide "multi-player"
environments for participants that would otherwise be forced to play
single player games is a form of community building that proves successful.
Providing chat abilities also increase interaction among players.
It encourages interaction through the very fundamental values of enjoyment.
Overall, though only an online gaming site, www.pogo.com
provides more meaningful entertainment than through more passive media
such as television.