Top 3 Games Sites

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” said James Howell, way back in 1659. Who are we to argue with Mr. Howell? Every entrepreneur must take time to assuage the inner self and if you want to burn an hour or so here or there, you will find many game sites on the web. This is a huge market. According to comscore.com, one out of every two Internet users in the United States visits online gaming sites! This category has grown by a factor of 10 over the past year as compared to the Internet population as a whole and this may largely be due to the quest for cheaper forms of entertainment. Here are our top three picks:

1. Pogo

Pogo garners more than 10% of the marketshare in the United States within this category. There are a variety of different games to play, some are free and some require membership. Free admission causes you to endure pop-up ads which are very intrusive and many choose to opt for the low monthly membership fee. You can generally find anything you’re looking for here including word puzzles, casino games, arcade, board games, single or multiplayer formats. Pogo has the most diverse platform and a traditional approach to online gaming.

2. RuneScape

You can escape into a virtual world here, one which has remarkable similarities to our own hectic existence. For some, this may not represent sufficient escapism but for others there is a certain satisfaction to be gained from having to work hard to defeat your enemies and battle economic and social challenges. RuneScape successfully merges the traditional fantasy challenges, “monster” interaction and other graphics within a thirst for adventure, combined with social engagement. It represents a multiplayer environment that anyone can access. People of all ages and nationalities can melt into their own surreal world.

3. Winster

A wide variety of games are offered here including slots, poker and bingo and Winster has ad-plagued free membership options as well. Their approach is to “cooperate” instead of competing with others to win prizes. You start off by targeting your goal and then play to win points until you get your prize. Winster’s pitch is that you need to interact with the other players within this social networking game format for success. Performance-wise, server-lag is a problem and gamers report that Winster is not without its share of log-offs, crashes and disruptions.

Do you bet on your own favorite game sites? What are your top three picks, let us know?

Matthew Toren