Adam Howell dot org

Turn-based games for the win

For years people have been saying that casual games would be the future of gaming online. They said both men and women would flock to Flash games on sites like PopCap and Kongregate and developers would soon be rolling in the cash. These sites and developers seem to be doing fine, but I have a few problems with casual games:

• Seriously, I can only play so many 3-way connector puzzles and tower defense games
• I don’t really have time to sit down for even 10-15 minutes straight to play something — I’ve got a couple minutes tops
• I hate playing against the computer — gaming today is a lot about interacting with friends and family, not scoring points and finishing levels

That’s why lately I’ve been playing at Weewar and ItsYourTurn. I think these games — turn-based games that update you via email that it’s your turn — are the real future of casual gaming:

• Each game can take days to finish, but each turn only takes a couple minutes at the most — perfect for when you need to take a quick break from whatever you’re doing
• You’re playing with a real person so you can always expect the unexpected, plus chat with them, badger them, etc.
• You get updates when it’s your turn — via email and potentially RSS, SMS, Twitter, etc. — so you usually have something waiting for you in your inbox that you actually want to open
• Completely browser based, no need for plugins, etc. — some might miss the sounds, music and fancy animations, but personally I would rather play Weewar than something like Diner Dash any day of the week (even though Diner Dash is a lot more popular than Weewar — the biggest weakness of Weewar is it’s slanted heavily male)
• There’s a networking and competition aspect that regular Flash games almost never have — weekly tournaments, competitions, leaderboards, chatrooms, etc.

Plus you can play them on your iPhone. I don’t know, maybe I’m in the minority, but I love these types of online games and hope to see more of them soon.

Tags: casual-gaming, itsyourturn, turn-based games, weewar