Free Online Video Games

Types of Online Video Games

While free online games come in many genres, they all must deal with the fact that players use varying bandwidths to access the Internet and run different computer systems. For this reason, many of the free online games are card games, board games and puzzle games. It is relatively easy to develop these game types to use little bandwidth; they do not need to be graphics or audio intensive, and are not usually very taxing on processors or servers.

The variety of traditional games online may be why some people who have not played other video games have become Internet gaming fans. The familiarity of a card game such as Hearts, a word game similar to Scrabble (for example, check out Literati or WordRacer at YahooGames), or puzzle games like Bejeweled is comfortable for people of all ages and from all walks of life. Trivia games and board games are popular, too. Small arcade action style games are also popular online selections.

Finally, there are purely browser based games, where the user interacts with forms to control the outcome of the game. Often these games are less action oriented and more competitive in nature, usually with some kind of player ranking system. One example of this is Oil Fight, a multiplayer game where players compete to control the most oil, building up their army, attacking, and sabotaging other players to get the best rank.

There's Always Someone To Play With

Another advantage of playing games online is the never-ending supply of opponents. Some free online games pit players against computer A.I. (artificial intelligence) controlled players, or just against the system. However, many of the most popular games allow people to compete against other players who just happen to be interested in playing at the same time. Imagine that any time you want to play a card game, you have a willing and enthusiastic opponent.

Since players' skill levels very radically, most online game sites have ranking systems. These rate players on their wins, losses and overall skill and either allow the system to auto-match players with similar skill levels or allow players themselves to select similarly skilled opponents.

To Download Or Not To Download

Some online games require a software download before you can play; this means you are saving part of the game code or setup information to your local hard disk. Other online video games allow you to play without downloading anything; generally these games are a little smaller and are able to easily transmit everything you need in realtime over the web.

Where To Find Great Games

So, you want to play online games and you would like to play for free? Google on free online games and you will get search results in the millions. A few of the best online gaming sites include:

• Yahoo! Games
• Popcap Games
• Pogo from Electronic Arts offers free games as well as paid online gaming
• Uproar

Advances in Technology

Since people who play games over the Internet are using many different kinds of computers, running a wide variety of operating systems, online games need to be platform independent. In other words, you want to be able to play an Internet game regardless of whether you are sitting at a PC, a Mac or a Unix workstation. The recent years have brought technologies to make this possible. Many of the online games use Java Technology, developed by Sun Microsystems; Java can be run on any mainstream computer operating system. Other games use Shockwave, a gaming technology originally created by Macromedia and then spun out into its own company.