2004 Web and Downloadable Games White Paper 

IGDA Online Games SIG 

suite, created a stir. It was one of the first suite of light games to capture the both the casual gamer and 

the female gamer in this region. Nexon originally designed it to appeal to the girlfriends of male hardcore 

gamers in public game rooms. Then in 2002, Nexon 

s 

Crazy Arcade

 (http://www.crazyarcade.com) was 

released and during peak periods, 300,000 simultaneous players were logged into its flagship game, 

BnB, an eight player descendant of 

Bomberman

.  

E. 

Types of Games 

Web based and downloadable games are easily grouped into genres around the most basic motivations 

to play. 

1. 

Action/Arcade 

Action games are fast paced and require constant attention, coordination, and quick reflexes. They 

tend to require less strategic thinking than other types of genres. These games are also called arcade 

games since such fast paced action games monopolize video game arcades; indeed, many are 

derivatives of classic arcade games. Reflexive Entertainment's 

Rebound

 or 

Richochet Xtreme

(http://www.reflexive.net/RicochetIndex.htm), which is a Breakout style game, was a top selling action 

game in 2003. Based on player numbers at the various sites, Online Pool is arguably still one of the 

most popular casual free online games on the Internet. 

2. 

Board/Card 

These are also called  classic" card and board games, since they are primarily based on the famous 

games that have entertained people throughout the ages. Some true classics, such as Chess and 

Go, have had roots in player culture for centuries. Many of these card and board games are also 

strategy games, with definite strategies for success. Solitaire is one of the most popular types of card 

games on the Internet. Mah Jong tiles and Spades are both also offered by many sites.  

3. 

Casino 

The casino genre (separate from "online gambling") is a mainstay of online games. Their ease of play 

and widely known rules make them a great entry level game. Popular games in the genre include 

Slots, BlackJack, and Video Poker. 

4. 

Puzzle 

The puzzle genre dominates web based games; in no other medium are they so popular. These 

games may contain some action components, such as the real time falling of blocks in Tetris, yet the 

primary characteristic is logic over dexterity. 

The distinction between  puzzle  and  action puzzle  can be somewhat arbitrary, but most people 

consider a true puzzle game to have no element of time pressure, whereas action puzzle games 

force the user to think on the run. The action puzzle games seem to appeal to a wider audience, 

though the "pure" puzzle games can keep players on for a longer period of time. 

Puzzle games are popular because they are small, quick to load/download, easy to learn, and have a 

steadily increasing difficulty that holds interest during repeated play. Great action puzzle games are 

almost trivial to learn, but as people play over and over they start to figure out that certain strategies 

result in much higher scores. A great example of this is GameHouse's flagship 

Collapse 2

, where 

destroying larger groups of blocks at once leads to exponentially higher scores. Pogo's 

Poppit

 is 

another action puzzle game that launched in 2003, and one of the first major games in this market 

was PopCap's 

Bejewelled

. 

5. 

Word 

Quiet for the past several years, the word game genre started gaining momentum in 2003 with the 

launch of PopCap's 

Bookworm

 game in May and then Atari's 

Scrabble

 coming onto the scene in 

December. It is now considered one of the most prominent genres of web based games. Like a 

crossword puzzle in a newspaper, these games are rampant on the web. They take great advantage 

of the keyboard and mouse interface available and the fact that many computer users are more word 

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