Set Up Your Own Online Games Home Business
By: Geoff Kitkat

One of the best bets for starting an online home business is an on line gaming site. These sites are typically very easy to set up and ensure almost immediate success, thanks to the popularity of online gaming. Here's a quick guide to help you start your own online gaming home business.

1. Research popular online games - Most online games are available in flash format. Try to find a good mix of popular games that you can add to your own site. If you want to start fresh, you can hire a developer to design games that will be unique to your own business.

2. Set up a site - It is a good idea to use a content management system for your new online home business. A CMS will make it very easy to build an attractive site that will be appealing to gamers. As a bonus, many popular CMS systems are free and feature games that are already built in and ready to go.

3. Start promoting your site - Once you have your site ready to go, you can begin promoting your online home business gaming site. One of the best places to start is a gaming community that is centered around the type of games that you offer. Free games are always popular and they are a great way to attract new players.

4. Keep the games coming - Don't fall into the trap of having old, stagnant games. Stay on top of the market by finding new games and designing unique games to fit your online home business. The more games you offer, the better your chances are of success.

5. Stay on top of trends - Gaming trends can change at the drop of a hat. Stay on top of the market by getting involved in the gaming community.

6. Offer a premium area - This is how you can really start making money for your online home business. Offer special games that are only available to subscribers, or offer them the ability to challenge one another to games for a fee. This is a great way to offset your bandwidth costs and make extra money.

An online gaming site is a great place to start for an online home business. The set-up costs are minimal and it is a niche that has been consistently popular for many years. With proper management, you could be the next great gaming portal.

Look caerfully at the optiosn available. You should look for a system that will enabel you to start with a free or quite low cost option - get your game site first, so you can judge the quality and attractiveness of the games. You then need an option that allows you to upgrade your position so you can start to promote yoru own games, and even host high ticket tournaments.

of course, the really best opportunities will also have the opportunity for you to set up a full multilevel marletin opportunity, so you can easily duplicate wha you have apready been doing.

You never know, following that route, you could either play games for money, or even make money on the game...

New to Gaming - Flash Gaming Sites
By: Paul Wilson

Whew! According to Computer Gaming World, there are 80 gazillion free Flash games sites in the cyber world.

Popular sites are:

* www.games.yahoo.com - this has card games, word games, arcade games, as well as puzzles. The number of violent games is limited so the site appeals to the "old-young" -those who are young at heart.

* www.shockwave.com - a popular site with original games as well as PopCap ones. One can do a jigsaw here everyday.

* www.addictinggames.com - has free games that are updated every week-Friday. The site has action, arcade, puzzle, as well as sports games.

* www.arcadetown.com - has Flash games, java games, downloads and more.

Since Flash offers many advantages to developers as well as players, many games are designed using Macromedia Flash. It is by far the best game platform and has incredible features.

In an industry that's evincing exponential growth, Flash has become the universal and popular choice for multimedia intensive web sites. Flash, singly crosses most barriers-

* It supports complicated and wonderful graphics.
* Allows download of files via the Internet.
* And is compatible with playback devices.

In the world of Flash enabled games the hosting system is the web server itself. Flash enables web sites to host animated as well as interactive movies and games. There is no paraphernalia required. All that is needed is to download the game itself. The costs are minimal and not recurring.

To play on the web all that is required is: a web browser, a Flash player, and the Internet. Flash is the universal plug in needed to play games. It is installed on every PC with Windows XP and Mac.

Playing online can be fun and most games can now be played by many players from all round the world. Just keep in mind:

* That there are players who cheat at games. Look for PunkBuster software on the server, this detects cheats who try and gain unfair advantages.

* Play with others who have credibility and are accountable for their actions. Many online sites need verified log ins, they are actively managed gaming environments. This is a better choice for safe gaming.

* Create a select group of friends and use the broadband server to host a private gaming server.

* Do your research thoroughly. Seek safe and high quality gaming sites.

Gaming is in its golden phase and is set to reach new heights. Innovation, new business models, and unprecedented growth is expected to open new avenues in gaming.

Author Bio
Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com, the premier website to play thousands of free online games including arcade games, action games, card games, flash games, strategy games, puzzle games and more. He also freelances for www.1888SoftwareDownloads.com.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Adventure Gamers' 2008 Readers' Choice Awards Poll

Written by Jack Allin — February 9, 2009

The first annual “Aggie” Awards presentation is almost upon us! You’ve read all about them (or if you haven’t, go do that now) and know our nominees, but now it’s your turn to recognize the best games of 2008. In addition to our official staff selections, we will also be unveiling our “Readers’ Choice” awards, and it’s time to cast your votes.

Below is a complete list of categories open for voting. Only one vote per category is allowed. To make your choice, simply select the appropriate game from the drop-down menu available for each question. If you wish to pass on certain categories, simply pick the "No answer" selection from the menu.

This survey works solely on the honour system, so we haven’t taken any precautions to avoid ballot-stuffing (although your IP address will be logged after submitting a survey). We do ask, however, that you limit yourselves to only one entry. One ballot per person is how voting works best, and we trust that no one will abuse the system. In the same way, we ask that you vote only for games you feel are deserving of their awards. This is all just for fun, but spoiling votes just ruins the fun for everyone. In the unlikely event of suspicious voting activity, we’ll deal with that at the time, but we’re confident that won’t be necessary.

Voting will end on Monday, February 16th, and award winners will be unveiled over the course of three days, from February 18-20th.

Can God of War III save the PS3?

Or is it all about the price cut?

Will the release of God of War III really turn round the fortunes of the PS3? Analyst Nick Williams certainly thinks so, although price will still be a factor.

The launch of God of War III in late 2009/early 2010 will mark a pivotal moment for Sony. But in order to ensure that this game is a hardware sales driver, the cost of the base-level PS3 will need to be in the same ballpark as the Xbox 360 and Wii. According to our latest consumer tracking study, only two in three people who plan to purchase God of War III currently own a PS3

Like most who played them I enjoyed the two previous God of War games but would I be waiting around for the third game before I bought a PS3? Maybe, I guess, but chances are most God of War fans will have either got a PS3 or moved over to 360. That's if they can afford one of course. Williams, like most analysts, states the obvious, although price is clearly still a huge factor in the PS3's slow start.

The price point for the PS3 remains a real problem for Sony. Sony execs now find themselves in the precarious position of trying to balance consumer price expectations with the high costs of producing each PS3. That said, the PS2's continued success more than eight years after launch suggests that Sony is thinking long term with the PS3. If Sony can continue to bring down hardware manufacturing costs, it seems likely that it will offer a price cut by the end of Summer 2009.

CipSoft Staying Strong Against Cheaters

from Casual Gamer Chick

CipSoft had announced the banning of 5,000 user accounts because they were cheating by using automated software. One would think that banning 5,000 users for cheating would serve as a warning to other people that were thinking about cheating or maybe weren’t caught cheating, but it didn’t. CipSoft just announced they banned another 5,163 accounts for using unofficial software.

Nobody likes cheaters and they become annoying to the every day players who are playing the game for enjoyment. CipSoft has developed tools that are really accurate at finding the cheaters. The tools will let Cipsoft know who is cheating, when they are cheating and how they are cheating,

CipSoft relies on a home made tool in order to identify the users of unofficial software automatically. “We are 100% confident about the accuracy of our tool.” says Matthias Rudy, Lead Programmer at CipSoft. “We now know exactly who is cheating, how they are cheating and when they are cheating.” Rudy reveals.

Hopefully CipSoft can find and punish all of the cheaters that are making the game less enjoyable for the non-cheating players. It is a shame that there are people out there that always want to game the system. Why bother playing the game if you want to cheat? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Press Release Follows:

Regensburg, March 4, 2009 — CipSoft continues its effort to eliminate all cheaters from Tibia. After a first wave at the beginning of February, CipSoft now banned another 5163 accounts for the use of unofficial software.

“Cheating is a nuisance for any multiplayer online game.” says Florian Eckert, responsible Product Manager at CipSoft. “For Tibia it is exceptionally annoying as its community has grown for over 12 years and during that time established a well balanced equilibrium.” Eckert continues. “We cannot and we will not tolerate any unfair interference to this.”

The use of unofficial software - generally referred to as ‘cheating’ - gives players an unfair advantage over others by automating tricky tasks or even controlling the whole character in game. Identifying players who use such programs can be a hard task as the used software is designed to imitate natural behaviour.

CipSoft relies on a home made tool in order to identify the users of unofficial software automatically. “We are 100% confident about the accuracy of our tool.” says Matthias Rudy, Lead Programmer at CipSoft. “We now know exactly who is cheating, how they are cheating and when they are cheating.” Rudy reveals.

Once identified, cheaters have to face severe consequences. Depending on their ‘criminal record’ some of the cheaters are only excluded from the game for a certain period of time. The accounts of other more intractable cheaters will be deleted completely.

When asked about CipSoft’s future plans and policy concerning cheating, Eckert admits “We’ve already pulled the trigger once, now we’ve pulled it a second time. It seems like we start to get the hang on it.”

Tibia is one of the oldest MMORPGs worldwide. It is online since 1997 and currently has a subscriber base of 120,000 players.

Preview - SF Legends: Chun-li #2

March 4th, 2009

Arriving in stores March 18th is Street Fighter: Legends Chun-li #2! If you’ve been left feeling depressed by any of the lovely Chun-li’s other media outings lately, we promise you that the all-original SF Legends: Chun-Li mini-series will not dissapoint!

Synopsis:
Young officer Chun-li and her partner Po-lin are hot on the trail of Shadaloo’s latest Hong Kong scheme. Plus, a pivotal moment is revealed in the life of everyone’s favorite loser, Dan Hibiki, as Dan’s father faces of against the King of Muay Thai - Sagat!

Featuring 2 covers by Omar Dogan and Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz

Darkstalkers Tribute Fan Entries DONE!

March 2nd, 2009

We just woke up and sorted the last batch of entries from last night and you guys did not disappoint. After deleting multiple entries that were the exact same, here’s the grand total…

(drumroll please)

………

2072 submissions!

2072, and over half of those arrived in the last two days. You guys may be very last minute oriented but you’re also unbelievably passionate about Darkstalkers!

We are awed by the number of submissions. We thought last year’s 1400+ Street Fighter submissions was impressive, but this is just bonkers. The variety and quality we’re seeing overall is fantastic. Really, really great stuff. This Tribute book will be one for the ages.

Needless to say, this is going to take a bit of time to get fully organized and judging may take a bit while we go through this mass of material.

Some quick points:

- Yes, we did get your submission, seriously. Even if the website gave you an error, it almost certainly went through. When the web form was being pummeled it would sometimes spit out errors but, every time we checked, the submission did go through correctly.

- We don’t know how long before we can announce winners. Organizing these, judging them, fighting amongst ourselves over which pieces should get in and then finalizing the list will take some time, especially when that’s added to our regular work schedule.

- We don’t know how many fan submitted pieces will be in the final book yet. We’re still finalizing page count (we originally assumed Darkstalkers Tribute would be thinner than Street Fighter… now, maybe not ) and receiving art from invited professionals.

- We’re looking at a variety of things when deciding which ones will make the final cut to be in the book but basically it’s quality & originality. With this many submissions, it’s going to be unbelievably difficult getting down to our final list and it’ll break our heart to cut some of them out. All we can say is that we’ll do our best to represent the fans well.

- Unfortunately, we can’t give an extension for fan submissions. We announced the contest on January 8th here on the blog so there was plenty of time to put together a piece. It would be unfair to extend the deadline for some fan submissions and not everyone. And with all the ones we already have, we know we’re in good shape.

- Many artists put together multiple unique high quality entries, which shows great commitment to the contest. Thank you for your intense efforts, whether or not you win a spot in the book. Your enthusiasm for these properties helps inspire us and reminds us why we do these books and comics in the first place. THANK YOU!

PS: 2072! So crazy!

SF II Turbo #4: On sale this week!

February 23rd, 2009

This Wednesday, Feb 25 head to your local comic shop to pick up Street Fighter II Turbo #4. Here’s a preview of what goes down in the latest issue of Turbo!

Synopsis:
Kick it into Turbo! The Hong Kong finals conclude as a Chun-Li takes on five deadly Shaolin fighters at once! Can even the strongest woman in the world prevail against the fighting styles of the Snake, Mantis, Crane, Monkey and Tiger? Plus – a Street Fighter IV bonus story featuring the all-new character Rufus! Is this chunky fighter just another joke…or is his Kung Fu good!?

Fans produce the ultimate
Street Fighter Magazine

February 22nd, 2009

Our good friends over at the Street Fighter Blog have just posted up the first issue of The Street Fighter Magazine! Packed with Exclusive interviews, SF history, and reviews of both games and comics, the magazine is made for fans by fans. And a pretty good job they’ve done on their first issue we must say! Plus it’s free to download, so you have no excuse NOT to read it!

Check ot the first issue at the Street Fighter Blog.

SFIV in stores!!
UDON goodies galore!!

February 18th, 2009

Glorious day, Street Fighter IV is finally here! The first true Street Fighter sequel in a decade has just landed in North American stores, and is receiving universally rave reviews! Looks like the most anticipated fighting game ever is living up to the hype! If any of you can drag yourself away from the action on your X-box 360’s and PS3’s, you might like to take a gander at some of the UDON goodies created to conicide with the game’s release!

	STREET FIGHTER IV #1(of 4) The first issue of our 4-issue mini-series that ties into both the game and our past SF comics! It’s an exciting original adventure feature new challengers like C.Viper, Abel, El Fuere and Rufus, plus classic fighters like Sakura, Dan, Charlie, and more! Written by Ken Siu-Chong and drawn by Joe Ng. Head down to your local comic shop and pick up your copy!
	STREET FIGHTER IV COLLECTOR’s HINT BOOK This mini-comic style hint book is included with every Collector’s Edition of Street Fighter IV, and features the art of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix lead artist Long Vo!
	STREET FIGHTER IV TARGET-EXCLUSIVE COMIC This limited edition comic is only available when you buy the Street Fighter IV game at Target stores in the US. The all-new story showcases the new case of fighters facing of against their classic counterparts, and is packed with action! Written by Matt Moylan and drawn by Joe Vriens!

UDON presents
Silent Möbius: Complete Edition

February 16th, 2009

SILENT MÖBIUS - THE ULTIMATE SCI-FI MANGA RETURNS
UDON announces Silent Möbius: Complete Edition

Having spawned a 26-episode anime, and 2 feature films, the Silent Möbius series is considered by many as the pinnacle of sci-fi manga. UDON Entertainment is proud to announce the English release of the Silent Möbius: Complete Edition series, a new remastered edition of the manga packed with tons of bonus material. If you have never before read Silent Möbius, you can’t call yourself a true manga reader.

Created by famed manga artist Kia Asamiya (Nadesico, Uncanny X-men, Batman: Child of Dreams, Star Wars Episode 1 Manga), Silent Möbius follows the AMP (Attacked Mystification Police). This all-female police force protects a futuristic Tokyo from invasion by the Lucifer Hawks - an extra-dimensional race of demons who come in a variety of terrifying forms.

Silent Möbius: Complete Edition features a new UDON translation, the restoration of the traditional right-to-left reading format, as well as new scans of every page taken directly from the original artwork. Each volume also includes a full color illustration gallery, extras like characters designs, data files, and interviews, and many color story pages from the series original serialization in Comic Dragon Magazine. UDON will also be releasing 3 full volumes of never before collected stories - the two-volume Silent Möbius Tales, and a special prequel Volume 0 that reveals much of the series’ backstory.

“I feel very fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to publish this Complete Edition”, says Asamiya, “and it certainly gave me a chance to look back on everything. Whether you’ve read the series before, or are picking it up for the first time ever, I hope you will enjoy Silent Möbius.”

The first volume of Silent Möbius: Complete Edition arrives August 2009, with new volumes to follow every few months.

Silent Möbius: Complete Edition Vol.1
ISBN: 978-1-897376-21-8
$14.99 US, 200pgs
On sale August 2009

Street Fighter IV is almost here!

February 11th, 2009

Just one week left before the Street Fighter IV game arrives! And that also means only one week until the Street Fighter IV comic begins! Street Fighter IV #1 hits stores next Wed, Feb 18th, so don’t miss out on the adventures of Crimson Viper, Abel, El Fuerte and Rufus as they run across Sakura, Dan, Birdie, Charlie and other classic World Warriors!!

Here are the first 6 pages of story to get you hooked:

On Game Journalism and Award

By Brian Crecente, 12:00 PM on Mon Apr 9 2007, 1,065 views

Intent Media plans to launch The Games Media Awards 2007 which they say will take place in London in October.

The awards, which will take place at the Soho Revue bar, will include more than 250 people and multiple awards for those who cover the gaming industry.

"Diversity of coverage is key to the games industry's connection with consumers, but many within the wider media do not feel appreciated. Some have told us they don't think they have a genuine enough relationship with the companies and products that they are writing about," commented Intent Media boss Stuart Dinsey.

"The Games Media Awards will look to change that. They will build stronger ties between the games industry and media at all levels."

While I applaud the idea, I think the reasoning is deeply flawed. The last thing game journalism needs is a closer relationship with the industry. It's already far, far too cozy.

Besides, there's already plenty of journalism awards out there. I think if game journalism wants to get serious it needs to do so on the same field the rest of journalists play on.

We shouldn't be coming up with our own awards, we should be striving to win awards that already exist. Awards by the Society of Professional Journalism, the Investigative Reporters and Editors, Computer Assisted Reporters and state run journalism groups.

I think we all know that just because we write about games doesn't mean it can't inspire serious, important stories. Now lets prove it. Brian Crecente

Games Media Awards Unveiled [MCV]