Gaming

Ask any teenager or college-goer about the biggest advantage of having a computer at home, and in all probability, he’ll say it’s gaming. The gaming industry today stands at over $20 billion (Rs 87,000 crore) in annual revenue. So just mate the Internet, which is a behemoth of unaccountable proportions, with the gaming industry,and what you get is an unimaginable giant.

Gaming on the Internet, as of today, is restricted largely to Flash-based games or simple arcade games of the ‘80s. Sites such as Addictinggames.com and Liquidgeneration.com give a wide variety of games to choose from. Most of these games, at best, are stress relievers or two-minute shootouts.

The idea of making a game to promote a movie or a product has caught on in India only recently, with sites such as Hungama.com and C2W.com creating these customised games. Most of these can be played online. Sites such as Indiagames.com and Mauj.com, too, are exclusive gaming sites from where you can download games both onto your computer as well as your mobile phone.

Gamer communities also populate the Net, most of them giving out cheat codes and walkthroughs for the games available in the market. You will also get CD cracks for almost all games around, and even though it’s illegal, everyone has searched for those at some point or the other.

Multi Player Online Gaming—and by online, we mean the Internet, not a LAN—is yet to take off in many countries, and no prizes for guessing the reason: no broadband. Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming sites such as Ogaming.com are aimed at giving the hardcore gamer, armed with broadband and a powerhouse PC, a chance to pit his skills against some of the best from around the globe.