Online Games, An Increasing Success

Card and skill games, children's games and the descendants of the old board games, role-playing games and any kind of sport: in the last few years online games have flooded the market, sometimes straining the more traditional types of games.




One of the clearest evidences of this phenomenon is given by online poker, which counts an increasing number of enthusiasts all over the world, and which has changed the idea people had of this type of game: not a gamble to be played in some disreputable dive, but a pastime for all, which can be done while simply sitting on your armchair and pressing some keys of your pc. Poker is one of the strengths of the sector of online games, which in Italy counts about one million and a half players, 30 millions tournaments and 70 licensed websites. In just one year, from 2008 to 2009, the expense of Italians in online games and sport betting has doubled, and the estimate for 2010 shows that these numbers will probably increase. It is no coincidence that, while online games and bets have increased, there has been a significant decline in the attendance at casinos: in 2009 the games in the Italian casinos have decreased by 5% with reference to 2008, meaning that the traditional methods of playing have given way to their new descendants, and that the green table has left space for the computer screen. We must also consider that poker is not the only gamble to have moved to the web: also the roulette and many other games are now available online.



Not only poker and gambles: in internet there is space for all types of games. Just think of a board game that you used to love as a child, dredge up from your past that box with worn edges containing dice, game pieces and board. It is very likely that you find the online version of the game just surfing the internet. An example? Risk, a cult game of the recent past, which has now landed on new shores, on IT shores: a big jump for a board game that was born in the fifties of an idea by French Albert Lamorisse. Now the participants in the game do not need to meet around a table to challenge each other, they can do so online, staying at their place. Many other board games that are well-known all over the world have now an online version, for example Trivial Pursuit and Bingo, which in Italy in called "tombola". In Italy "tombola" is considered as an old game, to be played with grandparents, uncles and aunts on Christmas Eve, using beans to cover the numbers that have been brawn, but now this conception of game has definitely changed!



Poker and board games are only some examples that illustrate the phenomenon of online games, but these two examples let us clearly understand that the conception of game has changed a lot recently, becoming something virtual and computerized, which is very consistent with the time we are living in