Free Games - Cafe.com Online Game Blog

Rumors?

A little birdie told me a rumor that there's some new games coming down the pike at Cafe.com. Could it be? Stay tuned for updates!

New Contest!

It's time for another great contest from Cafe.com!

This time around, the name of the game is Absolute Solitaire. The usual rules apply: Just log on to cafe.com and play Absolute Solitairet from July 23rd to August 15th to be automatically entered for a chance to win. The highest score at the end of the contest period will be awarded a 1gb iPod Shuffle, in the winners choice of color.

The current high score is held by Obimat with an astonishing 379,860 points. Better start practicing now if you're going to beat it!

Attack of the Women Gamers

So here's something thats always cool to hear:According to the International Game Developers Association and the Entertainment Software Associations latest report, 40% of gamers are female. So much for stereotypes.

If you don't have the energy to peruse the entire report, WomenGamers.com did a nice rundown on the highlights, so I won't repeat them all here. Among other statistics (such as increased parental involvement, overall rise in average gaming age, etc), the meat of it is that there's more women aged 18-35 (the stereotypical male gamer age demographic) playing games nowadays than there are 17 year old and younger boys. Sure, theres a lot of factors that go into this: the meteoric increase in the cost of games and systems, a general lack of quality youth-oriented games (of course thats just one elitists opinion), but I'm pegging it more on the rise of casual gaming. It's no shock that 11 of the 20 top selling games of 2007 were either music (Guitar Hero) or Nintendo DS titles, and of course sites like Cafe.com, Pogo, Yahoo Games, and more are attracting women in unprecedented numbers with their simple, quick, and mostly (or in the case of Cafe.com, entirely) free play.

What does this mean for the future of gaming? Well, more women playing games means more women interested in making games (right now, women only account for about 12% of developers worldwide, a huge majority of them centered in the US casual market), which means we could be seeing a very different gaming experience in the coming years.

Personally, I can't wait to see what direction the industry takes. Be sure to share your own feelings in the comments section.

Mahjong Contest Winner

Congratulations are in order for one JamieLea of Jeffersonville, the winner of Cafe.com's Temple of Mahjong Contest and its new reigning champion. JamieLea took the win with a whopping 960 points, edging out the second place meemaws2cats by a bare 15 points.

Thanks to everyone who participated and made the contest a huge success. Keep an eye on the blog for news about the next one.

Great job JamieLea. Enjoy your prize, and get ready to defend that crown!

Weekend Wrap-up

Hey, hope everyone had a great 4th of July, and enjoyed the 3-day weekend. Back to work as usual now!

But maybe not everything is quite as usual... I've heard some rumblings at Cafe.com that there's some new games coming down the pike. Could it be? Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted.

Until then, keep playing!

New iPod Winner

Some Cafe.com news for you today folks.

As you probably (hopefully) know, Cafe.com has an on-going giveaway: every 5,000th registered user gets a free 1g iPod shuffle. Well, I just want so say "Congratulations!!" to Alex20th, our newest recipient.

Enjoy your new iPod, Alex, and have fun!