Forget smoke breaks.
Increasingly, people are taking interludes from their jobs without leaving their desks–and having fun in the process.
That’s because more and more people are playing games online, says Jessica Rovello, chairwoman of Arkadium Inc., a New York-based software company that allows computer users to download a gaming interface to their computer desktop for playing backgammon, chess and checkers.
“This is not blackjack,” Rovello says. “This is not poker. This is arcade games, chess and solitaire. It’s for the average Joe. It’s not intimidating. It’s not overly technical. It’s just fun.”
Gamers can go online and play others around the world.
Arkadium offers players a chance to choose a graphic representation of themselves and to instant message one another through chat rooms–often to challenge others to a game.
“Our goal in the way we designed it was to bring friends together, college roommates, brothers and sisters who might live in different areas of the country and have always played backgammon against each other but who might want to play for a little bit more than just bragging rights,” Rovello says.
Arkadium is offering a special that allows people to play up to 2,000 games in a year at no cost. After 2,000 games are played, subscribers can pay $12.99 for three months of unlimited games or $24.95 for a year.
Milo (the only name he uses online) of Orlando has been playing games through the Arkadium Gamedek interface for about a year. He says he goes online a few hours each day for checkers, chess and some of the strategy games.
“I can usually get a game pretty fast if I’m online,” Milo says.
Arkadium has 22 of the 30 games it plans to offer up and running. Others will be added in the next few weeks.
Rovello says online subscribers are playing more than 1.5 million games a month through Arkadium’s distribution channels. Arkadium has several partners in its online gaming efforts, including Terra.com, the largest Spanish portal on the Internet.
Gamers who want to get the Gamedek desktop interface can go to www.arkadium.com and sign up.
The gaming interface will allow you to bet money on the games you play, depending on whether Internet wagering on games is legal in your community.
Winning cash on games such as chess, which require skill, is seen differently by the law than winning on slot machines, which are games of chance, Rovello says. That is why Arkadium can legally offer its games in many of the states that it does, she says.
The system allows a $25 maximum bet per game, she says.
Samantha Thompson of Los Angeles says she considers herself a “small-time” player.
“I play 50 cent games or the tournaments that have a $1 entry fee or a $5 fee,” Thompson says. “I play for fun, but I do play the cash games. I’ve made quite a bit of money on Mah Jongg (an electronic version of the Chinese tile-matching game). That’s the one I’m good at. I also play Solitaire and Bombsquad and Treasure Hunt, but I’m not as good at those games.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
