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Hi. Lately skill games have become very popular. Taking into consideration the word “skill” you can easily imagine the general idea of this kind of games. Let us make a little investigation.

So, a game of skill is a game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental and/or physical skill, rather than by pure chance.

One benefit of games of skill is that they are a means of exploring one’s own capabilities. Games encourage the player to look at, understand, and experience things. They teach people lessons about themselves and possibly the world, and allow such insights to be passed on to others.

Most games of skill also involve a degree of chance, due to nature, a randomizing device (such as dice, playing cards, a coin flip, or a random number generator) or guessing by the players.

The distinction between ‘chance’ and ’skill’ has legal significance in countries where chance games are treated differently than skill games. The legal distinction is often vague and varies widely from one jurisdiction to the next.

As we’ve already mentioned more than a few thing, there are many, many types of skill games out there, both online and offline. The sky truly is the limit, as there are skill games for pretty much any occasion, in any and every format imaginable.

Most skill games, though, can be broken into five major categories, based on the type of game and the skills that it requires to be successful playing it. Some of these obviously spill over into other skill game categories, as many share characteristics, game play, rules, etc.

Skill Games categories:

1. Casino Skill Games
Casino skill games include blackjack and video poker, as well as poker, which is increasing in popularity each and every day.

2. Arcade Skill Games
Arcade skill games were made possible by the invention of the computer and other electronics, and are pretty easy to recognize, including early games such as Pong, Asteroids, and Frogger. You can trace their roots farther back, though, to pinball machines and other mechanical skill games.

Arcade skill games are largely a test of hand-eye coordination, and many don’t involve a lot of strategic thought or use of other skills. They’re usually fairly simple in nature, as far as the goal you’re attempting to achieve, and often mix in other elements of games of skills, especially puzzle solving elements.

While arcade skill games probably require the least amount of “skill” of all the skill games, you can’t watch an expert player at work and try to claim that there’s no skill involved at all.

3. Puzzle Skill Games

Puzzle skill games usually involve logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion, as well as other skills.

Their roots trace back quite a ways, including jigsaw puzzles and more modern inventions such as Rubik’s Cube. The genre can be difficult to describe as the gameplay is often abstract and involves arranging geometric shapes or colors to achieve a “victory” of some sort. While winning takes skill, it’s also usually a fairly mundane, silly accomplishment, such as lining up all the colors on each side of a Rubik’s Cube.

Tetris is probably the best known puzzle game, with Minesweeper running a close second. Online puzzle skill games (or ones that at least involve a computer) are growing in popularity, as they’re a quick, accessible way to occupy and entertain oneself.

4. Word Skill Games
Word skill games have been around for many years and typically involve arranging letters and words (Scrabble, anagrams, Boggle) and often involve the use of paper and pencil (crossword puzzle, Sudoku, Hangman, acrostics, cryptograms).

Word skill games are interesting in that they’re not only very popular but they also often employ such “old-fashioned” technology as paper and pencil, and don’t rely on broadband connections or graphics cards. They can be played on airplanes, while waiting for the bus, even when bored at work!

Much of their appeal lies in the fact that they’re often solitary games that can be picked up, worked on, and put back down and returned to in the next but of spare time. Unlike many arcade and puzzle games, many word games don’t require that you finish them in a single session.

5. Board Games
Board games are an interesting category of skill games, as they often incorporate a large element of chance, just like casino skill games. While success at games like Monopoly are obviously largely due to strategy and forethought, there’s still the random element of luck involved in rolling a die. Other board games such as chess involve absolutely no element of chance whatsoever, with the winner solely determined by pure, unadulterated skill.

Board games tend to have a specific goal that must be achieved to win, with the layout and gameplay often closely intertwined. Some of the more well-known board games include Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Risk, and Scrabble (which is also classified as a word game, due to the nature of the gameplay).

While some board games are played online, a lot of their appeal involves multiple players sitting around a table, competing with one another and (hopefully) enjoying themselves, so many board games remain more popular in their original form.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 16:23 and is filed under Online casino (tags: none). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.