Gamesville
Company type | former Subsidiary of Lycos |
---|---|
Industry | Online Games Developer/Portal |
Founded | 1995 |
Headquarters | Waltham, MA, United States |
Products | Various, visit website for full product listing. |
Revenue | N/A |
N/A | |
N/A | |
Number of employees | N/A |
Gamesville was a
History
Founded on a minimal capital base, Gamesville operated not just as a games provider but as a targeted marketing operation, offering free games and prizes to members as a way to attract large numbers of users while tailoring their proprietary games to meet the demands of advertisers.[1] To play, members must provide demographic information; in turn, members would receive targeted ads based on the demographics provided. Gamesville pioneered the use of interstitial advertising as a method of monetizing game players.[3][4]
Gamesville's first game, The Bingo Zone, enabled hundreds of people to compete against one another in real time, for free, and win up to $20 by getting a
Over the years, additional free games with cash prizes were added, including card, trivia, puzzle, and several bingo variants. This approach attracted many visitors: In August 1999, Gamesville.com was the "stickiest" site on the Internet with eBay in second place.[6]
Lycos
In November 1999, internet portal Lycos announced that it would spend $270 million in stock to acquire Gamesville.com, which at that time had approximately 2.2 million registered users.[7]
In 2002, Monster.com profiled Gamesville's Rewards Manager, Josh Yeager, citing him as holding one of the Top 10 Coolest Jobs on the Internet.[8] Yeager estimated that he sent out between 1,000 and 2,500 prize checks weekly, indicating that "some days I feel like the Bob Barker of the Internet, other days like Santa Claus himself."[8]
Over the years, Gamesville developed several games without prizes including a multiplayer online version of
Skilljam
In an attempt to reinvigorate the Gamesville site, Lycos entered into a year-long integration with Skilljam starting in 2006; purportedly the integration was designed to provide premium "best in class skill and casual free games for cash prizes, combined with exclusive games content not available anywhere else"[9] to Gamesville players. However, instead, the integration with Skilljam only hastened the decline in traffic to Gamesville.
In April 2007, Lycos issued a public apology,
After the relaunch of Gamesville, traffic to the site steadily increased, although not to its former heights.
Notable products
In March 2007, Gamesville launched Magic 21, a variant of blackjack, where multiple players compete to win a cash jackpot worth up to $4,999. The game is notable because it is the first proprietary jackpot game developed by Lycos/Gamesville since 2002's "The Price Is Right".[citation needed]
In July 2007, Gamesville launched a new avatar system enabling users to create 2D representations of themselves for use in Gamesville games.[11] Gamesville currently holds "best avatar" contests in the Gamesville Blog.[12]
On May 28, 2008, Gamesville relaunched Bingo Zone with a new design, a chat game called Dickie's Bonus Balls, and progressive cash prizes.[13]
Notable intellectual property
Gamesville has several trademarks and patents in its portfolio, most notably US Patent 6,012,984, “Systems for providing large arena games over computer networks”.[14]
See also
- Online games
- Online bingo
- Browser game
- Lycos
References
- ^ a b "Gamesville.com: Wasting People's Time Since 1996". Virtual Advisor, Inc. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Lycos Moves Into Gamesville". Jupitermedia Corporation. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ^ "nineCo Introduces Full-Screen E-Mercials". The ClickZ Network. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ISBN 978-0-7897-2298-0.
- ^ "Cyber Bingo". H.B. Koplowitz. 1997. Archived from the original on 2010-09-11. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ^ "The Importance of Being Sticky". Media Life Magazine. 1997. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ^ "Lycos Bets $270M On Gamesville.com". E-Commerce Times. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
- ^ a b "Top 10 Coolest Jobs on the Internet". Monster.com. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Lycos Goes Casual". Game Daily. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Lycos Apologises, Restores Gamesville To Old Look". EFY Enterprises. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ "Express Yourself With Avatars". Gamesville. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
- ^ "Best Gamesville Avatars". Gamesville. Archived from the original on 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
- ^ "Introducing The Bingo Zone". Gamesville. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
- ^ "Systems for providing large arena games over computer networks". U.S. Patent Office. Retrieved 2007-09-11.