“Times are rough.”  How many times do you hear that on a daily basis?  Money is tight for everyone now and the first thing that usually gets hit is our entertainment budget.

When trying to plan some kind of budget for this upcoming year I realized just how many damn subscriptions and general entertainment “dues” I have to factor into my expenses.  Thankfully the net is absolutely chocked full of free games to satisfy my lust for gaming without emptying my pockets to do so. 

Free Online Browser Games

It is not difficult to find free games out on the web.  Just plop “Free Online Games” into any search engine and you’ll find plenty of sources for browser based games out there but it is quite difficult to fine the gems that can sometimes be buried in the quagmire  that is the free online game market.  The quality of the games can range from barely functional to competent outings that could easily be shipped out as a retail product. 

Sites like Kongregate offer thousands of free online games with a huge community that is encouraged to rate all the games hosted on the site to allow the best games to rise to the top. The real kicker is the fact that  along side games from companies like Armor Games or  New Grounds you’ll also find games developed by people like you and I that just happen to dabble in programming as a hobby. Kongregate also has recently started providing free flash game tutorials that are a simple step by step lesson plan meant to help the users of the site create their very own flash games.

There are also browser based free MMO games (Massive Multiplayer Online) that can range from simple social networking games like Club Penguin to the side scrolling 2D MMO Maple Story that’s more of a action role playing game with social elements.  Each offers a huge community that you can enjoy with absolutely no money coming out of your pocket (unless you want to buy cool stuff, but it’s completely optional). A few other notables are Wizard101 (think free Harry Potter simulator), and Popcap games.

Free Downloadable Games

Gaming has come a long way from those old shareware games passed around on floppies (wtf are those?).  The quality of these shareware games has also come along way.  No longer are the games restricted to the simplest of home-brew games meant to turn your keyboard into a, “Genuine Fart Synthesizer!”  Hardware has become more sophisticated since those days and so have the home-brew programmers using it.  You will be hard pressed to find a difference between some of these games and their studio created counterparts.

It would be a bit a insult to Jen if I failed to mention Second Life in this article.  Of all the above types of games and experiences, Second Life can satisfy almost all of them in one fell swoop because of all the ingame tools being completely open sourced.  People within the game virtual world have made RPGs, housing complexes, clubs, real world locales, clothing, character models, bands, seedy red light districts, and countless other amazing items and experiences that can range from being free to costing a few dollars of real world money.  Thankfully you could also provide services to others to build up your own cache of ingame cash allowing you to experience more for virtually none of your own cash being spent.

The idea of monetizing free online games is only catching on here in the states but has been a staple of pc gaming for quite some time in Korea.  Rather than charging you a fee to play these games you’re charged real life money for specialty items that are for the most part merely cosmetic.  A good example of this is the old Shin Megami Tensei PS2 games becoming a free MMORPG but still retaining the hardcore RPG elements the original series had to offer. 

Free Online Games 4 Life!

You dont have to bust your wallet to enjoy gaming as a hobby.  Hours upon hours could be spent on any of the free online games mentioned above or you could wait it out a little until Battlefield Heroes or Quake Live is released to get some free web based FPS gaming going on.  No matter how you slice it, now is a great time to be gaming on a budget.  I will forever be a cheap-ass gamer so even after these “rough times” have passed I’ll be using all the aforementioned free online games just to maximize my own gaming bliss with as little impact on my ducets as possible.