GameTap has Servers

One of the video game community websites I visit, Evil Avatar, has a forum that I frequent. While a variety of topics are discussed, the most common theme involves video games. In the weekly "what are you playing this weekend" thread, over a course of a number of weeks, I would see various people post about such-and-such a game on GameTap, a service that charges a monthly fee to access their collection of video games. I knew what it was and assumed it was not for me.

Finally, after seeing it mentioned a number of times over several weeks, I decided to give the free option a try. A selection of approximately forty games are available to play at any time and are supported by ads. Essentially, you would choose the game you wanted to play and click start and then watch a 30 second commercial. It was pretty painless, actually.

After seeing the sheer number of games available, I was impressed. And, it wasn't simply a bunch of old games; while there are a good number of the older games available, there are games from 2007 included as well. What finally sold me for the pay service was that, after hearing my co-worker Rob talking about Overlord for the XBox 360, I saw that it was available for play on GameTap. Their promotion includes the first month for $0.99, so one Saturday night, I gave it a shot and was hooked.

If that wasn't enough, they even host "Myst: Uru" an MMO for Myst that has the same gameplay as the original, but allows you to play with others, too.

Since then, I have played a huge number of games. The nice thing is, if you get tired of one, or the game just sucks, there is none of the gamer-obligation to get your money's worth: you can just move onto the next one. I payed for the discounted full year, about $54: about the price of one new game. I have easily played my money's worth.

The best part is that I constantly remind my co-workers of my love for GameTap. I think, deep down, they really appreciate it.