Games for the bored

May 27, 2005 4:53 AM

Waste my time! [mi]

I'm looking for some online entertainment in any shape, size or form that will keep my mind occupied for anything between five minutes and a few hours when I'm bored. Long running strategy games with multiple players are especially favoured (yes, I'm prone to world domination fantasies), free is a must. No arcane things with numbers, please, also nethack is not my thing. Thanks!

posted by NekulturnY to computers & internet (28 answers total)

No world domination, but it has little cartoon dinosaurs. Happy Friday.
posted by mealy-mouthed at 5:02 AM on May 27, 2005

metafilter.
posted by palegirl at 5:07 AM on May 27, 2005

I've become highly addicted to TextTwist as of late, but I was an English major, whatever that means.
posted by saladin at 5:18 AM on May 27, 2005

Possibly worthy of an FPP if it has not been already :
Andkon loads of ad free fun and arcade classics!
posted by kenaman at 5:23 AM on May 27, 2005

WEBoggle
posted by caddis at 5:29 AM on May 27, 2005

Well, if you particularly like long running strategy games with multiple players, then you probably already know about Diplomacy, but if you don't, please for the love of god check it out. I'm not sure how much it'll keep you occupied for more than 10 or so minutes at a time, but it's FUN!
posted by Inkoate at 5:29 AM on May 27, 2005

I guess most people here already know Ferry Halim's games but the site is still worth a mention; it takes a while to play through them all!
posted by teleskiving at 5:35 AM on May 27, 2005

BoingBoing just linked to a java version of SFCave. It looks interesting but I don't really want to get hypnotized this early in the morning. [MetaFilter is still the best answer. Remember, it's more addicting than crack.]
posted by caddis at 5:51 AM on May 27, 2005

Every Nintendo Game

Sodaplay

DHTML Lemmings
posted by Otis at 5:52 AM on May 27, 2005

http://www.addictinggames.com/
posted by blag at 6:14 AM on May 27, 2005

Yay WEBoggle! Our very own Plutor wrote that game.
posted by splatta at 6:24 AM on May 27, 2005

Popcap, MiniClip, MSN Game Zone and Shockwave all offer a variety of free games you can play online.

There's also The Riddle, and the Mystery of Time and Space / The Crimson Room / The Blue Room escape games.
posted by geeky at 6:37 AM on May 27, 2005

This simple little thing still amuses me after many hours playing with it.
posted by bondcliff at 6:38 AM on May 27, 2005

Three cheers for Plutor. WEBoggle is a big hit at our house. While it is hard to beat everyone playing online, we have enough net connected computers to get a pretty good game going against each other. The added advantage is that WEBoggle automates the dictionary checking you otherwise would do manually with the board game version. We play the board game version too, but mostly because it's better socially.
posted by caddis at 6:43 AM on May 27, 2005

I second InKoate. Diplomacy is incredible. Games can takes months or years. You can spend five minutes or five hours on strategy or communications with the other players, and because it's all done through email, you don't have to be online at the same time.
posted by brheavy at 7:24 AM on May 27, 2005

Kingdom of Loathing is silly fun.
posted by ook at 7:43 AM on May 27, 2005

NANACA†CRASH!!, for the homicidal cyclist in all of us.
posted by cog_nate at 7:59 AM on May 27, 2005

Orisinal games are one of my favorites. Simple, cute, yet frighteningly addictive.
posted by nakedsushi at 8:06 AM on May 27, 2005

Little Fluffy is an ongoing Flash games blog by none other than Lore of Brunching fame.
posted by brownpau at 9:08 AM on May 27, 2005

NANACA - 999.99m. cool
posted by Pressed Rat at 9:18 AM on May 27, 2005

Go read some of the books at Project Gutenberg or other online public access ebook sites. Victorian pulp fiction has become my latest guilty pleasure.
posted by orange swan at 9:23 AM on May 27, 2005

Try War of Conquest. It's a massively multi-player war game that actually awards cash. Personally I had to stop playing because it became a bit compulsive, but it is fun.
posted by monkeyman at 9:27 AM on May 27, 2005

This thread marks the end of my academic career, you bastards.
posted by ori at 9:42 AM on May 27, 2005

I second geeky's recc of PopCap Games.

I especially like PsychoBabble where you compete online to make magnetic poetry. Insane Aquarium, Candy Train, Bejewelled, and Rocket Mania are nice solo games too.
posted by deanj at 10:13 AM on May 27, 2005

Earth 2025 has been a longstanding favourite of mine. It's a lovely web-based multiplayer war/diplomacy strategy game whose tournaments last a few months.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:32 PM on May 27, 2005

3D Pong. 'nuff said.
posted by furtive at 8:07 PM on May 27, 2005

Snood & TextTwist. Snood is only free for 30 days.
posted by LadyBonita at 1:03 AM on May 28, 2005

Carcassone is an amazing multi-player strategy game. No online version, but very fun to play in person with others.
posted by davidvan at 8:08 PM on May 7, 2006