online games

We're downloading more games, playing them online longer, and spending slightly more time per week on average with the Xbox 360 online than either our PCs or PS3s according to a new NPD Group study. The 'Online Gaming 2010' report also found that 54 percent of gamers ages 2 or older play online games, a slight drop from last year's 56 percent.

Richard Heeks, the head of the development informatics group at the UK's University of Manchester, estimates that nearly half a million people earn money as "gold farmers" -- players who seek out gold or experience points in online multiplayer games, then sell their loot to other players with less time on their hands.

After being removed from Facebook following a legal wrangle with Scrabble's makers Hasbro, the third-party app Scrabulous has returned to the social networking site.