THE BEST FOR LESS
Score More with GameSpring™, the Casual Gamer’s Subscription Service
Shockingly, I was recently accused of having commitment issues. I won’t go into all the gory relationship details that led to this latest exercise in finger-pointing. Nonetheless, as I sit down to write this column, I must admit that the accusation did get me thinking about how it relates to my attitude towards casual games.
True: When I find a new game, I’ll devote several hours to playing it. But over time my interest wanes and in the end I inevitably move on to play another title – it’s only natural. This being said, I love the full-featured downloadable versions of the great amusements being offered at MSN® Games. However, I’m sometimes reluctant to purchase them simply because I know that another hot new game will come along and I’ll want to check out my scoring ability on that one too. And let’s face it: Purchasing multiple games each month can get expensive.
So what’s a poor PC gamer to do?
PLAYING THE FIELD
Fortunately, a recent turn of events has presented me with the perfect answer to this question. Specifically, Monopoly Here & Now has become the 100th (!) game to be added to the GameSpring library at MSN Games. Launched with 40 games in October 2006, GameSpring has added, on average, almost 10 new games each month – and, at the time of this writing, is quickly approaching 110 games total.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let me give you some details. GameSpring is a game-rich subscription plan that allows players unlimited, ad-free access to full-featured versions of some of the most popular offerings available on MSN Games. GameSpring currently offers such smash hits as Diner Dash 2, Bejeweled 2, Cake Mania, and Fish Tycoon – including a wide array of new favorites, such as Monopoly Here & Now and Zodiac Tower.
In other words, you can play as many of the GameSpring titles as you like, or play a favorite game again and again and keep coming back for more helpings of fun! What’s more, you can further download as many of the games in the ever-expanding GameSpring library as you want, play any game directly from your desktop when you're connected to the Internet, and play any of your games from a Windows-enabled PC just by using your Windows Live™ sign-in.
THE DATING GAME
Cooler still: On a month-to-month basis, it costs just $14.99 for unlimited access to more than 100 complete, ad-free, downloadable games. That’s less than the cost of a single title!
The benefits don’t stop there for diehard enthusiasts either – GameSpring offers even better value for high-volume players. Three-month subscriptions cost a mere $39.97, which works out to just $12.99/month! Or, if you really want to save big, you can subscribe for a full year for only $95.88, which comes to an incredible $7.99/month!
Now that’s what I call savings: For literally less than half the cost of a single online purchase each month, you can enjoy more than 100 mind-blowing games immediately, with tons of new titles being added regularly!
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Realizing this, I guess I would have to say that I don’t have any serious commitment issues – it’s simply a matter of finding the right relationship worth committing to.
So before writing yourself off as a lifelong virtual bachelor or bachelorette, and developing short-term attachments to individual games, instead consider settling down and enjoying the total package on a long-term basis.
As for me, when it comes to playing my favorite casual games, I’ve found the perfect relationship in GameSpring and am willing to fully commit – at least for the coming year. Now if only all relationships were this easy…
Top 10 GameSpring Games:
1. Monopoly: Here and Now
2. Treasures of Montezuma
3. Zodiac Tower
4. Virtual Villagers
5. Legend of El Dorado
6. Atlantis Quest
7. Abundante
8. Cake Mania
9. Diner Dash 2
10. Zuma
- Andy Peterson / MSN Games
Get stories like this and more in the Official Games for Windows Magazine.