The internet has presented the world with a whole lot of new opportunities, both in trade and for entertainment purposes, depending on whether you’re a developer or the end user. Being the multimillion dollar industry that it is, it has benefited every person that entered into the field of creating internet content. Mark Zuckerberg, anyone?
Not that we’re talking about social networks having 800 million users here. We refer instead, to the free online competitions that are conducted on the internet by the hundreds every day. Come to think of it, you might even be taking part in one as we speak. These competitions take various forms: raffles, avatar making and many more.
The best thing about free online competitions, of course, is that they’re free. Targeted at the young audience, these competitions are doing their job pretty well. One doesn’t need to pay a fee to get their name entered, (Perhaps they’ll be asked to join a group on the internet but many consider this a price they’re willing to pay), and that’s what makes these competition so much more attractive.
In addition to this, online competitions can be participated in, from one’s own home. If you’re given the choice of taking part in a competition that is being conducted about thirty miles away from home, or one that can be participated in from home, which one would you prefer? The latter, we guess. All you need to do is to get entered in the competition and wait for the day, and you’re good. These competitions don’t come with huge lists of eligibility criteria either; the only requirement being a computer and an internet connection. The simplicity of them, and the ease of organizing, means that they’re all the rage these days in countries like Japan and Korea, among others.
Such competitions may also provide the users with paid or free treats within them. One may go as far as to call it the business side of these competitions. The participants are given bonuses to upgrade the virtual players as they advance in the game, which may include power ups, extra lives, better armor, or to cut a long story short, stuff that you’ll probably be wishing for at the time.
Like everything else, such competitions have their disadvantages. To many, online gaming is an unfavorable practice despite being free and accessible to many. The obvious disadvantage, according to the people who have something to hold against it, (and many experts, actually), is that prolonged online gaming isolates the young mind. It diminishes one’s social life and limits one’s attention to a world that exists only in the internet.
Excess online gaming has even been linked to illnesses like weak eyesight (even blindness), malnutrition, a limited concentration span in other tasks that a person may be performing (like studies) and even lethargy. It’s ironic how all this computer hype was first based on the fact that it preserves a person’s energies and counters lethargy, but is now fast becoming the reason of lethargy and irritability itself. Time spent playing games online is increasing in kids of a certain age group, and it may actually sever their ties with the real world; ties that actually help them become good and sensible human beings in the long run.
Despite these disadvantages however, there is next to no doubt that the graph of online competitions’ popularity, with time, will continue to gain gradient for many years to come. For all we know, many hundreds of new games may have been created while you read this article, and many competitions started. Enthusiasts will continue to compete with each other in games they enjoy playing, and some may call it unfortunate that such enthusiasts never find themselves short of the supply of new games, thanks to the uncountable developers out there who’re ensuring just this.