Which Flash games are hot? Nonoba will show you
Gaming is one of the greatest uses of Flash technology. There are tons of places to get your Flash gaming on, and one of my new favorites is Nonoba. I found my way there earlier this morning from a link on Download Squad for a particularly fun game called Comboll that's a cross between Breakout and a scrolling level of Super Mario Bros.
The site offers the same communal experience of playing games with others as Kongregate does, with built-in user chat, reviews and commenting, along with achievements and a built-in social network. There's also a revenue-sharing program for publishers looking to make some cash off their work. One of the service's coolest features, however, are the labs.
Like Digg's swarm visualization, Nonoba has its own visualizer called LiveStats to show you what people on the site are up to in real-time. It shows if they're on a game or community page, or when new games have been uploaded. The more users there are in any location the bigger the spheres get. It also shows you user movements of both registered and unregistered users as they zip around the site. This is far more engaging than a simple Top 10 list, and after watching it for a while you can see trends as masses of people hop on to play certain games and small titles become more and more popular.
One small hiccup is that the visualizer chugs to a near standstill when the site is overrun with users. On several occasions it would make my browser hang--so be careful about leaving it on to long.
Track user activity on the gaming site Nonoba with its Flash visualizer.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Josh Lowensohn is an associate editor for Webware.com, CNET's blog about cool and otherwise useful Web applications and services. If you've found a site you'd like profiled, shoot him an e-mail. E-mail Josh.
