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Good morning! I’m about to head out the door for the Upstate Board Gamer’s Game Day, but before I go I’m going to post about Kongregate.com.

There are a ton of flash-based gaming websites out there. Some are decent, some are pretty sad. Kongregate.com is one of those sites but has a little different twist to it. Not only do they have some pretty decent flash games, but they have a sweet badge system that is similar to the XBox Live Achievement system. By having it it makes you want to play more and more and more. You acquire these different badges by playing a variety of games and fulfilling different objectives in the game. For instance maybe you need to score a certain amount of points, or get to a certain level, or a combination of both for harder badges.

It’s pretty fun and a nice challenge to try to obtain the badges. They also have contest where game designers can win money by how popular their games are with the players. This is a nice incentive because it forces the developers to create good games, not just cheap rehashes of the same old thing. Players can rate the games from one to five stars and that also helps keep the good ones on top and the bad ones on the bottom (trust me, there are some pretty sad games there).

Another thing they are implementing is a web-based CCG type of game. Every couple of days they’ll debut a new card that you can get by completing a certain game requirements that they put forth. This is a lot of fun because once the CCG debuts you can use those cards you’ve won to play against other people.

I like to hit Kongregate from time to time to take that quick mental break. It’s nice to see the new games coming on board and to waste 5-10 minutes playing one (or more if you are so inclined).

Have fun this weekend no matter what you do or play! Just enjoy the time with family and friends!