On your way to work this morning, some of you may have seen the half-page ad for GOA.com in Metro . If you’re anything like me in the morning, you probably went “Ooo, must look that up” and then forgot all about it.

That’s okay. I’ve looked it up for you. It’s a free-to-play online games portal for Europe. Looks like they’re basing their business model around microtransactions - you’ll be able to buy characters with enhanced skills and items.

I was particularly impressed by the sign-up procedure. In addition to the terms and conditions, they force you to view the code of good conduct which has the following paragraph:

Of course we also expect our members to express themselves in polite language. Furthermore, racist, xenophobic or revisionist opinions, proselytism or showing intolerance (whether religious, ideological, philosophical or other) will not be allowed.

Hopefully they’ll enforce it, too.

There are two available games at the moment - Pangya, which appears to be some sort of golfing game, and Gun Bound World Champion, which is basically Worms. Instead of being war-crazed suicidal worms, you are bobble-headed people mounted on adorable warmongering animals. I saw a woolly mammoth, a triceratops, a tortoise and… um… possibly a vacuum cleaner? See polskaboy in the screenshot below:

Yes, it is Europe-wide so there will be people speaking other languages. At Rookie level there are four different language zones for Gun Bound - French, English, Spanish and German. I presume Pangya will be the same, though I haven’t yet downloaded the client.

There’s not a lot of choice yet but it’s free to play - worth a look.

Links:
GOA.com - requires Flash.

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