What is the patent for the game Monopoly?

On December 31,1935, American game designer Charles Darrow received a patent for the now ubiquitous Monopoly board game. While Darrow has long been credited with the invention of one of the world's most popular board games, he was merely borrowing ideas from another American game designer Elizabeth Magie in reality.

Did you play board games during this vacation? While they are no longer as popular now in an uber-connected world as they used to be, board games continue to be one of the best means of offline entertainment. They not only get friends and families to sit across a table and have a jolly time, but also ensure that there is some takeaway, especially for the younger players.

Played by millions

Most board games are, in fact, designed with some element of learning along the way. If you think about the board games that you've played and liked, you might be able to realise what you took away from it as well.One of the most popular board games of all time is probably Monopoly. A game of competition, capitalism, and business strategy, Monopoly has been a bestseller for decades. Played by millions of people in over 100 countries across the world, it has been translated into many languages in order to produce localised editions.

The origin story

For many decades, the origin story of Monopoly was as popular as the game itself. This story talks about an American game designer Charles Darrow, who, being unemployed during the Great Depression, came up with the idea of Monopoly in the 1930s. He set about making a home-made version of this game and sold them for $4.

When he could no longer keep up with the demand in 1934, Darrow wrote to American toy and game manufacturers Parker Brothers, asking them to make it instead. While they initially shot it down, they bought the rights to the game in return for loyalties after hearing about the massive orders over the Christmas season. The jobless Darrow - who had received the patent for his Monopoly game on December 31, 1935 - ended up as a millionaire, giving the story a near-perfect ending.

Goes back even further

Even though most of what is mentioned in this story is true, it doesn't suffice, especially as an origin story. This is because the roots of the game don't just stop at Darrow and the 1930s, but in fact go back even further. It was a woman by the name Elizabeth Magie, more popularly known as Lizzie Magie, who laid down the basics of this beautiful game. Born in 1866, Magie was exposed to journalism at a young age thanks to her father, James Magie, being a newspaper publisher. The idea of the Monopoly game started taking shape after her father shared his copy of American political economist and journalist Henry George's best-selling book Progress and Poverty with her. James, an anti-monopolist, drew from the theories of George and was able to inspire his daughter.

The Landlord's Game

Magie worked as a stenographer in the early 1880s and pursued her literary ambitions in the evenings. She also spent a lot of time thinking about creating a game that would convey the ideas of George. Magie applied for a patent for her game-the Landlord's Game - in 1903 and received it on January 5, 1904.

Magie had designed her game as a kind of protest against the monopolists of her time. In fact, she had two sets of rules for the game. While one of them created an anti-monopolist set that rewarded everyone with the creation of wealth, the other was a monopolist set where the players were encouraged to crush each other and create monopolies. She created this binary approach as a teaching tool to enable players to realise that the anti-monopolist way was morally superior.

Uncovered by accident

And yet, it was the monopolist version that caught the imagination of the people, with a version of it surviving to this day. It was one such version that Darrow too had played while visiting a friend of his late in 1932. Darrow freely borrowed from Magie's core ideas and created his own version, which he went on to sell to the Parker Brothers.

Magie's role in the invention of Monopoly was uncovered by chance when Ralph Anspach, an economics professor, began a long legal battle against Parker Brothers in the 1970s. Until then, Magie's contributions were either lost to history, or maybe even intentionally omitted. Even now, nearly half a century later, Darrow's name is more often associated with Monopoly than Magie's.

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Do board games improve math skills?

We've intuitively known that most board games have a positive effect on us. Be it mental well-being, some form of learning, or even strategizing, board games contribute immensely. Given that they also help us stay away from our devices during the duration when we are playing the game, they are bound to become more popular in the future.

A new study has now validated part of what we've known intuitively, stating that board games based on numbers enhance mathematical ability among children. Their results, which is based on a comprehensive review of research published on this topic over the last 23 years, are published in the peer-reviewed journal Early Years in July.

19 studies from 2000

In order to investigate the effects of physical board games in promoting leaning, the researchers reviewed 19 studies published from 2000 onwards. These studies involved children under the age of 10 and all except one focused on the relationship between the board games and the mathematical skills of the players.

Children participating in these studies received special board game sessions led by teachers, therapists, or parents. While some of these board games were numbers-based like Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly, others did not focus on numeracy skills. These sessions were on average held twice a week for 20 minutes over two-and-a-half months.

Based on assessments on their mathematics performance before and after the intervention sessions, the studies came to their conclusions. Right from basic numeric competency like naming numbers and understanding their relationship with each other, to more complex tasks including addition and subtraction, mathematical ability received a boost in more than half the cases.

Beneficial for all learners?

 While the review established the positive effect of numbers-based board games for children, especially those young, it would be interesting to find out if such an approach would also be beneficial for all learners, including first-generation learners. By improving their fundamental understanding of numbers. children stand to gain as it helps ward off their fear of mathematics and numbers.

The study, meanwhile, also highlighted the lack of scientific evaluation to determine the impact of board games on the language and literacy areas of children. This research group plans to investigate this in their next project.

There is a need to design board games for educational purposes, both in terms of quantity and quality. The researchers believe that this is an interesting space that would open up in the coming years.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is an unusual sport?

Ever played pillow fights at home? Did you know that pillow fight is indeed a profesional sport? Let’s learn about some of the unique and unusual sports.

ZORBING

A highly adventurous sport zorbing has the participants roll inside a zorb on a slope or a levelled surface. The participants fit themselves inside the inflatable bubble or a zorb ball and have only one task at hand- that is to reach the finish line as fast as possible. The sport uses two kinds of orbs viz a hamessed orb or a non-hamessed one. While the former has a smaller in-built capacity for one or two riders at a time, the latter can carry three to four riders at a time.

CYCLE BALL

Here is another hybrid sport, where you cycle and play football. This cycling game has two opposing teams on bicycles trying to trap and navigate the ball into the goal post using just the wheels of the cycle. Cycle ball is played indoors.

CHESS BOXING

Chess is a sport that requires mental agility, while boxing tests your physical strength. Now imagine blending these two. Chess boxing is a hybrid sport that combines chess and boxing. The sport has players alternating between one round of each discipline until one of them wins in either discipline. So you either win by knockout in the boxing rounds or by checkmate in the chess rounds.

WIFE CARRYING

A sport that originated in Finland, wife carrying involves male competitors racing, with each canying a female teammate. The first wife carrying event was held in Finland in 1992. Here, the teammates are not required to be legally married. The goal is to carry the teammate through a special obstacle track. There are no restrictions on how the female teammate is carried. Piggyback and fireman's carry (over the shoulder) are the most common. The team will be penalised if the teammate is dropped.

CHEESE ROLLING

An annual race held at Cooper's Hill, near Brockworth, Gloucester, England, cheese rolling competition has the participants hurtling down a steep incline after a cheese wheel. Traditionally the cheese is made from Gloucester cattle, an endangered breed. The event is said to be based on an old tradition that dates back some 600 years. The nine-pound double cheese wheel is set in motion from the top of the incline of Cooper's Hill and the participants charge after it, sometimes rolling down and tumbling down. The sport is also one of the dangerous ones as accidents are bound to happen as the participants move down the steep gradient of the hill. The person who crosses the finish line wins. The prize is the cheese wheel.

PILLOW FIGHTING

Pillow fights are not just a fun activity you indulge in with your siblings or cousins, it's become a professional sport now. This new combat sport moved into the boxing ring in 2022, as the first-ever professional "Pillow Fighting Championship (PFC)" was held. As many as 16 men and eight women having backgrounds in mixed martial arts and boxing took part in the first edition of the showdown. As per the rules pillows made of foam are used in the combat. Here two competitors stand six feet apart and try to hit the opponent over the head as many times as possible. The pillows need to be swung single-handedly with the fights comprising only three 90-second rounds.

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WHO WON THE IPL TROPHY 2014?

The 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was completed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the tournament had been suspended abruptly due to the pandemic situation in India.

The last time a part of the IPL was played in the UAE (the entire 2020 edition was played in the UAE) was in 2014. The first 20 matches of the 2014 edition were played in UAE as the tournament took place at the same time as the 2014 Indian general elections. At the end of the group stages of the 2014 tournament. Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) finished on top with 11 wins and 22 points. Both Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) finished with 18 points, but KKR had a better net run rate and hence finished second.

Mumbai Indians (MI) took the final play-off position with 14 points and a superior run rate than Rajasthan Royals. KKR defeated KXIP in the first qualifier by 28 runs to progress to the final. CSK defeated MI by seven wickets in the eliminator to make it to the Qualifer 2 against KXIP. The high-scoring thriller in Qualifier 2 finished in KXIP'S favour, who won the match by 24 runs to earn a place in the final.

Chasing 200 against KXIP to win the final, KKR did the unthinkable, winning by three wickets and just three balls remaining. KKR won the 2014 title to win the IPL for a second time.

DID YOU KNOW?

Losing finalist Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) produced the player of the tournament. Glenn Maxwell won the award for his batting fireworks through the tournament.

The Orange Cap went to a player from the champions Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR'S Robin Uthappa took the honour with 660 runs from 16 matches.

 The Purple Cap went to Chennai Super Kings' Mohit Sharma. Mohit finished with 23 wickets from 16 matches.

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How many Olympic medals does Michael Phelps have?

Michael Phelps is without doubt the best swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians ever. He finished his Olympics career, which he started as a 15-year-old at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Phelps has 28 medals in total: his 23 gold medals are more than double the count of his nearest rivals, and its not as if other swimmers have accrued silly numbers of medals, either. Apart from Spitz, Matt Biondi (USA, eight golds) and Jenny Thompson (USA, eight golds), no other swimmer worldwide has managed more than six gold medals in total. 23 is astonishing.

 Having not picked up a single medal on his debut, he ran riot in the next four editions that he participated to finish with an all-time record haul at the Olympics, in addition to the innumerable medals that he has picked up in swimming championships worldwide.

Phelps towers over the rest of the individuals in the Olympics medal tally and he is often peerless when looking to compare with other athletes. So instead, if we were to consider Phelps as a country, where would he be on the all-time medals tally? With 23 golds - 13 of which were individual golds - three silver and two bronze, Phelps the one-man country will have less than one-fourth of the over 200 countries that participate at the Olympics above him. And this is through the history of the games - meaning Phelps currently has a medal haul that is better than over 150 countries, including India. Yet this ranking sells him short in some ways, because four of the countries ahead of him are Germany, which over time has competed as Germany, West Germany, East Germany and the Unified German Team. Russia, the Soviet Union and and the 1992 Unified Team (made up of the 15 former Soviet republics) account for three more countries ahead of Phelps. If measured against the 205 countries now in Rio, the Republic of Phelps has more gold medals than all but 32 of them.

Credit : Archive.KPCC

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Is snooker an Indian game?

You might have never heard the name Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain. But it is through Chamberlain that the origins of snooker, a cue sport has an Indian connection.

Stationed in Jabalpur in 1875 as part of the British Indian Army, 19-year-old Chamberlain invented the game of snooker by experimenting with an existing game-a form of billiards - and adding more colour to it. In 1885, John Roberts, the then British Billiards Champion, visited India and met with Chamberlain during a dinner with the Maharajah of Cooch Behar. After enquiring about the rules of snooker, Roberts decided he would introduce the game back in England. Although it took many years before the game became widely played, by the end of the 19th century the manufacturers of billiards equipment had realised the commercial potential of snooker.

Snooker started growing in popularity from the 1880s and rose to prominence in the next half a century or so. While Chamberlain was busy working his way to become Sir Chamberlain, speculation regarding the game's origins increased.

On March 19, 1938, The Field carried a letter from 82-year-old Chamberlain staking his claim to inventing snooker. It helped Chamberlain that he had the backing of author Compton Mackenzie, who supported Chamberlain's claim in a letter to The Billiard Player in 1939. Chamberlain's claim as the inventor of snooker hasn't been disputed since then, forever cementing a link between the sport and our country.

Credit : Sky history

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Why did Elizabeth Magie create Monopoly Game ?

American Elizabeth Magie invented the Landlord's Game (precursor of the modern Monopoly) in 1904, as a sign of protest against the barons and monopolists of the Gilded Age (a period in the U.S. marked by materialism and corruption). The purpose of the game was: to educate people about how the rich were unfairly profiting off the labour of the commoners.

A progressive woman

She was heavily influenced by the writings of Henry George, a political economist and land reformer. His progressive views on taxes and wealth inequality were imperative in laying the foundation of the Landlord's Game.

Magie curated two different versions of the game - an anti-monopolist version where wealth created was equally distributed among all the players, and a monopolist version where everyone tried to get as rich as possible while bankrupting others. This duality was her attempt at demonstrating how the first variation is morally superior.

Magie's game patented

 Patented in 1904, the game was a hit among the masses, especially among the Quakers (a group of people who embraced equality and peace, and rejected war) of the Atlantic. But to her dismay, the game designed to educate people about the evils of monopoly ended up doing quite the opposite.

As its popularity gained momentum, people started customising and modifying the rules of the game while drawing the design by hand on fabric or table cloth. One of those people was Charles Darrow. His version had a circular board, and more cut-throat rules. He also added small illustrations of actual streets of the Atlantic city (with their names) and colour-coordinated them - to create the board we know today.

Her game is sidelined

In 1935, Parker Brothers bought the rights to Darrow's version of the Monopoly and added a portly mascot with a top hat and a cane (rumoured to be modelled around American banker JP Morgan). They also distributed metal tokens with each set inspired by trinkets Darrow had used from his niece's charm bracelet. While this deal made Darrow a millionaire, Magie's patent was bought by the brothers for mere $500.

The truth emerges

In 1948, with the death of Elizabeth Magie, the very truth of the origin of Monopoly had nearly died with her, as officially the company still credited Darrow as the inventor of the game. Things changed in 1973, when the Parker Brothers engaged in a legal battle with a professor named Ralph Anspach over the creation of his anti-monopoly game, and accidentally uncovered Magie's patents.

Even now, with more than a century under its belt, Monopoly is considered the best-selling board game in modern history, and has been translated into 47 languages.

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India’s Test win at Lord’s in 2014

India won the second Test at Lord's against England in 2014 to take a 1-0 win in the five-match series. Following the drawn Test at Nottingham, the two sides met at London in Lord's.

England won the toss and elected to field first. Even though wickets were falling around him, Ajinkya Rahane scored 103 to spearhead India's first innings total of 295.

Gary Ballance top-scored for England in their first innings.

His 110 and Liam Plunkett's unbeaten 55 helped England take the lead, as they posted 319.

Murali Vijay's 95 along with quick-fire fifties from Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the lower order helped India to 342 in their second essay. Chasing 319 to win the Test match, England were undone by Ishant Sharma. He picked up seven wickets as England were bowled out for 223, allowing India to win the match by 95 runs. Ishant Sharma was named the player of the match for his match-winning heroics in the final innings

DID YOU KNOW?

Despite winning this Test and taking a lead in the series. India went on to lose the remaining three matches in the five-match series, losing the series 3-1.

This victory was only India's second Test victory against England at the historic venue.

India's first victory at Lord's came way back in 1986. India had won by five wickets on that occasion.

While India lost at Lord's when they next played a Test at the venue in 2018, they won again in 2021 - by 151 runs.

Pictur Credit : Google 

What is Threes game?

There is almost no maths involved at all in Threes. It's a tiny puzzle that grows on you. What you need to do is try to shift cards together to make threes or multiples of three; the goal to create higher numbered tiles, each worth more points. Each tile in Threes is also a unique character, with designs that get more elaborate as the point values go up. The game ends when there are no moves left on the grid and the tiles are counted for a final score. Free for iOS and Android.

The player slides numbered tiles on a four-by-four grid to combine addends and multiples of three. For example, ones and twos merge to become a single "three" tile, two threes merge into "six", and two sixes merge into "12". Swiping the screen up, down, left, or right moves all of the tiles one square (if possible) on the grid in that direction and adds a new tile to the grid in the same direction. The color of the incoming tile is shown onscreen. Players can preview moves by sliding the grid without letting go. Each kind of number tile has its own personality, and new kinds of number tiles are introduced with a screen full of confetti when first unlocked.

Games of Threes typically last several minutes and end when no moves remain on the grid (usually when gridlocked with a single high number tile and many low number tiles). When a game is finished, there is no "game over" screen, but players receive a final score based on the rarity of the tiles (rather than the tile number values). The object of the game is to earn a high score. Outside of the game, players can review their scores and set Game Center challenges.

There are a total of 12 kinds of number tiles in the game with values from 3 through 6,144. There is also a 13th character that is unlocked when two 6,144 tiles are combined; this character is marked by a triangle rather than the number 12,288. When this character is revealed, the game ends and points are totaled as usual.

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What is Nekosan game?

Nekosan allows you to take on the role of a samurai cat test your reflexes as you infiltrate a dungeon to recover the stars that devious mice have stolen. Using one finger, jump, hop, and parkour your way through deceptive levels, using the walls and shape of your surroundings to help you reach higher and find the stolen stars. Your score on each level is determined by the amount of time it took you to complete all the stages in that level. Free on iOS.

The game starts off pretty easy, but things get a bit more complicated as you get further along, since new obstacles and challenges are introduced at a gradual pace. For example, spikes are thrown at you early on, but like any good gamer knows, spikes are bad, so you have to avoid them or you will lose a life. Eventually, you’ll also stumble across floating switches to toggle walls, swarms of mice, moving platforms, crushing pillars, and much more. If you have had any experience with platformer games in general, then you know the drill. If not, well, it’s pretty straightforward.

Nekosan can be fairly difficult if you don’t take the time to practice, so be prepared to run out of lives a lot. If you run out of lives, you’ll have the opportunity to continue, but at a cost. Otherwise, if you opt to not continue, you’ll have to try the level again from the beginning, and hope you do better the next time.

Credit : App Advice 

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SyFy’s Defiance television show and Trion World’s online game

The Syfy network and game developer Trion Worlds have debuted Defiance, a story that unfolds simultaneously on a TV show and in an online gaming world. For the first time, gamers have a chance to impact a show by playing an MMORPG. Defiance takes place on Earth 33 years in the future, after an alien war.

The show characters live in St Louis while the in-game characters live in San Francisco. In the first season, there are choreographed interactions between the show and the videogame, e.g., show characters might dictate gamers' missions: a doctor in St Louis might ask a team in San Francisco to find a medical device. In future seasons, gamers' decisions would influence the show, creating a new cross-media storyline.

Instead, Syfy is the one trying to tap a new money vein. Multiplayer online games can be lucrative, with gamers not only paying to play but buying virtual goods within the game. "Rift," the first title Trion made, generated revenue of $100 million within its first 10 months. But these sprawling online games, in which an unlimited number of people can play in one world at once, demand a lot of time from players. Most only commit to a few titles at a time. It's tough for new entries to hit critical mass.

The companies at first agreed to split a budget of $25 million for a game designed for personal computers. But the development schedule ballooned and the game budget nearly tripled as advancing technology made it possible to create versions for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

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Which are old school activities that will help you form strong bonds?

Season's greetings

Before technology became such an integral part of our lives, people would look for mail in their postbox Festivals and special occasions such as birthdays became even more joyful as kids waited patiently for a postcard or greeting card from their loved ones. If you ask adults, they might have saved a few of these cards over the years.

So this holiday season, why not go back in time and send personalised greetings to dear ones?

Pick up all your art supplies and get your hands on an A4 sheet or any other paper. Fold the paper into half and paint anything you like on the outside. On the inside, write a small personalised note or a general season's greetings message. You could refer online for inspiration.

Alternatively, if you are a tech sawy person, there are websites such as Canva that let you personalise your designs for greeting cards. You could do so, take a print out and add your sign or any other small message to it as well.

Once you are done, head to the nearest post office, post your greeting and wait for calls or cards from cheerful dear ones.

Make a new friend

Have you heard of penpals? Also known as pen friends penpals are people who write to each other regularly via postal mail. They are usually strangers whose relationship is based on exchange of letters. Having a penpal has helped people improve their language and communication skills, lean a new language, understand a new culture and form lasting bonds of friendship. As technology progressed the practice of communicating through letters slowly died down. Today, however, some still continue to maintain their traditional exchange of letten, while most have taken it online Most traditional penpals have a post Office box number that helps them maintain anonymity

There are online penpal clubs that let you connect with strangers around the world. They offer you privacy and security settings such as connecting only with minors, anonymity, as well as reporting messages. But there are also websites that help you find someone you can connect with via snail mail.

So, why not go the old school way and exchange letters and make penpals?

However, remember not to share any personal information such as photos and bank account details. Also do not send any money and keep your parents in the loop about your penal.

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Which are the fun games that can be played on Christmas Eve?

Guess the Christmas spoilers

This interesting and fun game can be played on Christmas eve with your friends online. A little prepping is required b start the game.

Prep work

First contact your friends and note down the names and the number of people participating in the game. Once you have the details, decide on their roles. If there are 10 people playing, you c assign four people as naughty kids and six others as ever. Decide on the number of rounds and assign different roles for each person for each round.

Game rules

Once everyone logs in, send them their roles before each round in private chat. The whole group of friends playing will be called the Merry Christmas group. Then, start the round. The Merry Christmas group discusses on the group chat for five minutes to identify the naughty kids. As names come up during the discussion, players can defend themselves and accuse others irrespective of whether they are an elf or a naughty kid to keep the game suspenseful. At the end of five minutes, the group has to unanimously name the naughty kids. If a naughty kid is identified, he or she is eliminated from the round. The Merry Christmas group then proceeds to identify the other naughty kids. You can play as many rounds as you like until all the naughty and modify the game according to the number of players.

Unscramble and draw

This fast-paced game tests your vocabulary as well as drawing skills. A little prep is required to start playing this game.

Prep work

Create chits of the letters of the English alphabet. Remember to feature each letter multiple times. Next, get your hands on some notepads and pencils and a timer. You could use your cell phone timer as well. And you are set.

Game rules

This game can be played by two or more players. The rules are simple. One player from team one picks up six chits. Once he picks up the chits, the time starts. Set the timer to two minutes. After picking the chits, he needs to decide on a word that he will draw and show to his teammate. This word should have been created from a few or all of the letters in the chits. His teammate now tries to guess that word. If she successfully guesses the word within two minutes, team one wins, earns a point and gets to play again. If not, the turn shifts to team two. If team one guesses the word, the opponent team can check the chits picked by player one and see if the word uses some or all of the letters he picked.

You can make this game more interesting by increasing or decreasing the number of chits picked as well as changing the time limit. You could also make it Christmas themed and give teams extra points if they form draw and guess a Christmas-related word.

Picture Credit : Google

How many people have played CoD in total?

The total number of people who have played Call of Duty is larger than the population of some countries in the world. To put that into context, the population of Germany is only 80.4 million!

It also took 25 billion hours of play time to fire them all, which is longer than humans have actually existed!

Warzone’s overwhelming success is no surprise, with over 100 million players in the game. However, it’s only gotten bigger. In an earnings document published by Activision, Warzone is currently sitting at a monthly 111 million players. While most of that playerbase is brought in because of Warzone being free-to-play, Warzone is also one of the biggest battle royale games out there because of its heritage. Holding the Call of Duty brand is one of the key factors in Warzone’s success. Combine that with the engine and gameplay of Modern Warfare 2019, which received critical acclaim for its back-to-basics gameplay, and Warzone is the best-case scenario for Call of Duty. 

Warzone has proven to be one of the biggest titles in the franchise. Combining the numbers between Cold War, Warzone, and Modern Warfare, there are more than 113 million players enjoying what Call of Duty has offered over the past two years. More players are also enjoying the entire library of Call of Duty titles, with each game holding a small yet active playerbase. Not many game franchises can keep that kind of player commitment, which touts Call of Duty as the only first-person shooter franchise to go to.

Credit : Esports Talk

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What is Dots & Co game?

Dots & Co is the third game from the maker of the addictive Two Dots and Dots. The game play is simple connect dots of the same colour to make them disappear. Each level has an objective to be accomplished in limited moves. New to Dots & Co are companions who provide valuable power-ups that help you reach your goals. One of the least stressful puzzle games out there, Dots & Co has colourful graphics and a cool soundtrack. Free for iOS and Android.

The most noticeable change is the new "companions" that help you in each level. Fortunately, these helpers are very subtle. You'll see them at the top of your screen as you play through a level -- a big penguin or eskimo smiling down on you as you play through the level. Throughout the playing field are companion dots; clearing those helps fill up an energy bar at the top of the screen. When it's full, your companion drops a special move in the screen to help you progress.

Probably the other biggest change is to the game's economy. Instead of starting with five lives that slowly regenerate after you've lost them, you use "energy" to start a level. Your meter goes to 15, and each level drops your level three points. Finishing a level regenerates energy -- but you'll only get all three energy points back if you "ace" the level and get three stars. So even if you keep successfully finishing levels, you'll run out of energy unless you consistently get three stars, something that could be tough as the difficulty ramps up.

Crucially, Dots & Co. retails the excellent, unique atmosphere and mood of the previous game. It's one of the least stressful puzzle games out there, with gorgeous graphics and an extremely chill soundtrack. It looks unique and feels like it's been put together with more care and love than just about any other mobile game out there.

Credit :  Engadget 

Picture Credit : Google