One can hardly escape any exposure or any knowledge of eGames. They have been lurking as fanciful kids’ video games in their early inception. The big leagues started coming in when the home computer at that time was simply seen as a device where kids and adults can enjoy a good game produced by Nintendo, Atari and the like. Those very simple games that come in basic visual pixels and limited movement evolved into an almost virtual reality especially when the world finally came to realize how the internet can truly connect everyone — including enjoying the eGames at the highest level.
eGames on its own is now a multi-billion industry. It has also evolved into not just eGames for fun but also eGames that can be used as tools for learning, entertainment, multimedia environments, source of a decent livelihood and, most of all, our favourite scope of the lot, getting all casino games online among other virtual eGames that we can wager real money on. Developers have also been nonstop in coming up with new eGames as well as constantly improving the existing ones. Usually, there’s a brief pause if an eGame needs to be born into a second wind of popularity or a higher tier of eGaming experience for existing players and attract new players into the fold.
Here’s our take on eGames. Read on and get some clarity on how eGames and eSports differ. We’ll also dive into what the best eGames are currently available in the Philippine arena. There are also details that can get you warmed up and be aware of how you can make a smart choice on which eGame you can enjoy.
Intro to eGames
The term eGames, e-Games or eGames in the Philippines can get a tad confusing. If one searches to find out more about the local eGames and their scope, it connects to several entities that don’t lead to the right topics one is looking for.
This is coming from having a company registered as EGame, as well as PAGCOR’s chain of online casinos and traditional casinos, which are also tagged as eGAME or eGames. Let’s just stick to the complete name, electronic games or electronic GAMES to avoid any confusion.
Let’s start with defining what Electronic-Games is all about. They are used as a generic term for any recreational stand-alone video game that can be played on various devices like the PC or desktop computer, your laptop, e-pad, or other mobile devices. The video games are available online or offline and accommodate one or more players. Its history covers how the video game evolution has been seen since the early 1970s.
The devices in which Electronic-GAMES are played are commonly referred to as “platforms”. This also includes video consoles (commonly connected to television sets), arcade consoles, handheld game machines, and server-based networks. The video game can also be used as a general term for these games.
eGames: How Does it Work?
Developers and players of eGames alike do share one main objective and this is to be able to enjoy a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player (or several players) can play. That’s why video games and eGames are used interchangeably to refer to these online or offline games enjoyed on numerous platforms.
Getting to know the nooks and crannies of how eGames work can be a bit daunting. We’ll try our best to get this as simple as possible without losing the true essence of how exactly an eGame works. Let’s first look into architecture. All eGames share the same basic architecture and this is a game loop.
eGame backbone: the Game Loop
A game loop is a piece of code that runs tens to even hundreds of times per second. This tells the hardware what to draw on the screen. One cannot avoid building a game loop to be able to build an eGame.
Hardware comes next. Computers have to be fast. Super, mega fast. The human eye and brain perceive images individually if there are only 10 to 12 frames shown per second. This means that games should run like a movie where there are 24 frames per second run. Imagine the ton of information and space needed just to have the game fluidly moving.
Speed: Frames Per Second laid out with CPU and GPU
Coming from how continuous motion is perceived, the minimal frames per second should be 30 or 60 frames per second. Smoother animations equal a higher framerate, the more convincing the motion is. The higher the framerate the less time you have to generate the next frame. This is why the speed of the computer is needed to keep things flowing. This is now where the programmer and game designer will need to choose how the operations will create your game.
Modern video game systems have a main processor with several cores called the CPU (central processing unit) which carries out a wide variety of tasks. The second part would be the GPU (graphics processing unit) where enhanced mathematical computation capability takes place. Having a strong balance and capabilities from both CPU and GPU will spell a great eGame on hand.
Stepping from Code to Screen
The update function gets called and how it tells the frame buffer to update is handled by libraries like SDL and OpenGL or an engine like Unity or Unreal. The update loop runs as it updated the picture on the screen. This is called by the game 30 or 60 times per second. When the update function is trying to do too much this is when the game goes laggy — since the refresh rate won’t be consistently at pace.
Graphics are expensive and an AAA game spends up to 60% of frame time on graphics alone. Again, if there are 60 frames per second (fps) there are just 0.005 seconds to handle everything else in the game. This means that in that 0.005 of a second, the game has to respond to the player’s input, fire off sounds, update the environment, handle AI, to do physics and collision detection.
To put this in a simpler perspective, the three main stages of a loop are updating the player input, updating the game world, and then telling the graphics card what to render. This is the beating heart driving the game forward.
eGames Casino & Online Casino Gaming: What’s the Difference?
There is a wide span of eGames that can be considered a whole universe of games for an equal amount of players with their own unique individual preferences. To get things clearer on which aisle you’re on we’ll be discussing what the differences are between eGames that are in online casinos versus online casino gaming.
eGames Casino and Online Casino Gaming
There is not a stark difference between the two terms here. It’s more accurate to say that they do overlap in usage as well as definition. When it comes to eGames in casinos, these include the old classics that were once enjoyed only in traditional brick-and-mortar casinos: poker, blackjack, baccarat, roulette, and of course, lots and lots of slots.
Now when one talks about online casino gaming — this covers the whole package — and not just the variety of eGames found on one casino site or operator. For online casino gaming, one considers how the bonuses, rewards and freebies fare. This also includes if there are options to play live online casino games that have either real dealers or highly convincing virtual dealers in the game.
eSports in its own league
Just to have additional distinction, eSports and eGames are vastly different from each other. In a nutshell, eSports or electronic sports is a video game that involves multiplayer competition between professional players. This can be a team or an individual. There are tournaments that are classified into amateur or professional gamers with diverge with major prizes apt for the level of skill or difficulty. Pre-pandemic, these tournaments are huge live events that garner thousands of participants as well as global media coverage. Professional players are salaried while amateurs or non-professionals can slowly start building their own lucrative income by participating in tournaments that offer prestige as well as significantly huge sums of prize money. The most popular Esports games: League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Dota 2, and Call of Duty among others.
eGames in General
EGames or electronic games are interactive games that can be played by one or several players. The variety can range can suit a toddler straight through a professional casino player. Such a wide range of choices hails from how eGames began and continues to evolve. eGames played like arcade consoles, personal computers, laptops and smartphones.
There are different types namely:
- Action games: players must overcome physical challenges.
- Action-adventure games: players have tools or items to collect to be able to improve or move to the next level of the game
- Adventure games: players interact with the environment and other characters in the game, solving puzzles and the like — as the game progresses
- Role-playing games: players take on imaginary characters and engage in the adventure
- Simulation games: emulates real or fictional reality
- Strategy games: players develop strategies and tactics to overcome challenges
- Sports games: imitate sports like basketball, tennis, golf, and soccer all the way to Olympic sports like skiing and even pub sports like darts and pool.
- Logic or puzzle games: single screen and requires the player to solve a problem to progress
- Idle games: simplified games with minimal player involvement like clicking an icon to get currency.
The popularity of eGames Casino in the Philippines
How to measure the popularity of eGames Casino locally would be synonymous with how money talks in the industry. Let’s take a look at the available data so far on how eGames Casino has grown in leaps and bounds over the years.
Despite the pandemic conditions — or maybe even because of it as well — there has been double-digit revenue growth in the gaming industry. According to PAGCOR (state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation), gross gaming revenues (GGRs) grew by 14% to PHP113.09 billion in 2021 from PHP98.8 billion in 2020.
Earnings from bingo operations, electronic games and electronic sabong increased by 28% to PHP16.55 billion. Casinos managed by PAGCOR like Entertainment City improved earnings by 20% to PHP78.96 billion while Clark registered a 9%growth to PHP8.73 billion.
Currently, PAGCOR has P3.48 billion in the nine months to September this year (2022), skyrocketing by nearly 1,800% from the comparative period last year (2021), amid the continued reopening of the economy as the country moves toward the new normal.
Top 5 Best eGames Casino in the Philippines
Here are our top picks for the best eGames Casino in the Philippines thus far for November 2022:
- 22BET: Welcome bonus of 100% up to ₱18,000
- ICE Casino: Welcome bonus of up to $1,500
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- Megaslot: Welcome bonus of up to $10,000
- King Billy: Welcome bonus of up to ₱13,750
