No, this isn't some desperate plea for you all to give me all the butt-kisses in the world - i'm talking about after-release support for Klik games, silly!

99.9999% of gamers who upload Klik games on The Daily Click never have anything to do with that game ever again. What does this mean? Well think of it this way; how many times have you downloaded a game, played a few levels, maybe finished it, maybe thought it was too short, never played it again? I know i have. There are many games on this fine site that i've downloaded and thought, "hey, this is a fantastic game!"

Then an hour later i'm playing a completely different game and and saying exactly the same thing, meanwhile the previous game is nothing but a distant memory.

So what, you might ask? Well, i've been playing Friendly Strike 3 tonight (which, incidently, i have also reviewed - check out the Reviews section and share your opinion) and it got me thinking about everything this game has gotten right. Of these, the biggest one that sticks out for me is the after-release service it offers to gamers, that is, the ability to design levels for the game and upload them. Other gamers can then download these games and play their friends on all manner of weird and wonderful creations. Fantastic!

To quote Dr. Emmett Brown, "Do you know what this means?"

Answer: this means that this game can be supported for weeks, months, years even, after it had been uploaded to TDC. Judging by the reaction to it in the Downloads section and the healthy and steady number of players from France, Britain, the U.S. and everyone else, there is every chance that this will in fact be the case. And the best thing about this is, the game's authors do not even have to do any extra work - all of this will come from the fan community!!

Looking at this from another angle, let's look at another multiplayer deathmatch game on this site, R.P.G. Rocket Propelled Guts (my own creation). Apart from the fact that this game is not online, there is no way that this game would last as long as FS3. Apart from the obvious omission of online play, R.P.G. has just 11 maps compared to FS3's 30+. Then, even when everyone is bored to death with those - which'll take a while, i'm sure - there are the many, many uploaded maps created by other gamers. So while everyone has finally played all there is to play of R.P.G., they'll still have new content to explore in FS3! Genius!

And longer play-time of this game could mean more downloads. More downloads could also mean more donations to the author.

So what else could we do to increase the life of Klik games? Here are a few suggestion;

1. Extra depth. Instead of extra maps for deathmatch games, how about extra missions in Role Playing Games? How about new NPC's or new quests to undertake? Imagine new factions forming and NPC's actions changing as new behaviours are downloaded. The author could change the way must be played week-by-week by simply changing the way the player has to adapt themselves to NPC's personalities. Quests could come from why these NPC's feel differently (something you could rectify may be upsetting them, for example).

2. The game's story. Storylines could evolve in ways much more organic and realistic than scripted games would. Think about the talking point it would provide for your gamers when something out of the blue occurs! THINK OF THE FORUMS!! Imagine making a game feel like a soap opera to gamers.

3. Evolution. If your game world is organic, why not have your players download updates that alter your game's landscape or the wildlife? You would never need to design everything before release and there would never be an 'end' to the way your audience views your world's ever changing form (until you get bored of updating, that is!).

These are just a few fairly similar ideas, but i think you can see that there is alot of support you can offer players of your games with downloadable content. And if you think outside the box and offer something completely different from normal commercial games, you could be on to a real winner!

I'm off to practice more on FS3 now though.....