ISketch

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iSketch
URL www.isketch.net
Commercial? No
Type of site Drawing website
Registration None
Owner Robert Wahlstedt
Created by Robert Wahlstedt
Launched 15 June 1999
Current status Active
The correct title of this article is iSketch. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

iSketch is a browser-based drawing game for all ages, similar to Pictionary.

Players take turns in drawing a word/s (using a mouse or tablet) while the rest try to guess. Puzzles come in over 20 languages and over 200 themes[1]. Difficulty level ranges from easy to expert. Guessers score when they solve the puzzle within a short grace period after the first correct guess. Artists accrue points for every correct guess within the grace period.[2]

Aside from the standard game rooms, players can create custom rooms where they tailor game settings and choose from a wider selection of word lists. Players are also presented with a private studio[3] where they can practice, and save or share drawings with others. Rooms categorized Social[1] include chat-only and lounge rooms. In general, player mentality is social: rules are mostly enforced by the players themselves, and it is not uncommon for player communities to spring up around certain rooms.

Registration is not required [4] in order to play. However, it is advisable to read the game instructions[2] prior to joining.


Contents

[edit] Game Rooms

Language Game Rooms
American English
British English
Afrikaans
Basque
Catalan
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Estonian
Filipino
Finnish
Flemish
French
Gaelic
German
Icelandic
Indonesian
Italian
Latin
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Slovak
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Game Room Variations
5 Strokes: Draw a puzzle using only five strokes
Anything But: Draw anything but the word itself
Big Picture: Draw one picture from a short phrase
Blitz!: The round ends as soon as one (versus several players) guesses the puzzle
Connections: Draw the current puzzle along with the last round's puzzle
Lounge: Drawing tools are passed from player to player
Tandem: Two artists collaborate to complete one puzzle
Two Words: Draw one picture using two random words
Special Subject Game Room Examples[1]
Anagrams
Animals
Food
Geography
Homophones
History
Movies
Phrases
Science
Songs
Trivia

[edit] Rules and moderation

Player Voting System
iSketch users have the ability to moderate the game in order to ensure fairness and adherence to the rules[5]. Regular players may warn[6] an artist violating a drawing rule. An artist loses his turn to draw when he receives warnings from three individual players. Subsequent offenses by the same artist require only one vote to invoke loss of turn. Users are also able to boot players from rooms using a similar voting method. Boot votes will remove someone from the room.
Game Administrators
When a vote is cast, Game Administrators are notified and will attempt to assist and intervene if necessary. Administrators may support the decision of the voting user, or suspend the user's ability to vote. Administrators can ban persistent offenders from the site.
User-created rooms
While pre-created rooms are moderated by Administrators, user-created rooms employ a system similar to IRC operators where the room creator has full control over rules. Controls include — but are not limited to — making the room private, assigning other moderators and ejecting players.
Filters
A user may enable filters[7] for pre-determined words, room names, emotes and profile icons.

[edit] Issues

  • iSketch requires Adobe Shockwave. Because of this, it is not possible to play iSketch on operating systems without the Shockwave player software, (such as Linux), unless a Windows compatible browser and Shockwave plugin, is installed and run through Wine. Here is a short how-to play iSketch on Linux (Ubuntu).
  • Shockwave does not support character sets other than ISO/IEC 8859-1, therefore characters may appear as squares and/or correct guesses may not be recognized on non-conforming systems. An adjustment to the computer's language settings is required to display text properly.
  • The game allows only a limited number of players; therefore one might see this message when trying to log on: The server is currently full. Please try again later.
  • Players may pass answers between each other via instant messaging or simply write the puzzle itself instead of drawing. These, and what is generally considered offensive behavior, are forms of griefing. Griefing can pose problems if target users are unaware/incapable of effective use of the boot mechanism or any of the other moderation features.

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ a b c iSketch Main Menu
  2. ^ a b iSketch Instructions
  3. ^ iSketch Studio
  4. ^ iSketch logon page
  5. ^ iSketch Rules
  6. ^ A warn button becomes available after a provisionary period is satisfied.
  7. ^ Player preference settings.

[edit] Further reading

"Yahoo! Picks of the Year". (Dec. 2000). Retrieved Jan. 2, 2007.

Williams, Felicia (Dec. 2000). "Games Grown Ups Play / An Online Doodle Dandy". PC World, p. 184.

2nd Place Winner, People's Choice Awards - Interactive Entertainment. Adobe/Macromedia UCON 2001. Retrieved Jan. 2, 2007.

Aquino, Grace (2001). "Review: The all-star team of online games". Retrieved Jan. 2, 2007.

"Ten Cool Sites". (Jan. - Feb. 2002). Exploratorium. Retrieved Jan. 2, 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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