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

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

Players take turns in drawing a word or words (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 1 Game Rooms 2 Rules and moderation 3 Issues 4 References and notes 5 Further reading 6 See also 7 External links

[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 Latvian 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 Famous Faces: Five-minute rounds with an emphasis on portraiture 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 Colors Food Geography Harry Potter 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.

• Adobe 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

• Yahoo! Graffiti

[edit] External links

• Play iSketch (requires Adobe Shockwave)
• iSketch Communities (English): iSketchforum, I-SketcherAddicts, MSNiSketch
• iSketch Communities (other languages): Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish/Latin American, Spanish, Brazil
• Gallery - sample iSketch puzzles and drawings