GameTable Online (abbreviated as GTO) is a popular web game portal that specializes in online adaptations of board, card, and dice games. Their game platform offers both head-to-head play against other players or computer opponents for single player mode. As of September 2010 GameTable Online offers 28 games. Their best known games are checkers, chess, hearts (game), and Axis & Allies. There is a mix of free and "Premium" games. The "Premium" games are the most popular and to play those against other humans requires an activation fee per game title.
GameTable Online use Java to launch and play their games. They can be played on Windows, Macintosh and UNIX computers and require a web browser and the common Java download. The GameTable Online user base is predominantly English speaking and the website supports no other languages.
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GameTable Online was founded in 2001 by Joe Minton. As the President of Cyberlore Studios, Minton sought to build a website that focused on tabletop games rather than typical computer games. [1] In 2003 GameTable Online went public with their first set of 5 games. Since 2003, games have been added gradually. Traffic jumped up significantly when they began hosting a number of games by Wizards of the Coast. These games were developed by GameTable Online for Wizards of the Coast's Gleemax game site in 2007-2008 but by September 2008, Wizards of the Coast abandoned the Gleemax game portal.[2] In the aftermath, GameTable Online adopted the games at their website. The games from this arrangement were Acquire, Axis & Allies, Battle Cry, Guillotine, and Vegas Showdown.
The games at GameTable Online span the range from public domain classic, "beer-and-pretzel" light games, German-style board games to "Ameritrash" strategy games. Games that are based on licensed game properties are built with the permission of game publishers and/or designers and are modeled to look their real world counterparts. Despite the strong presence of Wizards of the Coast games, GameTable Online features games from a variety of publishers.
GameTable Online's game list (as of September 24, 2010):