I have played games at Pogo for years. Naturally, the site and the game offerings have changed throughout the years. Still, I go back every now and again when I am looking for a way to kill some time. Recently, my mom has taken up using the computer. She’s a bit older and isn’t real familiar with how computers run. She’s one of those people that is afraid of hitting the wrong button, so she asks a lot of questions (usually the same questions over and over) because she’s worried she will mess something up that I cannot fix.
That being said, she loves Pogo. She plays Poppit for hours, along with their other games. I have been trying to find ways to help her learn more about the computer. In the meantime, she has gained wondrous mouse skills from playing all of those games. Recently, we were approached by EA Games about trying out Club Pogo, the paid monthly subscription service that EA/Pogo offers. To put it mildly, mom was ecstatic.
Actually, at first she wanted to know what the catch was (mom can be a bit of a skeptic). I told her there was no catch. She’d get one month of Club Pogo and all we would have to do is review the experience. She was excited about this, because she can be fairly hard to please. She thought (and I agreed) that she would be the perfect judge for this sort of thing.
The first thing she noticed was one of the things that make the added small monthly fee worth paying for, in my opinion. Club Pogo removes all of the ads that crop up on Pogo.com. For example, when you are waiting for the game window to load there are no advertisement banners. This is by far the best part of Club Pogo.
When mom used the non-paid Pogo she would often call me in asking if she really won $10,000 or a new vacuum or if this item or that could really do what it claimed. It reminds me of that scene in 12 Monkeys where Kathryn Railly has to remind suspected mental patient, James Cole that the commercial playing on the car radio isn’t actually a personal message to him. Not to say my mom is a mental patient, of course, but sometimes she reads too much of her screen for her own good.
There are several other features beyond the ability to block ads. A mini-mall is available to dress up your avatar. In the mall there is everything from backgrounds to outfits that you can choose to enhance your virtual character. Rather than actual money you can use gems to pay for the purchases in the mall. When you sign up for a paid membership you are given a certain amount of gems and then have to purchase more. You might be able to win more, though I am not positive about that. If you have to pay for more I don’t think this feature is even worth considering when it comes to buying a Club Pogo membership. However, if you can win the gems to enhance your avatar then I don’t see a problem with it.
Game Badge Challenges allow you to compete with friends and other users to win new game badges and you have a chance to win double the jackpots (something mom finds particularly worthwhile). The biggest draw beyond the ads though has to be the additional Club-Only games that are offered. We have included a list for you below:
Card Games: (Tri-Peaks Solitaire, World Class Solitaire, Canasta, Jungle Gin, Pogo Addiction Solitaire, Pinochle, Aces Up, Thousand Island Solitaire, Perfect Pair Solitaire)
Casino Games: (Monopoly Slots, Hog Heaven Slots, Lottso, Everyone Wins Bingo, Dice City Roller, Texas Hold’em Poker, KenoPop, Fortune Bingo, Casino Island Blackjack, Greenback Bayou)
Puzzle Games: (Phlinx, Mahjong Garden, Jigsaw Detective, Squelchies, Pop Fu, Penguin Blocks, Quick Quack, Makeover Madness, Stellar Sweeper, Crazy Cakes, Battle Phlinx, Harvest Mania, Wonderland Memories, PoppaZoppa, Beaker Creatures)
Word Games: (Word Whomp Whackdown, Qwerty, Word Search Daily, WordJong, Word Craft)
Board Games: (Super Dominoes, Blooop)
Arcade and Sports: (Shuffle Bump, Boardwalk Sea Ball)
If you sign up to Pogo as a new gamer you can get 14 days of Club Pogo free with 25,000 tokens. Whether or not you need Club Pogo will ultimately depend on how much you use Pogo and how much time you spend online gaming each week. If you find yourself playing a lot of games, Pogo gives you a good chance to play plenty of games, be part of a community, and maybe even win some pretty cool prizes. The cost of a membership is less than $10 per month and around $40 a year. All in all, if you spend a lot of time gaming and you’re sick of weeding through all the usual ads you see, this could be well worth the price you’ll pay to get rid of them.
Technorati Tags: Club Pogo, Games, Casual Games, Community, Arcade, Sports, Board Games, Cards, EA, Gems
Written by Ashtyn Evans – Visit Website
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Ashtyn is in her early 30s. She is a mother, writer, college student, and music lover. Ashtyn has had a successful career as a writer since 2003. She turned to blogging in 2005. Ashtyn attends Wright State where she is getting a degree in Psychology. She has extensive knowledge in SEO and Social Media Development.
