Points and Chatting

I've spent quite a bit of time playing a game called Toss the Turtle. It's relatively simple. A turtle gets launched and the goal is to get it to keep flying as long as possible. Depending on the amount of feet you reach, the more points you get. You are able to use these points to purchase "tools" that make the turtle go even further. I've won a few badges using this game. Each badge is worth a certain amount of points which show up on your profile. The goal is to get as many points as possible in order to keep building up your profile within the game of Kongregate. You can also gain points by rating other games which I have yet to explore, as well as create your own game to gain extra points.

I've experimented with the chat option. There is a chat icon on the right hand side of every game. The chat rooms do not coincide with which ever particular game you are playing at the time. You are able to access any chat room while playing any game. There are about 100 chat rooms and they show the number of participants within each chat. The maximum number is 300 people. Some of them have themes, but they're mostly just created by users who have quirky interests. There are also chatrooms distinguished by language if you so choose to participate them as well. I have participated within several chat rooms. People are very willing to respond to whatever I comment upon. I've found that the conversations are typically dominated by 2 or 3 people. It is difficult to get a word in because they have their own conversation going that is sometimes hard to follow. It seems that some of the participants have gotten to know each other and seek each other out in chatting rooms. It is interesting because they're conversations never pertain to the Kongregate games. I really believe that high school students are using Kongregate as a chatting outlet similar to what teenagers of my generation used similar to aim or yahoo instant messenger. Participants like to talk about their interests and most often just make fun of each other. I find it hard to believe that participants within the chat rooms are playing games at the same time. They respond so quickly to each other! It makes me question if they're even using the site to play games at all! They kind of just hang out together online. Here is a screen shot of what this might look like: