Agar.io

[Leo2112]

Anyone else got sucked into playing this insanely addictive game?  It's free online here - http://agar.io/

Basic outline of how it works -

The objective of the game is to grow a player-controlled object, referred to as a cell. The player grows their cell by swallowing (non-player) pellets scattered around the map and other smaller player-controlled cells, while trying to avoid larger player cells.

In the browser version of Agar.io, the player controls their cell using the mouse cursor to navigate, the 'W' key to eject a portion of the player's mass, and the space bar to split their cell into two equal, smaller cells. Smaller cells are much faster than their bigger counterparts.

Splitting into two equal pieces (by pressing space) will cause one of the two pieces to move quickly in the direction of the cursor. This can be used to consume a smaller cell. This is useful because smaller cells are faster than larger cells, and the larger cell will usually not be able to catch up to the smaller cell without splitting. Consuming a cell this way is often called "splitkilling".

Shame you can't seem to be able to create your own game rooms yet, though that's probably likely to be implemented soon.

[Hank Venture]

Great game, just sucks how you're always eaten before you get properly big.

[Leo2112]

I've been number 1 a couple of times but have only held that for about a minute.  To get big your tactics have to be sound - keeping out of the corners and using the green virus things to your advantage are helpful.  It's funny how when you get properly big you regard the small players as mere flies to swat away while you focus on more meaty prey.

[Chairman Yang]

I keep coming back to this between delirious heat-stricken bouts of attempted productivity. My favourite two things about this game are

1) Playing the team game in a session dominated by say, the Greens; naming myself "Blue/Red Alliance!!"; then having a bunch of the other team sending me biomass and wrestling control away from the vile green tyrants.

2) Reaching a medium-big size in single player and knowing I'm about to be eaten by the number one spitefully dumping my entire mass into a nearby spiky green cell, spawning a second one and causing my pursuer to burst open like nine flabby grapes!

Although that's about as sophisticated as the game gets, some private servers with TeamSpeak and the like would be amazing.

[hamfist]

I played this for ages last night. My little blob was called AIDS and was more of a nuisance than a serious threat to the big wobbling organisms. I played as BROWN JESUS for a while. Then ANAL GRIEF. Oh and TEEN VICTIM.

For me that's the thrill. Picking a stupid name and annoying people.

[hedgehog90]

I saw some AIDS last night! Maybe we met?

[syntaxerror]

Is one of you playing as aidz right now?

[Leo2112]

Okay there has now been a 'Party' mode added to the game so we can do a CaB room if people want to play.

[Leo2112]

And here is the link for those who want to join - http://agar.io/#9YC8Q