Miniclip

Miniclip

File:Miniclip.PNG
Type of site	Internet games, E-cards & Animations
Owner	Robert Small
Created by	Miniclip Ltd.
URL	http://miniclip.com/
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Free

Miniclip is an award-winning online company, known for their browser-based games. The site was first launched in 2000 by Robert Small. Small was fresh out of university when he founded the company with Tihan Presbie in 2001, and today provides cartoons and Ecards alongside their selection of games that are classic as well as new creations. It is the world's largest online games website, with 34 million unique users per month and is also the largest privately held website on the Internet. Its popularity originally arose from a game called Dancing Bush. Most games are created in Adobe Flash or Shockwave. A few are written in Java. Miniclip currently offers content in English, Romanian, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese.

Site Features

Single player games can easily post high scores on the leaderboards which have daily, weekly, and monthly rankings. Most multiplayer games can also be played directly in a browser with and against millions of other players worldwide in games covering all genres and age groups. All games are free, but some can be purchased or upgraded to unlock the full versions or more features. Some multiplayer games have a monthly subscription fee to unlock all features. Single player games are available for purchase in the games store, where prospective buyers may also download playable demos (if available).

Miniclip also offers a £190 per enter "games room", an auto-updating table of the latest Miniclip games, that can be added to a blog, website, or message board. Some individual games can also be shared on user websites as well. Miniclip is most famous for the most famous free online game "Bubble Trouble".

Miniclip includes a toolbar. On the main page it has 3 game clips of the latest games.

Webby People's Voice Awards

Miniclip has won the Webby's Peoples Voice Award for "Best Games Website" in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. The "Webby's" are determined by an online poll open to everyone with Internet access.

Online Security Issues

Several security firms reported in 2005 that some Miniclip users had installed a DLL "miniclipgameloader.dll" which contains the hostile code identified as "Trojan DownLoader 3069". Removal tools are available. Reports in 2006 from the same security vendors show the same file as not containing hostile code. In 2006, the security firm Sunbelt Software reported that Miniclip installed "high risk" malware called "Trojan-Downloader.CR64Loader".

On September 1, 2006, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an advisory concerning Miniclip.. "The Retro64 / Miniclip CR64Loader ActiveX control contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. This may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. ... Although the ActiveX control is no longer in use by either retro64.com or miniclip.com, any system that has used certain pages of these web sites in the past may be vulnerable." None of these reports showed any hostile activity.

Games

Miniclip showcases a variety of games categorized in several genres including a special menu for visitors using the Wii browser. Some games are downloadable and usable on your own websites or message boards, while others have free game demo downloads to let the user play a trial before purchasing the full game or code to unlock more features. Games include: Bush Shootout, Trial Bike, Club Penguin and Heli Attack. Currently the site's top-rated game is Club Penguin, as it has the most people play it each day. However, if the number of people who play each game outside of Miniclip's Web page each day is relevant, Clubpenguin has the most players and is the most popular. Lately, however, many players of Clubpenguin have switched from playing the game on Miniclip, to playing it on Clubpenguin's official web site[1].

Forums

Players of Miniclip's games will notice that in the upper righthand corner of each game window is a link to that game's designated forum (if available) on the Miniclip message boards. Most new releases are given their own subforum where players can share tips and offer help to other players. In some cases, game developers (noted with a bold blue name) will aid in assisting the players. Forums designated for specific games that do not receive active posts for longer than two months are deleted, and discussion moves to the category "Other Miniclip Games".

Like most other forums, Miniclip also houses general discussion forums where users can chat about music, movies, video games, and sports, hold a debate, share and critique artwork, or tell a joke. Making sure the forums are problem free is a dedicated staff of moderators (noted with a bold orange name) that quickly respond to reports and violations. Overseeing the entire forum is a staff of administrators (noted with a bold green name), employees of the Miniclip company.

There is also a separate forum devoted entirely to Miniclip's current chart-topping game Club Penguin. The administrators decided that one subforum was not enough to contain the massive amount of posts and sub-communities in Club Penguin, so a new forum was in order and launched in March 2007, one year after Club Penguin's debut on Miniclip. This forum, managed by three assigned administrators with several game developers and forum moderators, contains discussion forums for all possible aspects of Club Penguin including in-game support, fan art, bugs and glitches, suggestions, in-game meetings, and member clubs. The Club Penguin Forums also have most of the same general discussion forums as Miniclip's regular forums, the only difference being that the Club Penguin Forums currently lack a debate and international chat section.

External links

• Miniclip
• Forums
• Corporate information from Companies House, UK

Nintrome