PlayCafe.com - Live Online Game Shows

Game show fans across the globe can compete on free, live game shows streaming at PlayCafe.com. The games currently air Monday-Friday from 6-8PM PST, but plan to expand to four hours per day in the near future (from 5-9PM PST), and PlayCafe says its goal is 24/7 programming. Winning players or teams earn raffle tickets toward the weekly raffle, with prizes ranging from a free song on iTunes to a Nintendo Wii or $1,000 cash. There are three game types currently in rotation: Mix and Match, Predict the Poll, and Media Mash-Up. In Media Mash-Up, players are presented with a short media clip (like a song, picture, or movie) and then asked several questions about it. Both speed and accuracy determine your score. Throughout the game, viewers watch live action streaming from the studio and can call in or interact with others in the chat rooms. Fans can put a PlayCafe widget on their website or social networking profile, which allows playing along from there.

“PlayCafe is the first online game show network! Every Monday through Friday at 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST, we stream live, interactive game shows where YOU are the contestant. You can watch our live crew, play a variety of games, chat in real time with other players, and win prizes.”

PlayCafe.com has already received funding from First Round Capital, and is seeing 250-300 players per night. The prizes are fairly attractive and the questions are a good mix of challenging-but-accessible for the average user – anyone with some common sense and a little knowledge of current events and pop culture could have some success on this game show.

Is there some option for playing games or otherwise earning raffle tickets for the 22 hours a day that the show is not streaming live? It’s also worth noting that the personalities of the hostess and others in the studio will play a big part in your experience on this site, particularly during a live show. I actually found them to be pretty entertaining and funny, but there is a lot of chit-chat and joking around during the downtime between questions, so how an individual player feels about the on-screen personalities could really affect their user experience and whether they stick around in the long run.