Throughout your day you have probably seen people playing one of a handful of similar looking games.

Now you, of course, are not playing it, but watching a snake, powerline, or spherical blob consume sustenance (in the form of other players) entranced you, forcing your attention onto your classmate’s screen. These things in question are a series of free, accessible “.io” games, which have taken the internet – and Elder – by storm. The question remains however: Which one of these games (slither.io, powerline.io, or paper.io) is the best?

But first: what is a .io game? An .io game, as mentioned before, is usually a free, easily accessible, multiplayer game that can be found on the open web. They usually resemble something along the lines of the classic “snake” game, with the general concept remaining the same: eat all the food and grow big. The twist on this premise though is that you are playing against other people and that they can eat you as easily as you can eat them. In these games, you play as things ranging from a snake to even a powerline, and sometimes you don’t even try to eat people, you play a game of “guess what I’m drawing” instead.

The first people I asked were Ethan Plagge and Ethan Pfaffinger who said that they both really liked Paper.io because it is “a fun time killer”. Both of them agreed that there isn’t necessarily a “bad” .io game, but that there are just ones that are more fun than others.

In Paper.io itself, you play as a square and attempt to draw the largest blob as possible, with the risk being that there is a possibility you’ll be cut off from your home “base” and subsequently die. In terms of .io games, Paper happens to be my personal “fav” also, because, well, its just a good game.

Another person I asked was Jack Bruggeman who said that Slither.io was by far his favorite. He gave out his reason being that Slither is “simply a classic” and that, basically there is beauty in its originality. Slither.io, as the name may hint at, is a game where you play as a snake/worm and basically runs like normal snake but multiplayer. Another Jack I asked was Jack Bailey who reported that his favorite was Hordes.io. The reason he stated he liked Hordes was because “it is different” and that he feels there “is an actual goal”.

The final person I interviewed was junior Chris Jamison who told me that he liked it just because “it’s a fun game”. Such a straightforward answer.

In conclusion, it seems that the overwhelming majority of people favor Paper.io. Whether it be one of the two Ethans who like it because it’s a good time killer or simply because “it’s a fun game”.

The results seems to be in: everyone likes Paper. Overall though, there are dozens of different .io games out there to choose from. Even the pickiest person should be able to find a version that they enjoy.

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Seeing who is going to die first