Metaplace is a browser-based community of user-created virtual worlds that also serves as an online games platform. Metaplace gives you the tools you need to create just about anything your twisted head can conjure — from casual social lounges to games both basic and complex — all with an extremely flexible set of building tools. If you can surf the web, you can use Metaplace, and this level of powerful simplicity makes it one of the most attractive virtual world communities around.

Are you ready for some hilarious multiplayer wordplay? See who can come up with the best acronyms in this resurrection of the classic Acrophobia! To us, Acrobabble represents the finest in CRAB (Creative Reverse-Acronym Building). You might even say Acrobabble is a COWARD (Cavalcade Of Words And Random Definitions). But I think we can all agree it is a DAWG (Darn Awesome Word Game).

In the simple and kid friendly Tree House Defense, another fun game on Whirled by Three Rings, made by Bill Robinson, protect your tree house from bullies, skateboarders, skunks, and other assorted neighborhood menaces. If you find that some of the elaborate tower defense games are bit too eye glazing and forbidding to get into, then this cute and simple game is a great place to start. So, it's probably not for the seasoned tower defense veteran.

From Kyle Gabler comes an experimental massively multiplayer online word association "game". To play, all you have to do is read the word (or words) on top, then type in the first thing that pops in your head. Human Brain Cloud collects these associations and dumps them into a database viewed with an interactive squishy set of blobs. It's a fascinating experiment that just so happens to be an addictive game to boot.

The Calamity Game is a web toy that combines the complex, physics-based building of Armadillo Run with the free-form creativity of Line Rider. The app lets you craft solid structures, draw, use anchor points, add directed force and connect everything up with springs. Calamity is forming a community of users who are creating and sharing some enormously creative scenes.

Game-Pure has released an update to their Oshidama series, this one is a collection of levels for the month of July. There are 6 fresh new levels to play and you can compare your relative success with them against others who have tried. As with the June collection, mousing-over each screenshot in the level select menu shows how many have tried the level ("challenger") and of those, how many were able to clear it.

Two updates to the orb-nudging arcade game Oshidama have been released. Oshidama Plus adds a wonderful Time Attack mode that lets you race against yourself for a better score, while Oshidama Monthly goes episodic with regular releases of extremely challenging puzzle-type levels. More Oshidama is always a good thing.

Chick Chick Boom is a combat-style game that pits two teams of chicks against each other in a small divided field. Draw your attack and defense moves on an egg at the bottom of the screen and try to best your opponent. Chick Chick Boom also holds the priviledge of being one of two Flash games to be sponsored by Nintendo.

The irresistible webtoy Line Rider has returned, now in a delicious "beta 2" flavor! The update fixes a few rough spots in the interface and adds some much-needed tools to the mix. Those of you already hooked on Line Rider will appreciate how much easier it is to create a masterpiece with the new additions, and first-time players will see just what all the fuss is about.

BrainBall is a collection of ten smart-making puzzle games that give your gray matter a workout every day of the month. Featuring logic, number, memory, spatial orientation and many more, BrainBall keeps the same types of games for one month but changes the content every day. Not only is your score kept and compared to other BrainBallers, but you can uh... what's that called? Learn! You can learn, too!

SissyFight 2000 is a free online multiplayer shockwave game that lets you take part in a good old fashion schoolyard tease-fest. Take your slandering skills to the playground and whittle down the self-esteem of the other girls by using scratches, grabs, teases, tattles and more. The game plays out in a series of rounds and works a lot like a complex version of rock-paper-scissors. The only difference is the loser of this game runs off crying.

Perfect for the impending holiday season, It's a Wonderful Internet is an interactive narrated storybook. Take in some soothing music as you listen to a classic holiday tale (tongue-in-cheek style) about a geek whose life is a little too dependant on the internet. Flip through the pages and interact with the scenery, and when the narration ends move your cursor around the pictures for some nice surprises.

Get Hostile is an abstract strategy game based on the board game Acquire. Like most great strategy games of its kind, Get Hostile packs an enormous amount of possibilities into surprisingly few rules. The object is simple: finish with the most money. However, there are many ways to do this, and not every strategy fits every game.

An absolutely gorgeously detailed 2D side-scrolling platform Flash game with production values that rival Nintendo's own offerings in the category. In fact, this one appears to have been commissioned by Nintendo as an advergame as it contains all sorts of delightful unlockable goodies—from screenshots and wallpapers to videos and ringtones—from several of Nintendo's latest DS handheld and Wii console offerings.

Direct from Mars comes this wacky collection of games on an equally wacky website. Disguised as a Martian gameshow: Know Like an Earthling, the site offers Australian's a chance to win fabulous prizes by becoming a membership (sic) to enter candy wrapper codes and, of course, play 30 silly games. You don't have to live in Australia for the latter.