Spigo - Fantastic site!

If you haven't heard of Spigo, well.. don't feel too bad. I hadn't either. *^_^* Now I know that Spigo is an international company with numerous sites worldwide! The North American site has only been open since 2007, so it's still pretty small. (Average of 750 visits per day.)

I have to admit, I'm pretty darn impressed with Spigo. It's polished, the games are great, the admins are helpful, and there are almost no ads!


Games

Spigo currently hosts 35 games and 5 scratchcards. Games are both single and multiplayer, and all include chat. The games are smooth and express an astonishing creativity! For example, I hopped into Mahjong today and counted 994 different layouts! O_O

Hands down, the biggest advantage to playing games at Spigo is that there are no ads before a game loads, and no ad interruptions during game play.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in. ^_^

Spigo gets most of their money from Gold membership, so there is very little advertising on the site. If you're a free player (like me) you'll find it quite refreshing!


Spigos

Spigos are the currency in Spigo. You earn them by playing games OR by buying them! $9 for 100,000 Spigos, or $25 for 400,000 Spigos.

I was surprised to see that people could buy Spigos, but after I thought about it I realized it wasn't a huge deal. They're basically buying lottery tickets, whereas I'm getting my tickets for free. See, the only thing you can really buy with Spigos are tickets for the Super Jackpot. (100 Spigos = 1 ticket.) The Super Jackpot is shared across ALL of the sites, so it gets pretty big. Right now it's nearly $45,000!

They *do* have a merchandise store where you can spend Spigos, but you need to be a Gold member to buy anything. Sadly, the postage (which you pay for) makes it a little ridiculous. I understand that they're shipping from the UK, but I wanted an inexpensive mousepad, dangit! *^_^*


Cash Prizes

The Super Jackpot is their main attraction, and it IS an impressive prize. The downside is that this is a global jackpot, so you have more competition than you may realize.

However! In the North American site, fifteen games have progressive jackpots with a max pot of $200! Additionally, there are daily scratchcards with cash prizes ranging from $20-$200!

I love scratchcards more than anything else, so this makes me very, very happy. ^_^

Membership

Every new account starts out with 5 days of Gold membership. I think that's absolutely genius! One reason I'm content with playing for free on many sites is because I don't know what I'm missing. *^_^* Starting every player out with a few days of Gold is brilliant!

Of course, you can play Spigo for free after the Gold days expire. But if you want to go back to Gold, here's what you'll get:

• Oodles of profile benefits! Including: Ability to open presents, look at photo albums, view profile pics, open mail, see profile visitors, and read visitors' comments.
• Access to Spigo shop.
• First in line in customer service.
• Undo and redo option in some games. Auto-spin for slots!
• Can change background music in games.
• Play games in full screen!
• Access to Gold-only games.
• Chat customization! You can change the background in chat, use spellcheck, change the layout, chat in a separate window, and draw in chat.
• No ads.

Nothing is crucial, it's all just icing on a lovely cake. ^_^

You can buy Gold days in increments of 10, 30, 60, 90, 180, and 360 days. As with most sites, longer plans are cheaper per day than the shorter plans. (50 cents a day on the 10 day plan versus 17 cents a day on the 360 day plan.)

If you REALLY get into Spigo, you may want to purchase some profile highlights. It's $3 for 2,500 highlights, or $6 for 10,000 highlights!

What does this do? Well, every time you log into Spigo you'll see a line of profiles near the middle of the page. These are people who paid for profile highlights. It's just an extra way to connect with people you might not ordinarily meet!


Profiles

There is a whooooooole lot that you can do with profiles! You can fill out questionnaires that range from silly to serious. You can make a diary to keep people up to date. You can make photo albums. You can even add recipes!

AND the "basic" profile description page has tons of features. You can add backgrounds, pictures, videos, music, just about anything!

The one downside (in my opinion) is that your profile picture has to be a portrait. That is, it has to be a real photo of you. All pictures are approved one at a time before they're put on the site!

I don't put my photos online, so that means I'm blank. :( Ah well.

Community

Spigo is the first site I've reviewed that has chat admins. There usually is at least one on at any time, which is nice. ^_^ They're all volunteers, but so far every one I've talked to has been extremely helpful and knowledgeable!

People all over have been very friendly. When I first joined and said that I was new, I think I got about 5 friend requests right then and there! That's always fun. ^_^

If you like socializing, there are daily tournaments, teams, and clubs to join too! I debated on making a Free2WinGames club, but nah. Maybe later!

Spigo also hosts several events during the week, where they often give away Spigos, Gold days, and merchandise! Hopefully I'll remember to attend some of those. *Knocks on wood*

Twitter users can follow Spigo here, and Facebook fans should head here. Right now neither page is very active, but that may change!


Layout

The site is laid out beautifully, but it's not 100% intuitive. I've been exploring Spigo for several days now and I *still* get lost! (For example, today I spent 30 minutes trying to re-find a banner making page. It was under the "Earn Spigos" section, even though you don't earn anything for having a banner!)

If all you want to do is play games then you don't need to worry. ^_^ But if you start digging into the numerous features on Spigo, expect to get a little lost once in a while.

Final Opinion

The more time I spend on Spigo, the more impressed I am! Spigo definitely has a stronger social aspect than most sites. Yet I can't say that the games are secondary, because they're all really good too!

I wish they had more prizes available, but I understand that the North American site is still small. They just don't have the same resources as larger sites. Hopefully they will continue to grow in popularity!

I've added Spigo to my list of daily sites because of the scratchcards. ^_^ But I know I'll stick around for the games too. They're addictive!