Well, I initially got into computers (a long time ago) due to my interest in playing games, and pretty much every technology that has developed recently has been used for entertainment in some way. Google wave is no exception,  and here I will take a look at how Google Wave is currently used for gaming.

Extensions

The main way that games seem to be emerging on the wave is as extensions. They are normally added to a wave, allowing the wave participants to play games at each other. Most of the currently available extensions are implementations of or variations on older games, such as chess.  Most of them do not really seem to take advantage of the way that wave is structured yet, simply using it as a platform to run on.

One Extension which I think will really push Wave gaming forward would be one that incorporates flash into a wave itself, possibly even allowing it to interact with the structure of the wave.

Nomic

Nomic is a strange game, based around altering its own rules. There is currently at least on game of nomic going on in Google Wave, using the collaborative editing facility to keep track of the ever-changing rules.

Although Nomic as a game would only appeal to a very small subset of people, it provides a good example of a game that actually makes use of the Wave environment.

Roleplaying Games

Lots of people are trying to use wave as a medium for playing traditional roleplaying games online, by using the real time nature of the wave to create a more interactive experience, something between play-by-post and playing face to face. There are already several games going on Google Wave, including Shadowrun, Dungeons and Dragons and Spirit of the Century. the nature of the wave allows scattered people to play together, without the problems with using voice chat.

Currently, the support for RPGs is getting stronger, with LeeTwenty, a bot that is used for evaluation dice rolls in the wave, and various people working on mapping and tracking extensions.

In addition to games using already existing systems, the Wave Roleplaying System project (WRS) aims to create a roleplaying system, as well as supporting bots and extensions, which is designed specifically to be played on the wave.

Collaboration

As demonstrated by the WRS project, Google Wave provides an excellent environment for collaboration on gaming projects, especially at the design and brainstorming stages. There is a strong community of game developers, with a public wave devoted to discussing game development issues, whether they are wave relevant or not.

Future

Like everything else, gaming on the Wave is still in its infancy. I predict that gaming on the wave will become a big deal when Wave becomes open for the public. I believe that soon we will see an explosion of casual games on the wave, similar to ones that are currently available on Facebook, although structured differently for the wave environment.

We will also see smaller games, for five to six players on the wave. Probably starting with implementations of board games, before moving onto something more original.

Related posts:

1. Types of Waves
2. Random Lee Twenty Review
3. Top 7 Uses for Google Wave