Just a couple of years ago, non-gamer oriented free games were not considered a serious threat to the gaming business.

Now that the non-gamer-oriented console Nintendo Wii is crushing its competitors (Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3) in sales, it’s something game companies need to think seriously about.

This has shown that there is a huge market for non-gamers who want fun, easy-to-use and hassle-free gaming experiences to while away their free (or work) time.

Basically, anyone with the right skills and software can do anything (albeit limited to a 2D environment) in the world of free online games. Now you can see hundreds of remakes of old classics, from Mario to Sonic, from Tetris to totally new game mashes, spawning amazing new genres that have thousands of people glued to their PCs, ignoring work.

A particular genre (or game type, whatever) has a particularly interesting history. It’s called Tower Defense, which many gamers refer to as a form of cybersport itself. The idea is that you have a base, a path and a selection of units. You have to build these units, or towers, around the path. The path starts off screen and leads to your base. You have to carefully position your units around the path to kill all the enemies that use it to reach your base. There is a lot of financial strategy involved, as well as quick reaction times and careful planning.

The interesting thing about this genre is where it was born. The roots lead to a game called Warcraft 3 from Blizzard Entertainment. That game allowed you to make custom maps, and one of the examples provided by Blizzard was a Tower Defense game. It wasn’t long before many variations appeared, resulting in a very popular modification of the initial game scheme. It was fun, simple and entertaining. The key was the multiplayer aspect and the simplicity of it. Any player, even with a fairly low skill level, could easily go ahead and compete (or cooperate) with the best players on the map.

This was a fad for a long time in Warcraft 3, but it eventually ended up getting flash processing and became a popular free-to-play genre of games that thousands of people enjoy today.

At the same time, there were backwards stories. A game called Alien Hommid originated as a flash game and was acquired by Microsoft, and is now available to download as a paid Xbox Live Arcade game.

While free-to-play games aren’t likely to kill off the most demanding gaming market, they certainly took a large chunk of the gaming business’ market share. Let’s hope they don’t take over completely.