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As times become a little bit harder and we are forced to tighten our purse strings due to the current credit crunch, and huge financial organizations such as the Royal Bank Of Scotland who owns Direct Line, Churchill Insurance, Green Flag and many more brand insurance names, announcing losses we sit and wait to see how these insurance companies in general will react to the credit crunch, will they increase insurance premiums or not? There are two things to consider, do they reduce their premiums in the hope to get more customers and be more competitive, or do they increase their premiums in the hope of recouping any losses.
Lets break the options down

Car Insurance
As this is a legal requirement you would think it would be unlikely that this market will be affected much, presuming an insurance company makes as much profit on a small cars premium that a larger engined one, taking into consideration he risk factor. However, there is a risk that this will become the only guaranteed insurance purchase a normal family will make.

Home Insurance
This is where those families that are feeling the pinch may just delay paying their renewal home insurance premium, until funds are available or maybe choose not to renew at all. This is the first level of reduced sales that the insurance organizations will need to recoup their profits. Of course not having home content insurance can be very dangerous, financially if you were to surfer a fire or theft. Buildings insurance however, may stay constant, as it is a normal requirement of having a mortgage, so there is a likelihood of buildings insurance premiums increasing.

Life Insurance
If you already have an ongoing policy it is unlikely that many would stop paying into it, as you could risk losing the money you have already paid? Depending on the type of agreement you have of course. But those who were looking to start a life insurance policy may now have second thoughts, so you could predict a downturn in life insurance sales through 2008. It is likely that insurance organisation may increase premiums either to existing policies or new polices to cover extra costs

Breakdown Insurance
Normally seen as a non essential policy, but thousands of motorists every year get caught out, with their vehicle breaking down and then being faced with a huge garage bill. There have been some remarkable prices for basic roadside polices this year. Green Flag which is owned by RBS, have policies as low as 25 GBP's, the price has now gone up a little higher, but still cheaper than previous years, this seems to be mirrored by other breakdown cover companies also. This may be an insurance policy where bargains can be made. Insurance companies who provide the service, know this is not seen, as an essential policy to many motorists, so it is likely prices will remain competitive throughout the credit crunch to get your name on that agreement.

Of course the above is all just a guessing game and no one really knows how the credit crunch will affect everything we do this year and next year. But it is important to understand that premiums could change in the future and to also remember why have the right insurance policy could protect you and your family and taking a risk not to have any insurance or a policy not suitable to your needs, could have a very high cost, credit crunch or not.

Mark is webmaster for Green Flag and Financebam.

From the very earliest computer games, one of the most popular aspects that helped to make them so popular was that they could support multiple players, meaning that more than one person could play the game at the same time. This meant that people could play against each other in competition, so that it was not wholly a player versus computer environment. Most people enjoy competing against friends and family, and reveling in success. Most of the highly popular computer and video games available today are multiplayer games.

The idea of multiplayer has three different meanings or interpretations, however. The first, and original, multiplayer games were simply those in which you took turns. The first player would attempt a level, or complete a race, or carry out some other task which would be measured in some way - perhaps with a high score or time. Once they had either succeeded, completed the race or failed at whatever task they were challenged with doing, the next player would take over and have a go. In this way, each person was able to have a go at the same task, and try to beat each other by either getting a higher score, a faster time, or by using whatever other measurement of success.

The second type of multiplayer game to come along, and which is still around today, are the split screen games. These work best for races, where the screen can be wide but fairly short - good for racing when you need to see a wide viewpoint to prepare for corner and obstacles, but there is no need for a tall screen as you're racing on the flat.

In this setup, the two players see their own character or vehicle in a portion of the screen at the top, and the other player or vehicle in the portion of the screen at the bottom. Both portions offer the same viewpoint to begin with at the start of the race, but each follows a specific player. It is possible this way for both players to be competing at the same time, and against each other.

The player behind will even be able to see the player in front, and by glancing quickly at the opponent's portion of the screen it is possible to check on where they are and how they're doing. This offers real time action and competition, and is an engrossing way of playing.

Not all split screens are horizontal - some fighting games are vertical so that you can see the full height of the opposing player, but the majority are split horizontally. Obviously for this kind of game, either having a big screen or sitting close to a screen is best in order to see the detail clearly.

The third type of multiplayer game is the type which has players competing against each other, but where the players are not actually physically anywhere near each other. This can mean that they are actually playing against each other whilst on different sides of the planet! These games use the internet to connect players together, and then each player sees the game from their point of view on their own screen, and sees the opponent as a character within the game. In many cases rather than being an opponent, the other player may be an ally, and work together to complete a task or quest.

Whilst solo games will always be popular, multiplayer games have long ruled the popularity stakes.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about kids toys, dolls, and video games. You will find the best marketplace for kids toys, dolls, and used video games at these sites for toys, various games, dolls.