A pictorial game allows participants to both contribute and decode pictorial content. The participants' performance, as well as that of artists and their artwork, can be tabulated and presented for community entertainment. Different modes can be used for presenting the images in different platforms, including on standalone platforms, gaming sites, social networking profiles, etc. Supplemental features can be added according to a desired rule set. Speech recognition can be used in some applications of the invention as well. Advertising can be integrated into game play as part of the picture decoding process.