If You Could Play One Game For the Rest of Your Life, What Would it Be?

You're an online game player. Probably an expert. Actually, you're probably an expert at a bunch of different games. And you probably enjoy playing lots of different games, especially the new ones. But, if you were to pick just one, just one game that you would have to play for the rest of your life - what would it be? Would it be an old school board game like Monopoly or Risk? Would it be Prime Suspects or Mah Jong Quest? Perhaps it would be a puzzle such as Big Kahuna Reef, or Fish Tycoon in an underwater adventure? Or maybe you're a Texas Hold Em fan. Whatever it is, you're probably very passionate about it. You play it a lot. But that's how you get to be good, right? It's also a great way to pass the time and just have some fun.

Web Games

Many people, especially those who aren't super sophisticated when it comes to online games, are just looking for a way to pass the time. These are the folks you may see playing the slots for 8 hours at the casinos. They enjoy games, but tend to like the simple ones, without a whole lot of strategy. Online card, arcade, and puzzle games provide lots of entertainment value for many people, everyday. As a bonus, many of these types of games are free to play on the Internet. These games run in a web browser, don't require much hardware, and work on almost any computer.

If you could play only one game for the rest of your life, would it be a web game?

Puzzle Games

These types of games are very popular. Why? Many of them are free, or have a free version. There are also a lot of these types of games out there. What are some of the better ones?

Jewel Quest: You match jewels and quest through beautiful Mayan ruins in dozens of mind-bending puzzles, while discovering hidden treasures and priceless artifacts.

Prime Suspects: In what other game could you interview suspects, solve puzzles, and find key clues? Not many. That's what makes Prime Suspects so cool. If you have a detective-like nature, you'll be good at this one.

Bejeweled 2: Innovative, non-violent, the classic game of gem-swapping. Sound interesting? The goal is to match gems and colors as quickly as you can. Kids and adults love this one.

If you could play only one game for the rest of your life, would it be a puzzle game?

Card Games

Card games are as hot as ever. They require skill, they're challenging and they're fun. Games such as Tik's Texas Hold Em and Super Poker Stars offer players three unique advantages. They offer the thrill of playing cards in a casino, there is no risk because there's no money involved and best of all, players can test their skills against other card sharks. Online games are often new creations, but these games are new interpretations on the classics.

If you could only play one game for the rest of you life, would it be a classic card game?

Simulation Games

By now, everyone has heard of The Sims. Simulation games have skyrocketed in popularity and for those gamers who love to create their own world, the options are endless. You can build a city, a world or an amusement park with mind boggling roller coasters. You can even go back in time and relive medieval battles. So what is the draw of these types of games?

The hook is that as the game progresses, it gets more intricate. Take Cinema Tycoon for example. Start off with a small cinema and as you manage concessions, purchases new hit movies and try to avoid "flops" you build your cinema into a true Mega-Plex. This game is fun for all ages and levels of gamers.

If you could only play one game for the rest of you life, would it be a simulation game?

Strategy Games

If you enjoy games that challenge the mind, perhaps strategy games like Risk II and Chessmaster Challenge are what you are looking for. These games require you to flex those mental mussels. Many of the classic strategy games are available to be played online. You can match wits with your intellectual counterpart in Russia and find out who truly is the Chessmaster! Sound like fun? It is.

3D graphics have brought a new level of realism to strategy games. These games throw you into the action as if you were actually there...deploy your forces, attack your foes and build your armies. Strategy games are typically designed for no more than 12 simultaneous players. Many of these games are free, or have a free version online.

If you could only play one game for the rest of you life, would it be a strategy game?

Game Show Games

You love to win; there is no question about it. Competition is in your blood. Well, then maybe you could play a game show game for the rest of your life. Maybe you want to play Family Feud, the fast-paced game based on the successful Family Feud TV game show! Beat the average score, or go head-to-head with a friend or an entire family! Maybe you are a rock & roll junkie, test your music knowledge (from the golden oldies to current top bands) with Rock & Roll JEOPARDY!

If you could only play one game for the rest of you life, would it be a game show game?

Summary

Well, what did you decide? Would your one game be Texas Hold Em or Family Feud? Would you choose to become a Cinema Tycoon or take the Chessmaster Challenge? Fortunately, you don't have to choose, but if you know what type of games you gravitate towards, perhaps you can uncover some new games that you never knew existed!

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Nintendo Wii - ein angenehmes Spielgefühl

In den letzten Jahren Spiele populär geworden. Die fortschrittliche Technologie hat brillante leistungsfähige Maschinen namens Spielkonsolen angeboten. Diese Konsolen erfüllen Ihre Wünsche können Sie in eine Traumwelt eingeben. Sony mit der Playstation in die Welt der Game-Konsole eingegeben. Eine andere beliebte Spielkonsole Xbox 360 bietet hervorragende realistische Spiele.

Mit einer Vielzahl von Gaming-Konsolen auf dem Markt finden Sie sicherlich eine Konsole je nach Ihrem Budget, Geschmack und Wahl. Das beste Teil von diesen Konsolen ist, dass Sie brauchen nicht, ein Spiel zu installieren, es ist alles über Plug & Play. Sie sind erstaunlich-Entertainment-Systeme mit den neuesten Funktionen, die high-Definition-Gaming zu bieten. Diese Spiele sind der letzte Schrei in die Welt der Videospiele geworden. Ob Sie auf der Suche nach hardcore Action-Spiele oder normale Spaß Spiele, würden Sie zahlreiche Möglichkeiten entsprechend Ihr Interesse. Alle diese Spiele sind sehr unterhaltsam und suchterzeugend. Diese Konsolenspiele sind beliebt bei Menschen aller Altersgruppen.

Diese neueste Spiele können auch im Fernsehen oder einem kompatiblen Audio-Video-System gespielt werden. Es ist ein Controller, der das Spiel kontrolliert und mit der Konsole verbunden ist.

Eine perfekte gaming-Konsole, ist Nintendo Wii eine siebte Generation Gaming-System. Diese kleine Konsole ist das leichteste Spiel von Gewicht und sorgt für unterhaltsame und sehr süchtig machend sein. Die hervorragenden Eigenschaften und Funktionen sind der beste Teil des Spiels.

Einige der Vorteile von der Game-Konsole sind:

. Kein Ärger, kein Betriebssystem wie in Computern, einfach einstecken und spielen.

. Einfache Multiplayer Spiele, einfach mit dem Internet verbinden und spielen.

. Spielen Sie, wo Sie es wollen.

. Sie können leicht erlernt werden, um mit zu spielen.

Die Nintendo Wii ist eine bietet eine herausragende Gaming-Erlebnis. Dieses Spiel ist einfach und kann auch von kleinen Kindern und Erwachsenen gespielt werden. Es gibt, schießen, Aktion, Scroller. Diese ideale Konsole ermöglicht außerdem das Herunterladen von spielen, Surfen im Web und weitere Gaming-Optionen. Das Spiel öffnet sich eine neue Welt des Spielens und Gelegenheitsspieler, die elektronische Spiele noch nie erlebt haben. Es gibt einen harten Wettbewerb auf Spielkonsolen wie Sony Playstation 3 und Xbox 360. Das Spiel ist eine erweiterte Version der Nintendo Game Cube mit einer Funktion "intuitive Kontrolle". Das Spiel bildet Sie Gefühl, als ob Sie in der virtuellen Welt sind. Das multimediale-Gerät besteht auch darin, ein Musik-Player, mit dem Sie anhören und herunterladen Songs. Wenn sie mit dem Internet verbunden ist, bietet aktuelle Nachrichten und Wettervorhersagen. Dieses beeindruckende Spiel ist eine Verbesserung gegenüber anderen Spielkonsolen. Sie erhalten vertieft und leidenschaftlich mit dem Spiel. Dieses faszinierende Spiel können Sie Ihre Freizeit optimal zu nutzen. Es ist ein guter Weg, um über den ganzen Tag Stress.

Nintendo Wii ist vollgepackt mit einzigartigen Eigenschaften, die es sich in der Menge zu machen. Die beeindruckende Steuerelemente eignen sich für Spieler von Links als auch rechts. Spiele online downloaden ist einfach mit einer benutzerfreundlichen Oberfläche.

Der WiiConnect24 Service ermöglicht der Konsole automatisch download-Informationen auch auf Standby. Eine andere bemerkenswerte Eigenschaft ist "Virtual Console". Diese Spielkonsole ist für die Massen, wie es ist einfach zu verwenden, zu verstehen und durchaus erschwinglich. Der integrierte Flashspeicher 512 MB von der Spielkonsole kann mit eine SD-Karte erweitert werden.

Videospiel-Konsolen sind berühmt unter den Tech-versierte Spieler und Jugendliche. Die schlanke Fernbedienung macht Ihr Gaming-Erlebnis mit innovativen Sensoren Spaß.

Die spezialisierten Gaming-Konsole verfügt über eine intuitive Steuerung, die dieses Gadget verschiedene Klassen von Menschen sehr beliebt macht. Insgesamt gibt es eine angenehme Spielerfahrung mit vereinfachenden Spiele und einfaches Spiel spielen. Die Spielkonsole verfügt über einen wireless-Controller mit drei dimensionale Bewegung Erkennungsfunktionen. Es wiegt nur 1,2 kg, so es die leichteste aller Spielkonsolen ist. Dieser günstige und Spaß Spiel spielen ist groß, mit zu spielen.

Sie sind verpflichtet, alle Ihre Lieblings-Spiele in der Nintendo Wii zu genießen. Also die Nintendo Wii kaufen und erhalten einen angenehmen Spielerlebnis gewährleistet.

Alden Jerry ist ein Experte. Besuchen Sie wissen mehr über Nintendo Wii und andere aktuelle Spiele im Online-Shop Preisvergleich

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Wählen Sie die beste Gaming-PC für Ihre Bedürfnisse

Computer-game technology is a very fast field. Hardware and software companies are trying, you push the envelope, and improve performance. With increasing complexity of the individual games, however it is select more importantly, a computer gaming system that suits your needs best. Unfortunately, there are no shortage of games PCs available on the market. How, then select the best gaming system? Answer a few questions about your play and you determine financial requirements, the direction to make a proper gaming system.

What kind of games do you play?

The specific types of play, that you tend to play will help decide, what hardware configurations best meets your needs. All games are not equal, and depending on the genre, more of their energy will devote developers on various aspects of the title. Strategy and simulation games, for example, tend to be less graphically-intensive than other types of play and can therefore be running on a less powerful gaming system. As a point of reference, the specifications for Civilization IV are a lush and detailed strategy game, as follows:

-1.8 GHz Intel or AMD processor

-512 MB of RAM

128 MB graphics card

Compared to many that newer games today computer on the market, the requirements for the execution of Civilization IV are not too high. How many strategy and simulation games, a greater emphasis is on AI and game placed calculations instead of graphics, and raw makes hardware is less important to effectively run the title.

Vice versa, to create first-person-shooter (FPS) and action titles tend to be more on graphics and physics to leave the right ambience and the surrounding area. As such, the system requirements for this kind of games are usually significantly higher than other genres. Titles such as half-life 2 and Quake to bombard 4, players with graphically demanding scenes, and the physics of the game will create exactly calculated, to the realistic scenarios possible. In contrast to the specifications listed above the recommended system configuration for f.e.a.r, graphic skills, are one of the more advanced FPS as follows:

3.0 Pentium 4 or equivalent processor

-1 GB RAM

-256 MB video card

F.e.a.r. and Civilization IV, approximately at the same time last year was released, the recommended system requirements for the former are almost double of the latter. This is often the case with FPS titles; Since developers mainly pieces these games to "Showcase" a certain technology or graphics engine with the intention of a powerful gaming computer normally required, lead them in their full graphical glory. The graphical representation needs sufficient resources, but if you figure, they get in the requirements for accurate real time physics calculations pushed even further. As you can see, affect the types of games, you always play the hardware that you should buy.

You have the best graphics?

Genre alone is the gaming PC not the only decisive factor in determining to buy, however. Many titles, including such showcase pieces such as half life 2 and Doom 3, provide the players with the option of scaling back the graphical effects to the game on a less powerful system running smoothly. While FPS and other games often a behemoth of a system to run with all graphical effects enabled need, they are in General adequately running on older platforms. If you can live without this taxation impacts as particle shading and frame rates in the hundreds, the chances are that on a gaming computer of less and still able to play the latest games.

What's more, in many cases opportunities, discover game developers and players a game more smooth and stable short run, after it releases. It is generally expected that in the rush to beat the market, many games don't really "done"; That is, the code behind them could stand, be more optimized. Therefore, developers and publishers usually versions of patches or updates are to resolve certain technical problems. Many players reported shortly after the release that the framerate often for unplayable chugging levels mid-game, would drop down to high-performance gaming systems along with f.e.a.r.. After the game is patched, however this lack has been largely fixed. Also often find ways to improve the performance of the game on their own by hacks enthusiastic players or members of a Lotto pool or tweaks. When this happens, their results are published online in a short time, and can suddenly play a game that might have taxed your game computer beyond his abilities. Again it is not always necessary that have absolute best hardware to play the latest games.

How much are you planning to spend?

Of course, all of this technology comes at a price. As the saying goes, you have to pay to play. Everyone strives to one day own a ultimate gaming computer; the specifications are mind-boggling, and there is no shortage of companies, the monster gaming rigs. However, the cost of a are these machines are often unaffordable. Keep in mind, which are the newest and most powerful graphics cards usually at the price of $500 on the market. In addition, can the most powerful processors at $1000 or more to be priced will be. When you design a system to this top-level component-a system that the latest versions of the game can take chewing up, and spit it zone - you expect the costs of which to float. It is not unknown, dedicated game see the PC 4000, $ or more for the tower only price.

Of course, the first two issues affect third a lot. If you play not many graphic-intensive games, or if you are ready to live graphics, built in the game with something it is simply not necessary, a gaming system spend so much money. There are many computer companies in their lineups perfectly suitable for most to play that midrange configurations that are on the market heute-and at a significantly reduced price. Don't despair if you can afford not the newest and most powerful computer technology; While economic importance of the most influential may be all the decisive factors, it is necessarily prohibit the games that you want.

Jordan Hall, is the editor of the [http://www.best-gaming-computers.com], an avid computer gamers and technology enthusiasts, enjoy consumers advice with regard to gaming computers and gaming laptops.

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Each video game console RPGs must play the 5 best

The gaming market is monstrous. Right now there are six consoles, three handhelds, and the ever present PC you can buy games for. That's 10 different ways you can get your game on, so if you're someone who doesn't have the ways or means to buy all 10 platforms and every halfway decent game that arrives for any of them, you're probably wondering which way you should go to get the most bang for your buck. I'm a bit of a gamer nerd, and so for you I've collected the top five available games (in the stores now) for each console for each particular genre. Based on reviews, user comments, and my personal experience, these are the best ways to go.

This round: RPGs. The Japanese RPG market exploded in the 32-64 bit days, blowing out with a new game seemingly every week. You can blame Square for that one, bringing to the stores amazing game after amazing game, which immediately spurned every other company to release whatever dreck they could muster to keep you pumping money into their pockets. Nowadays there are hundreds of options out there, and the Japanese market isn't the only one around. North American companies have their own answers to the RPG boom and now it's a veritable flood of options. Here are the top five for each option you've got.

Playstation 2 - The Playstation brand name has been the home of quality RPGs since PS1 first roled out with Suikoden and Final Fantasy games in the mid- 90s. This list was hard because there are so many left off. Dark Cloud 2, Final Fantasy X, the Shin Megami Tensei games and many more deserve recognition, but alas these are also long as hell, so if you had more than 5, when would you ever finish them. You may notice I exclude the PS3, but I can't really offer any PS3 RPGs for you until they've actually been created. We're waiting.

1. Shadow Hearts Covenant - The Shadow Hearts series took on a serious following after this entry, one of the greatest RPG releases of the generation. It's take on the fantasy RPG genre blended into the realms of reality, bleeding over in church and demonology lore. Taking place in the 19th Century and following the legend of a young woman and her unfortunate destiny, it can be enjoyed alone or along with it's predecessors Koudelka and Shadow Hearts (I).

2. Disgaea - This is probably the best strategy RPG released for any console ever. Released by Atlus, a brand name that has grown in and of itself of recent years to the respectability that names like Square and Level 5 now carry with their games, Disgaea is about the young prince of hell and his quest to regain his domain after being awoken. With more than 200 hours of gameplay here, count on playing for days on days. And it's funnier than hell. These are great characters.

3. Suikoden III - The Suikoden series is the cult series. Of course it's slowly sliding out of cult status and into the mainstream with releases occurring every couple of years since this one. The best in the series with the possible exception of Suikoden II, Suikoden III tells the story of a huge cast of characters, all intricately entwined with one another. You play through the tale of their war, but as seen through each characters eyes. Truly epic.

4. Final Fantasy XII - The newest release, released only two weeks before the Playstation 3's release, this game redefines the epic scope of prior Final Fantasies, literally reaching for the stars. Each character is fully realized and a part of the action, their story an intricate part of the game. There's no fluff here, and the rebuild of the decades old RPG formula was all for the better, working for the complete and total betterment of the game and hopefully the series.

5. DragonQuest VIII - Dragon Quest has always been huge in Japan, but only now did it find the same success here in the US. Dragon Quest VIII is the huge (extremely huge) result of Square Enix's jump to full 3D glory in their series. The graphics are incredible, the characters hilarious and deeply involving, and the story arresting. The battles aren't half bad either. And the usual monster catching glory is intact. A long game, it will keep you busy for days.

Gamecube (and Wii) - The Gamecube got shorted on the RPG options, much like its big brother the N64. Nintendo lost a lot of their clout with the RPG crowd when Squaresoft jumped ship in the 90s and they're still trying to earn it back...so far to little success. But, the future looks bright, as Square Enix is finally producing games for the Big N, and Nintendo's own work includes more forays into the RPG market. Here's hoping for more, because the Wii is perfect for the format.

1. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The newest Zelda adventure, Twilight Princess, is by far the best reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is a masterpiece on almost every level, to the point I'm almost willing to call it the greatest game ever made. We've heard this a lot, that this game is the greatest. That it surpasses what Ocarina accomplished 8 years ago. And as my own favorite game, it's hard to ever put anything above Ocarina in terms of scope, depth, and innovation. No need to go into detail. Read my review of it here for more thoughts on why it's so amazing.

2. Tales of Symphonia - The first really good RPG for the Gamecube, and still one of the only ones really. The newest entry in the hugely popular (in Japan) Tales saga, Symphonia was a huge, fun, well told game. The characters were fun, the battle system is one of the best around, and the action was fully inclusive and crafted a long game. Symphonia was the Gamecube owning RPG fan's one saving grace.

3. Skies of Arcadia Legends - Originally released for the Dreamcast, Skies of Arcadia was given a second life on the Gamecube, again fated to anonymity due to the failure of the console. This is a great game. It tells the story of two sky pirates who must traverse the sky ocean and save the world from a shattering war and so on. You attempt throughout the game to build your pirate rank and build up your ship. It was one of Dreamcast's must have games and the same for Gamecube. Unfortunately so few actually had it, and now it's not exactly easy to find.

4. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - The infamous Wind Waker. Nintendo's foray into cel shading and the horrible foray into ocean mechanics. This game is still amazing. It's Zelda afterall, but it's flawed on more than the basic levels. It's hard to get around. The ocean is huge, and the game is short. But the parts you play, in between sailing around Hyrule are beautiful and incredibly fun.

5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - The Big N rounds out the five with another in house effort. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a return to the Paper Mario fun they coined in the N64 days, this time around with the RPG elements the game seems to work best with. Incredibly easy yes, but fun as hell at the same time.

Xbox (and X360) - The Xbox, not surprisingly saw no Japanese development. Every game listed below was produced in English Speaking countries, mostly Canada actually. The style is noticeably different, but the quality is equally incredible. The strive for realism by Western developers can be seen in each of these entries. Although the lack of humor is equally as prescient.

1. Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion - The Xbox 360 has some serious horsepower. Not only is there room to spare, but the graphic output is insane at time, and what better way to show this off than with an Elderscrolls game. Monstrous, huge worlds in which you can freely roam wherever you want and interact with your environment. This game is huge and intense. Hundreds of hours can be spent just wandering around and completing a main quest. As for getting the rest done. Who knows how long you could spend on there.

2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Star Wars games were starting to get a bad rap for a while, until Bioware arrived with the first full fledged Star Wars RPG. Built on the click and wait action of the D&D ruleset games, KOTOR was a brilliant game that took Star Wars fans back a few thousand years to the height of the Jedi/Sith wars. It also had one of the most surprising and amazing endings in any game..ever.

3. Elderscrolls III: Morrowind - And another Elderscrolls game. This one was equally as huge as its sequel, and had just as amazing graphics for its time. Elderscrolls truly stretches the imagination in terms of open world RPG exploration and making a game that will take a long time to finish. A truly wonderful game.

4. Jade Empire - Set in a fictional ancient China, Jade Empire comes from the makers of Knights of the Old Republic, and while not nearly as large in scope or length, the game utilizes an array of different combat styles and elements that make it sheer fun to play. It's shorter and simpler than the original games from Bioware, but they make up for it with the attention to detail and the battle system upgrades.

5. Fable - Touted as an amazing achievement in world interface, Fable turned out to be a little bit of a letdown. It was smaller, shorter, and less engaging than what was claimed, but it was still a solid, fun game to play. Starting as a bland adventurer you could become either entirely good or entirely evil through the actions committed during a quest. The characters are generic, the quests forgettable, but the options given to play through them all are still fun. The ending however leaves something to be desired, and they could have done with a few more reasons to openly explore. For a sandbox RPG, it was surprisingly linear.

Game Boy Advance - Yup, no DS games. I imagine soon, with the release of the new Pokemon game, and the surprising announcement of Dragon Quest IX coming exclusively to the DS, the RPG options there will explode, but for now your best bet in the RPG realm on handhelds is with the Game Boy Advance. Here are a few of the best.

1. Golden Sun - It's not a masterpiece. It's not legendary. But, it's good solid fun, and for the size and expectations o f a handheld console it's still pretty fun. I enjoyed it for a few reasons. First off, the gameplay is top notch. The battle system is built around a simple premise and sticks with it, but it's still fun. The story is nothing special but it reminded me a lot of the 8-bit glory days, keeping me involved without making it impossible to keep up when I have to turn the game off every 20 minutes. Solid play and go action

2. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire - Pokemon has been around for almost 10 years now, a regular entry in the gameboy RPG market, really the only entry inn that market, and a damn good one. By the time this pair was released (the usual duplicate games with slightly different monsters in each), the same gameplay was reused a good four times and starting to get a little old, but it's still sound gameplay, and who doesn't like to collect as much of something as they can. I'm older yes, but I still enjoy the mindless capture and battle system of Pokemon. It's cathartically simple.

3. Final Fantasy IV - It's technically a port, but a damn good port at that. I loved this game back in the days on the SNES and the idea to bring the 16-bit Final Fantasies to the GBA made me as happy as can be. This was a game I love to play, but feel goofy loading into my PS2 and sitting down to play. It's a perfect bus play, and it plays just as great as in 1992. The classic tale of Cecil and the Red Knights never fails to capture my attention from start to finish. Of course, when Final Fantasy VI is released, I might have to replace this with that one, as we all know that VI is the greatest of them all.

4. Riviera: The Promised Land - Atlus has been basting the PS2 market with top notch games for three plus years now, with their fantastic strategy and alchemy RPG games. They bring Riviera to the GBA with the same pedigree, a solid RPG that plays to the GBA's strengths as well as any. It's essentially a screen to screen game. You don't control you surroundings so much as go from page to page within them, but the battle system is amazing and the different options and acquirables immense. The story, like any Atlus game is the real selling point and actually got me to play through it twice.

5. Final Fantasy Tactics - The portable version of the PSone classic has sucked more time from my life than any GBA game I've ever played. The 300+ missions are each 30-60 minutes long and the customization options equal length. This is a long game with a lot of gameplay and a fun little story. You're Marche, you've been sucked through a book into the magical land of Ivalice and now you are a knight. Go!

PlayStation Portable - When the PSP first released fanboys dreamed of amazing ports that would bring their favorite games now out of print back to life in hand held format. At least one made the leap, but for the most part RPG development on the PSP has been lackluster, and while Japan gets the Suikoden I and II pack and promises of Final Fantasies, we wait for a decent anything to play. Final Fantasy compilation anyone? Anyone at all?

1. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - One of the most sought after games from the PSone days, Valkyrie Profile was an amazing RPG that no one played and then no one could play as it was out of print. Ranging from $100 and up on eBay, the promise of a rerelease for the PSP was a godsend for fans out there always interested but too poor to afford it. It's a solid game at that. With rebuilt cinematics and PSP controls, this entry leads into the new PS2 game wonderfully and finally lets the rest of us play through Lenneth's adventure.

2. Monster Hunter Freedom - Never a real big fan of the Monster Hunter games, I can still see their draw. You go and you hunt monsters. Simple as that. There's little to hold you up, and there's online play. It's like Pokemon without the pesky storyline or purpose.

3. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim - A port of a port. This was originally released for the PS2 and before that the PC, and has been watered down in between. The same classic Ys gameplay is intact, overland map, onscreen battles and fun little characters in a charming, if simple story. It's good solid fun for a portable and tells a decent story. Even if the controls are a little broken.

4. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade - One of the launch releases with the PSP, Untold Legends is an overhead hack and slash RPG without a conscious. It doesn't strive for amazing storyline or gameplay, just simple hack and slash glory and it does it pretty well. It was fun because it was simple, made in a very short development cycle from the time the PSP was announced. Oddly enough though, the sequel was nearly as good.

5. Tales of Eternia - Alright, technically it still hasn't been released in America, but you can import it from Europe and play the English language version (or Japan if you speak Japanese). But, it's a tales game, a pretty good one at that. Technically it has been released here too, as Tales of Destiny 2 in 2000. Unfortunately, it got completely ignored as the gaming world moved on to the PS2. This is a great game though and perfect for the PSP. Complete and intact are the great Tales battle system and one of the better Tales plots. Saving the world from the Great War was never quite so fun as in this one.

PC -The PC has always been a home for the more hardcore of gamers. The cost of constant upgrades and intensity of a PC game are legendary, and only the most hardcore amongst us are capable of keeping up. Accordingly, the games below match that mindset, though more than one of these games managed to break free of the limitations and become monstrous worldwide phenomena. I'm looking at you Blizzard.

1. World of Warcraft - Okay, so duh right? Well, some of you are probably palpitating over my choosing this above some other MMORPG, but too bad. Everyone plays this one, including myself and it's just plain fun. Having spent hours of my life in this game and knowing that I can go back whenever I want without fear of being destroyed because of the MMORPG laws of survival (never leave), this is a great pick up and play game in a genre where that almost never exists. Huge, tons to do, and always fun even when you're grinding, WoW is still the best.

2. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - The Baldur's Gate games are some of the best RPGs to come out of the PC age of D&D ruleset RPGs. It's big, it's long, it's fun as hell. The challenge of figuring out what to do, how to upgrade your characters and make the game the most it can be were always the number one reasons to play these. The story is pretty awesome too. Don't forget the Dragon. That dragon is a bitch.

3. Diablo II - Diablo II stole my entire summer my sophomore year of high school. This game was amazing. It took everything Diablo did and blew it up times ten. The ability to find and receive unique weapons that 1000 of your friends would never find kept you playing over and over again. And it was simple. Click, click, right click. F1. That's it. Nothing to it. And when you finally unlocked the Cow level, then you were the true God of Diablo.

4. Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion - Many of you probably can't even play this yet. I still can't. I only know of it because I have a friend who upgrades his computer ever three weeks seemingly. This game is a beast of the highest order, demanding a lot from your system but delivering even more. Monstrous, huge worlds in which you can freely roam wherever you want and interact with your environment. This game is huge and intense. Hundreds of hours can be spent just wandering around and completing a main quest. As for getting the rest done. Who knows how long you could spend on there.

5. Neverwinter Nights - Another D&D ruleset game, but one of the best no less. It's huge, monstrously huge. And tack on the expansions and you've got 200+ hours of action to play through. The biggest seller on this one though was the ability to craft and write your own adventures as a DM with the toolsets and host them online, ala D&D, but with graphics. The sequel doesn't quite hold up to the original, but still carries the same weight and fun factor.

I'm a self avowed unemployed writer, working on semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job. I've written more than 200 articles and reviews and am constantly scouring the internet for any and all excuses and methods to make myself less dependent on corporate pay days. Visit my website at TheChatfield.com

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The world in or online multiplayer games in depth

For most of the 20th century, life used to be rather simple for most people. There was school, college, work, retirement. Along with that you had hobbies like cars, bowling, or gardening. The former was more or a less of a chore, the latter the fun stuff you did in your free time, usually together with local friends from the same neighborhood. This was basically the same as a thousand years ago. For a few lucky people the two areas overlapped and they could do the stuff that they liked as their main job.

Now, in the last 10 years of the 20th century, as well as in the first few years of the 21st, this has been changing rather dramatically. The reason is the rapid technical progress, both in the wide area network and computing power areas. Contemporary hardware can animate very detailed and realistic graphics fluently, and transfer data on the movements and actions of hundreds of objects and characters around the world in milliseconds (although, unfortunately, the speed of light still remains a limiting factor). This has led to an explosion in the availability and quality of online games, with the newest generation like Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft becoming a phenomenon no longer limited to any particular social class, but rather an all-encompassing cultural element in the industrial countries.

Increasingly, parents find that their children spend a lot of time playing some of those games, and more and more people come in contact with them. This leads to people wanting objective information, which is in practice not easy to obtain. Most articles about these games are either written by rather clueless journalists who have never or hardly played the games in question and therefore mainly focus on scandalous negative side effects, or by enthusiastic fans who dive deep into the technicalities and don't mention the real world consequences much. This article tries to bridge the gap - it describes the currently most important types of online games and looks in detail at the social relationships behind them. The authors have been longterm players for years and therefore hope that they can address the issue in considerably greater depth and detail than most journalists (however, you won't find detailed technical facts here since it is not in scope of this article).

There are basically three main types of multiplayer online games:

First-person shooters (FPS) where the player sees everything through a (usually temporary, just for the online session or less) character's eyes and his gun's barrel. This category still remains predominant in total worldwide player numbers (according to Valve, Counterstrike is currently still the most popular online multiplayer game). Some of the other examples include Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Doom3.

Strategy games are the the second main category. Usually similar to FPS games in the round/session-based style of play, in these games the player usually does not have any single entity, but rather commands a number of troops of some kind against other human opponents. There are also various options where one can both play with other humans against the computer etc. Games of this kind include Starcraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires and many others.

The last group, the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), is the area which popularity has really exploded in the last few years. Here, the player obtains a permanent character (or entity) or several which can evolve and be equipped with various gear, and undertakes adventures in a large world full with other players. This is probably the most promising group since it resembles the real world most, and it has also been the fastest developing recently. The currently most prominent games in this category are World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Everquest II and Lineage II.

FPS

In first-person shooter games, the basic principle is simple. Shoot or be shot, kill or be killed. Starting with the original Castle of Wolfenstein and Doom, these games have developed to a level of frightening realism mainly for men living out their ancient predatory and fighting instincts (according to some surveys, there are about 10 times as many male as female players in average FPS games). One of the recent milestones in this category, Doom 3 is a game which is psychologically scary even to adult men with the highly detailed and realistic monsters suddenly attacking from dark corners. However, once these games take to the online multiplayer stage, their focus shifts a little. The goal is no longer to scare the pants off the lone player in his dark room, but rather to provide a fun platform for competition between many players of different skill. The most popular online game in this category is still without doubt Counter-Strike - a game which has received much negative fame because of various school shootings done by Counter-Strike players, yet still remains a highly captivating pastime for millions worldwide. It is a fan modification of Half-Life, a Valve game, and a team game in its core: one team is the "terrorists", the other the "counter-terrorists", and the play is round-based: at the start of a round, each team member receives an identical (except for clothing) avatar, picks some weapons, and the the two teams clash in combat until either a bomb is placed or everyone of one team is dead (there are also variations like "capture the flag" etc).

There are numerous reasons for the massive popularity of Counter-Strike. The game rounds are short-term in nature and don't require much time. It is comparatively realistic - weapons existing in reality like the M-16 or AK-47 are used in the game, and even one shot may be enough to kill. Also, it is easily accessible - almost everyone can install and run a Counter-Strike server, and there are many thousands of them in the world online at any given time. Although the basic game does not lead to social interaction deeper than a quick chat, the grouping of people around some specific favorite servers and the wish to play better, which inevitably requires solid teamplay, has led to the phenomenon of so-called "clans", or dedicated player groups, which usually have their own server where they train. A competitive clan will usually have requirements for people wanting to join - a certain skill level, or some minimum playtime - and most serious clan players play at least several hours a day. Dedicated clans will also sometimes meet in real life to discuss strategies and generally have fun, which is not much different from most other groups of people with similar hobbies, like e.g. stamp collectors or RC model builders. Since many servers are regional, mostly there are same-country and often even same-neighborhood people on the same server, which of course makes meeting in real life easier as well.

The picture is roughly comparable in the other FPS multiplayer games like Quake 4 and Unreal Tournament, with the main difference between that the latter are less realistic and include sci-fi weapons like laser guns and such. They are also typically much faster, with frantic movement (means, being hard to target) being highly important to survival, which is a concept rather different to Counter-Strike where sometimes the top scorers just sit in one place with a sniper rifle. However, a thing common to all FPS, mouse control is highly essential. Skilled FPS players develop extremely good mouse control (conventional mice no longer being good enough for them led to the development of a whole new segment of gaming mice) and have reaction times below 0.1 seconds. The numerous stress peaks and drops, lack of time between rounds, and the frantic gameplay often leads to additional addictions, though - many of the hardcore FPS players are chain smokers, fast-food eaters, coffee addicts, or all of it combined. There are worldwide tournaments held for most of the established FPS, and the current champions are mostly from Europe or the US.

Strategy games

The picture is a bit different with strategy games. Usually they are less frantic and leave much more room for logical thinking (of course, the classic board games like chess or Go also have major online playing facilities nowadays, but they cannot really be called multiplayer games since there is little to none team aspect, it's just one-on-one most of the time). A typical example is Warcraft III, which is the most recent in the Warcraft realtime strategy game series by Blizzard. It is played on the so-called Battlenet, a major online gaming hub by Blizzard, which also serves other strategy games like StarCraft. In Warcraft III it is possible to play both random opponents matched to you approximately by skill, either one on one or in teams of up to 4 on 4, or play others in pre-arranged teams. As in FPS games, there are also clans in Warcraft, which in this case are even explicitly supported by Battlenet. This and the very immediate visibility of someone's skill level (basically, his win/loss ratio) gives rise to much competition between dedicated players for the top ladder (ranking) spots. Unlike geographically uniform games like Counter-Strike with tens of thousands of servers, Warcraft has just a handful of large servers, each for a certain area of the world (e.g. Americas, Europe, Asia). Interestingly enough, most strategy games are dominated by Asian, especially South Korean, players, where online multiplayer games have been a very major part of the culture for years already. The professional South Korean Starcraft and Warcraft tournaments are major events with hundreds of thousands of live spectators, played on an extremely competitive level, and broadcasted on TV, and the top players have practically celebrity status and incomes in the six-figure range and higher.

Since the popular strategy games are usually also just round-based, there is not very much room for social interaction apart from an occasional chat. Strategy players are probably a bit older than FPS players on average, mostly between 16 and 35 in the Western societies.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games

MMORPGs are the final and by far the most complex group in our classification. They are something like little worlds within themselves, often resembling scaled-down copies of the real world, yet different as well. The two leading MMORPGs as of the time of writing are probably World of Warcraft (WoW) and Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) , each with millions of active players worldwide. The distinctive difference between MMORPGs and the other kinds of online multiplayer games is that RPGs are not round-based, and do not have a time limit or any specific goal to achieve. They are just there to be explored along (or sometimes against) other players. The key concept is that each player chooses a single virtual avatar which is at first rather weak (low-level) and starts in some safe basic area of his choice. The current MMORPGs all offer a rich palette of races and locations to start with. Usually, to be able to explore the world, the character must be made stronger, which is typically achieved by killing some kind of virtual monsters repeatedly, at low levels usually alone, later in a group. You can also do "quests" - tasks given to you by an in-game character - for various rewards and with various degrees of difficulty.

Current MMORPGs are very large and highly complex. Even fully exploring their worlds can take years, and trying out all the playstyles and options is almost impossible. There are lots of different strategies for doing quests and winning difficult battles, and organizational and managemental skills become essential in major conflicts where sometimes hundreds of people are involved at once. Those large-scale groups already resemble something like real-world armies, with a defined command structure and squads with some special tasks each. This is something entirely new - nothing of comparable scale and complexity has been there until just several years ago - and the scale is likely to become ever greater.

An impressive fact is the extreme internationality of MMORPGs. A little less obvious with WoW, since it is also Battlenet-based and uses the regional server concept, it is highly apparent with Final Fantasy XI, which does not distinguish any regions - each of its servers has people from the entire Earth. Most players come from Japan (where the game originates from), many from the US and Europe, but it is possible to meet people from too many countries to list here, almost every corner of the world being represented. An interesting side effect is that one comes in contact with numerous cultures and customs and many different languages. Some anecdotal stories from the authors' own experience include a maid coming in to clean an Egyptian player's room at the wrong time, relaxed Moroccan players sipping on a water pipe in an Internet cafe while playing, and a Canadian PhD student surveying the attitudes of gamers for her thesis work.

Another positive thing about MMORPGs is that they encourage making friends and teamplay very much. It may be possible to do a lot alone (although not in all RPGs), but a well-matched group can do much more. Therefore, social skills like making contacts and keeping them are substantial in MMORPGs. Since the player is hidden behind his avatar, the threshold to approach someone you don't know is a lot lower than in real life, which makes them a good playground for shy people. The authors know of several real-life relationships that initially started with the players liking each other in the game and then finding out they liked each other in real life as well. Of course, the chance for a mess-up is much higher here as well - after all in real life it's unlikely you date someone who looks cute for a while, only to find out he's a chain smoking guy in his 30s. However, still, interestingly enough, MMORPGs are relatively much more popular with women when compared to FPS or strategy games. That is probably because there's a lot of social interaction within them - you make friends who you see and adventure together a lot, and there's a lot of talking and personal information being exchanged - something almost entirely missing from most other multiplayer games.

The clan idea from FPS and strategy games is even much more emphasized in MMORPGs. Guilds in WoW and linkshells in FFXI are major social entities, with their members meeting each other daily for years. The real-life meetings of large guilds or linkshells are worldwide events, with people coming together from many different places. Linkshell friendships sometimes last for years. On the downside, this means that one can get hurt as well in the game - a fact that many people unfamiliar with the whole phenomenon often fail to understand. "It's just a game", they say. On the one hand, they're right. Yet on the other hand, if it is possible to make new friends through these games, who become real-life friends as well, one should realize that it is quite possible to get friendships broken by them as well, for instance when being disappointed by people one had trusted. This is also something almost unique to MMORPGs - there has never been so much reality in a virtual world before. Talking of that, one should mention another peculiar aspect of those games - the equipment hunting. As the avatars are the same (or similar) for everyone, the gear or equipment that a player has basically measures his social status, much like a car or money in real life. Players with very rare, "godly" gear, are admired and envied by many people with regular equipment. Since that is something most people like, and, as mentioned, the thresholds for doing things are so much lower than in real life, many nasty things have been done in order to obtain gear. Again, here the RPGs are almost like a mirror of real life, condensing down the more hidden similar issues there to a more compact and visible form. In a way, it is a pretty interesting experience and can teach one a lot about people. It just becomes clear much faster who is worth what. A related trait of these games is the emerging RMT (Real Money Trade) industry, which basically thrives on selling virtual game money and items for real money, and for some games has reached revenues comparable to the per capita gross national products of European countries. Here one can see the blurring of the distinction between work and playing - many people don't play for fun anymore. They earn money by "camping" (sitting at the same spot all day) special monsters and selling the dropped items. It turns out it is possible to earn sizable amounts with that - more than a regular hard job in some countries would pay.

To summarize, online multiplayer games are a very large and ever increasing phenomenon. Very addictive, and easily able to occupy a player for years, they are perhaps becoming the major modern escape-from-reality tool of the next generation. Certainly, they have their drawbacks, and not too few. However, if seen as an alternative to TV, MMORPGs are definitely more worthwhile, in the authors' humble opinion.

The authors are experienced gamers and alongside with their work as co-founders of a web design and development company ([http://www.s-kaze.com]) still enjoy an occasional round of play.

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History of video games - the first video game of all time?

As an avid retro-gamer, for quite a long time I've been particularly interested in the history of video games. To be more specific, a subject that I am very passionate about is "Which was the first video game ever made?"... So, I started an exhaustive investigation on this subject (and making this article the first one in a series of articles that will cover in detail all video gaming history).

The question was: Which was the first video game ever made?

The answer: Well, as a lot of things in life, there is no easy answer to that question. It depends on your own definition of the term "video game". For example: When you talk about "the first video game", do you mean the first video game that was commercially-made, or the first console game, or maybe the first digitally programmed game? Because of this, I made a list of 4-5 video games that in one way or another were the beginners of the video gaming industry. You will notice that the first video games were not created with the idea of getting any profit from them (back in those decades there was no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other video game company around). In fact, the sole idea of a "video game" or an electronic device which was only made for "playing games and having fun" was above the imagination of over 99% of the population back in those days. But thanks to this small group of geniuses who walked the first steps into the video gaming revolution, we are able to enjoy many hours of fun and entertainment today (keeping aside the creation of millions of jobs during the past 4 or 5 decades). Without further ado, here I present the "first video game nominees":

1940s: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

This is considered (with official documentation) as the first electronic game device ever made. It was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game was assembled in the 1940s and submitted for an US Patent in January 1947. The patent was granted December 1948, which also makes it the first electronic game device to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As described in the patent, it was an analog circuit device with an array of knobs used to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube display. This game was inspired by how missiles appeared in WWII radars, and the object of the game was simply controlling a "missile" in order to hit a target. In the 1940s it was extremely difficult (for not saying impossible) to show graphics in a Cathode Ray Tube display. Because of this, only the actual "missile" appeared on the display. The target and any other graphics were showed on screen overlays manually placed on the display screen. It's been said by many that Atari's famous video game "Missile Command" was created after this gaming device.

1951: NIMROD

NIMROD was the name of a digital computer device from the 50s decade. The creators of this computer were the engineers of an UK-based company under the name Ferranti, with the idea of displaying the device at the 1951 Festival of Britain (and later it was also showed in Berlin).

NIM is a two-player numerical game of strategy, which is believed to come originally from the ancient China. The rules of NIM are easy: There are a certain number of groups (or "heaps"), and each group contains a certain number of objects (a common starting array of NIM is 3 heaps containing 3, 4, and 5 objects respectively). Each player take turns removing objects from the heaps, but all removed objects must be from a single heap and at least one object is removed. The player to take the last object from the last heap loses, however there is a variation of the game where the player to take the last object of the last heap wins.

NIMROD used a lights panel as a display and was planned and made with the unique purpose of playing the game of NIM, which makes it the first digital computer device to be specifically created for playing a game (however the main idea was showing and illustrating how a digital computer works, rather than to entertain and have fun with it). Because it doesn't have "raster video equipment" as a display (a TV set, monitor, etc.) it is not considered by many people as a real "video game" (an electronic game, yes... a video game, no...). But once again, it really depends on your point of view when you talk about a "video game".

1952: OXO ("Noughts and Crosses")

This was a digital version of "Tic-Tac-Toe", created for an EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) computer. It was designed by Alexander S. Douglas from the University of Cambridge, and one more time it was not made for entertainment, it was part of his PhD Thesis on "Interactions between human and computer".

The rules of the game are those of a regular Tic-Tac-Toe game, player against the computer (no 2-player option was available). The input method was a rotary dial (like the ones in old telephones). The output was showed in a 35x16-pixel cathode-ray tube display. This game was never very popular because the EDSAC computer was only available at the University of Cambridge, so there was no way to install it and play it anywhere else (until many years later when an EDSAC emulator was created available, and by that time many other excellent video games where available as well...).

1958: Tennis for Two

"Tennis for Two" was created by William Higinbotham, a physicist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. This game was made as a way of entertainment, so laboratory visitors had something funny to do during their wait on "visitors day" (finally!... a video game that was created "just for fun"...) . The game was pretty well designed for its era: the ball behavior was modified by several factors like gravity, wind velocity, position and angle of contact, etc.; you had to avoid the net as in real tennis, and many other things. The video game hardware included two "joysticks" (two controllers with a rotational knob and a push button each) connected to an analog console, and an oscilloscope as a display.

"Tennis for Two" is considered by many the first video game ever created. But once again, many others differ from that idea stating that "it was a computer game, not a video game" or "the output display was an oscilloscope, not a "raster" video display... so it does not qualify as a video game". But well... you can't please everyone...

It is also rumored that "Tennis for Two" was the inspiration for Atari's mega hit "Pong", but this rumor has always been strongly denied... for obvious reasons.

1961: Spacewar!

"Spacewar!" video game was created by Stephen Russell, with the help of J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Witanen and Dan Edwards from MIT. By the 1960s, MIT was "the right choice" if you wanted to do computer research and development. So this half a dozen of innovative guys took advantage of a brand-new computer was ordered and expected to arrive campus very soon (a DEC PDP-1) and started thinking about what kind of hardware testing programs would be made. When they found out that a "Precision CRT Display" would be installed to the system, they instantly decided that "some sort of visual/interactive game" would be the demonstration software of choice for the PDP-1. And after some discussion, it was soon decided to be a space battle game or something similar. After this decision, all other ideas came out pretty quick: like rules of the game, designing concepts, programming ideas, and so forth.

So after about 200 man/hours of work, the first version of the game was at last ready to be tested. The game consisted of two spaceships (affectively named by players "pencil" and "wedge") shooting missiles at each other with a star in the middle of the display (which "pulls" both spaceships because of its gravitational force). A set of control switches was used to control each spaceship (for rotation, speed, missiles, and "hyperspace"). Each spaceship have a limited amount of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a "panic button", in case there is no other way out (it could either "save you or break you").

The computer game was an instant success between MIT students and programmers, and soon they started making their own changes to the game program (like real star charts for background, star/no star option, background disable option, angular momentum option, among others). The game code was ported to many other computer platforms (since the game required a video display, a hard to find option in 1960s systems, it was mostly ported to newer/cheaper DEC systems like the PDP-10 and PDP-11).

Spacewar! is not only considered by many as the first "real" video game (since this game does have a video display), but it also have been proved to be the true predecessor of the original arcade game, as well as being the inspiration of many other video games, consoles, and even video gaming companies (can you say "Atari"?...). But that's another story, arcade games as well as console video games were written in a different page of the history of video games (so stay tuned for future articles on these subjects).

So here they are, the "First Video Game" nominees. Which one do you think is the first video game ever made?... If you ask me, I think all these games were revolutionary for its era, and should be credited as a whole as the beginners of the video gaming revolution. Instead of looking for which one was the first video game, what is really important is that they were created, period. As the creator of "Spacewar!", Stephen Rusell, once said: "If I hadn't done it, someone would have done something equally exciting or even better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first".

Ian Blake is a freelance writer/blogger from Planet Earth, Solar System. You may read similar articles at his History of Video Games Blog at --> http://www.retro-videogames.com

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Brettspiele - Einführung neue Spiele zu Ihrer Gaming-Gruppe

You have gone through the process of getting some friends together and you want to introduce them to a new game. The good news is that they are not looking to you as a master of this new game. They really want a guide to get them past the rules and get to the gaming goodness - the reason they came to the event to begin with.

Be Familiar with Your Games

What's the worst thing you can do with a new game? Read the rules in front of your gaming group. Some of these games come with Rule Guides of over 35 pages. It is not practical to read that as you go. Chances are you won't have anyone at your next gaming event if this is how you plan to handle it.

The important part of this process is not complete mastery. It is maintaining control long enough for everyone to get the hang of the game themselves. What your friends want from the situation is to play the game with the correct set of rules.

They want to know:

How do they win?




What do I do when it is my turn?




How do I interact with others?

These are the points you need to cover at the very beginning, so they understand where all the explanation is leading.

If you forget certain rules, it is alright to add them later. You're goal here is to get past the basic explanation so everyone can enjoy the game. You lose control of the situation and your friends' attention the minute you go to look up a set of rules in the rule book.

Set Up the Game Before You Start

This is one of the most important steps you can take to improve your success in teaching new people a game. Good speakers use props to enhance their presentations. You certainly don't need PowerPoint for this, but having the game as a reference is a great tool.

This allows for two things.

You can use the game bits and cards to explain points.




People can play the game immediately after you are done.




Introduce the Goal

Every game has a goal. Some are simple goals, like "If you have the most points by turn 10, you win". Other games have more complex, and really don't make sense until you review the rules of the game. Make sure you explain these goals up front and make sure you repeat them often.

Whatever the goal, people like to know what they need to accomplish. This is what drags them through the process of hearing the rules. With the "end" in mind, they can get through and understand the "means".

If you don't do this, your audience will constantly be wondering "how does this help me win?" This is distracting to the learner and you want to eliminate it. If you can't explain it well at the beginning, give them keywords or something to latch onto, so they understand it when it shows up. "You can even just say something like "victory points are good, knights are good, cities and roads are good, or keeping all your resources is bad".

Three is a Magic Number

People like to learn things in groups of three. There is a rhythm and flow to things that come in a set of three. Many games have choices to present - do it in groups of three when possible. For example, you can gather a resource, attack your neighbor, or choose an "opportunity" card.

Some games make it complicated - you get three things to do on your turn and each of those items offers several options. The best way to explain that is "On your turn, you are going to do X, Y, and Z. For you to accomplish X, you have three choices. They are 1, 2, or 3. Let's go over 1 first".

Don't force this concept where it does not exist, though. That just leads to confusion. You can look for patterns in the rules, though. Sometimes there are team decisions, defensive decisions, or offensive actions you can take. You can divide your descriptions into these categories if you wanted to.

Wash, Rinse, and REPEAT!

As you are explaining the game, it is beneficial to your audience if you repeat certain things, like how to win the game. Also, it is nice to do this if you are going through a set of choices. How do you do this?

Let's go back to the X, Y, and Z example from earlier. You are talking about the first action you need to do on your turn, action X. You need to explain choice 1, 2, and 3. When you are done, you say something like "OK, that's the first part of your turn. That was X. Now, let's take a look at Y." While doing this, rephrase the rules you just offered, rather than repeating them again the same way. This will help some of your group "get it" if they had not already.

Introducing Game Terms

Lots of games have common things, but they go by different names. Make these associations for your group and then introduce them to the correct terms for the game you are trying to teach them. A good example of this type of item is money. If you can get away without using the game jargon, that will help your group grasp concepts better. For example, if you are introducing Settlers of Catan, there is no money in the game. But, there are resources. You can equate these to money and talk about how you buy things with combinations of money, or "resources". This allows you to add your own flair to the instruction and bring people into the game quicker.

Talk to Me

Teaching new gamers a game should be a conversation, not a boring lecture. People want to have fun, not watch you give a fancy presentation. Watch to make sure your fellow gamers are getting what you are saying and don't be afraid to go back and reiterate something you already mentioned - even if you have to revisit a concept several times.

Don't single out people that are having trouble grasping the rules. One of the worst things you can do is set them up to look slow. They won't want to ask questions after that. It is also possible that they may not return for another gaming session.

Here's A Personal Experience For You

I got a new game, Starcraft the Board Game, about two months ago. I was sure my wife would be interested in checking it out, so she could kick my intersteller butt. This game had a 45 page rule guide. I did not follow any of these suggestions for myself and suggested we go through the guide and try to teach ourselves. Well, four hours later, we had gotten to the point where we actually started to understand what the rules were saying and we attempted to play. This was possibly one of the worst gaming experiences for her. To this day, she refuses to really try to play that game.

We had a better experience this last weekend with Shadows Over Camelot. I introduced it to her and her mother. I watched a few videos on www.youtube.com about the game and was a little more familiar with how the game played. This went fairly smoothly. We attempted a game on Friday night with rules in hand. Then, on Saturday night, we played one game with the rules, but a little faster. We were enjoying it enough to give it a go for a third time - that was the kicker. This was a tense game with great team play and lots of table-talk. But, very little use of the rule book. This one was a success.

It Can Be A Rewarding Experience

Introducing your friends to a new game can be a very rewarding experience and a great way to get your games on the table and into rotation with your game group.

Like any skill, practice makes perfect. Also, don't miss out on many of the learning tools available online. You can find quick-start guides, visual aids, and other suggestions on web sites like www.boardgamegeek.com.

One Last Suggestion

There is a practice at the country western clubs that actually can be useful for you in your gaming group. About an hour before the club starts hopping, the DJ opens the dance floor and teaches people how to do many of the line dances they will see throughout the night. Obviously, you won't be line dancing at your gaming party (are you?) but the lesson is solid. Announce the games you will be playing before the event. If someone is new to that game, allow them to come early for an introduction to those games. That way, you don't have to take up game time with a rules introduction. Also, it allows fellow gamers to try to introduce games in a non-threatening environment.

Once everyone is comfortable with this process, you can rotate who does the teaching at each event.

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Now enjoy games online - gaming in a new way

Previously, there were only two kinds of games only indoor and outdoor. Indoor games are referred to the games, which played under one roof such as chess, Carrom Board, Ludo, and many other games. During the games in the open air, to cover the type of games, played under the same roof. These games require a large field or ground to play. Some of the examples of these games in the open air are football, cricket, baseball, and many others. Even though all games are divided into only these two types. But before things were not like that. It is because people wanted together another type of game. An acute was so needed much of the game lovers feel.

But with the advent of television and computers, this need was more in the foreground. Many manufacturers realized this and jumped into this area to these people with an all together different games available. Due to its consistent efforts, the dream took no time in turning into reality, and with it, the world saw a different kind of indoor-play. This type of indoor-play was on television and computers limited. This type of game swept their popularity sky touches people in the feet, and in a very short time. This revolution play at the same time, also saw the emergence of this kind of gaming enthusiasts. But since these slots were therefore very expensive, that it reaches to a certain section of society, rich and was wealthy. But in the course of the time the technology has been improved and this version of the indoor games assumed that a whole new form all together. Now which is to see the world, completely different, what it was earlier. Today, video games as a separate field of all are together.

This makeover give credit to this type of game is mainly on the Internet. Online games to play today-unlimited number of Web sites offer the net users. These games allow the users who enjoy games in completely different mode all together. Can the person who not only themselves enjoy online to play games, but at the same time, to save himself from any sort of mental tension or stress. Also by that play these games a person also multitasking can also chat or can work at the same time.

Online games play allows the player to get a leisure time activity allows it maintain the user to relax and his calmness to include. These online games want to improvise the general mood of the players. It is because when a person is playing these games online, he gets that, to compete with other players. This thing the fighting spirit, ultimately the same person only benefits helps immensely that a person calling. They also play allows the person to trust to recover and develop healthy competition spirit. Today, many companies houses encourage their staff to participate in this type of online gaming tournaments. It is specific to boost the productivity of a particular employee, and also at the same time him break after a hectic day.

Nowadays, there are many gaming sites, with which the person who can take part in different types of online games. Some of these games are the online flash games, arcade games, and various others. These games are to the needs of different types of gaming freaks. For example, in which wants to play a simple game he is gamer for the simplest games available on the site opt for. But those who go core, interested in hard games or competitive games for arcade games. Some sites that offer Internet users play online games are Zapak, Youtring and indiagames.com

All in all online games not only help in improving the concentration, but also help break free from the normal routine.

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Online games - development

Now we see thousands of people playing online games such as tetris, ping pong, mario bros, super mario etc for free but despite its history dating back to 1970s, for most people online gaming began with the explosion of Internet in 1993 and with the advent of Doom and Warcraft sometime in 1994 or 1995. This got further boost with publishers starting to add Internet connectivity to computer games in 1994-95.

The media, in fact, have themselves been ignorant about online games history. As far as they are concerned, online gaming just coincidentally happened when their advertisers started producing Internet-capable games. But it isn't so...

Early Years of development

In early 1950's a college student created a game much like Tic-Tac-Toe for a class project to be played on dinosaur computers of those days complete with cathode ray tubes for the screen display. The 1960's had MIT students programming a game called "Space war" that could be played with two people over a primitive network. The late 1960's brought the first "real" video games like table tennis and shooter games.

The 70s - the game begins

Serious online gaming began with the first interactive online game called ADVENT. In fact networked gaming got conceptualized with ADVENT. Networked gaming had users playing against each other within an online fantasy world. The first networked game was called Mazewar, a game which involved networked players traveling through a maze and attempting to kill one another.

Next came the interpersonal interaction in a multi-player environment. The first such game was called DUNGEN. DUNGEN had players competing against one another to complete a series of quests. DUNGEN provided with new settings and players each time the user logged on.

The late 1970's saw the start of video game craze with more and more households getting computer savvy. As a natural corollary, people started writing their own games for the home computers. These programming hobbyists traded and sold these home-grown games in local markets.

Other changes in the 1970's were home gaming consoles which used game cartridges. That meant the people could collect games cartridges for one base unit instead of having bulky game console systems.

The 80s - some pause before the storm

1980's saw growing craze for the video and computer game craze, but online gaming wasn't on the horizon yet. New games with better sound and graphics were introduced and gained popularity. Pole Position and Pac-man were two that achieved big popularity. It was during 1980's when Nintendo introduced its first gaming system.

The 90s - revolution begins

The 1990's saw the phenomenal growth in both popularity and technology mostly because of the rise of 3-D and multimedia.

Myst, the intellectual adventure game introduced gaming on the CD-ROM format. Fancier 3-D graphics hardware made FPS (first person shooter) games such as Quake possible.

The late 1990's saw the exponential growth of the Internet, MUDs (multi-user dungeons) which made online games wildly popular. New and improved graphical interfaces had people all over the world playing against each other not only in FPS games but also in real time strategy games (RTS games) as well as third person games like Grand Theft Auto.

This was also the period when websites started offering online games such as tetris, ping pong, mario bros, super Mario, and other free online flash games and non-flash based games free for playing after registering with them. This really pushed online gaming into the popular psyche.

The 21st Century - world is just a playground

Early years of the 21st century were dominated by the DVD-CD-ROM. It has changed the way online games are played. The latest gaming systems such as Sony's play station and Microsoft's X-box have networking capabilities to enable people play with each other in real time from all over the world. Exponentially growing broadband internet services have made playing these online games possible in true sense of the word.

The only drawback to the constantly evolving technology for online games is that what you buy today might become obsolete by the next year. Luckily, for the serious gamers, the resale industry for these online games is huge. This resale industry is just another element to the ever-changing history of online game.

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Types of Card Games

The various types of card games include trick taking games, card exchange games, patience games, shedding or accumulating games, casino games and collectible card games. The type of card game depends upon the number of players and their interest. It is also based on the rules of game, the skill of the players and the time needed for a game.

Trick taking games are card games with differing play structure. This includes bridge, euchre, hearts, pinochle, whist and piquet. These games use the concept of trick. Each player puts one card during each trick. The different types of trick taking games are positive trick taking games, exact prediction trick taking games and final trick games. The players can take many tricks in positive trick taking games. In other trick taking games, players can take tricks on some sort of contract. Card exchange games include rummy games and card passing games. The objective is to collect a combination of cards.

Patience games consist of a single player and competitive patience game. In patience games, the player moves the cards according to specific rules. Solitaire games are single player games. The different type of solitaire games are ace of pile, freecell and concentration. Competitive games include spite and double solitaire. Gambling card games are also known as casino games. There are beatable and unbeatable types of casino games. Beatable casino games include Blackjack, poker games and video poker games. Baccarat, Roulette, 3 card poker and keno are unbeatable casino games.

The objective of a shedding game is to dispose of all cards as soon as possible. Shedding card games include crazy eights, speed and uno. The objective of an accumulation card game is to accumulate all cards as possible. This game includes seven spades, war and snap. Collectible card games are also known as customizable card games. They are played using a specially designed pack of cards. These cards follow a set of rules. The subset of these cards is available. The subset comprises starter set, theme pack and starter deck. Modern collectible card games are online games. Miscellaneous games, multi genre and fictional card games are other types of card games.

Card Games provides detailed information on Card Games, Online Card Games, Free Card Games, Poker Card Games and more. Card Games is affiliated with Mahjong Tiles.

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Modern board games to non-players tell Gaming - Board of Directors

Your Hobby is What?

How many times have you heard this question?

Your hobby is what? You play board games? Are You Kidding?

As I started to become fascinated by these modern eurogames, I got a lot of funny looks from people - my wife, brother, and sister included. Their response was "Ok, if that is what you want to do... I've never even heard of Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne." What they did not understand is that there is quite an underground community developing around these games.

Over the past half a year or so, I have had to come up with a description for what this community affectionately calls Eurogames. They go by many names, none of which are known to the general public - adult board games. modern board games, designer games, German games, or Ameritrash games. Not one of these explains it well to the non-gamer. It really just digs you into a deeper hole.

You Can Not Answer Like This

We actually don't play "board games" like you may think. We actually play modern designer games from Europe. They tend to be fairly complex and take several hours to play. Nobody is usually eliminated, so everyone actually has a really good time. They tend to be more interactive and engaging, yada yada... Right. Now their eyes have glazed over and you look like a board game snob.

You are Familiar with Monopoly, Right?

When introducing the games, touching a nerve is important. Asking about Monopoly tends to be my first response to them. This is a game everyone is familiar with. They understand that it is a game more complex than your average 7 year old child can handle, that it has aspects of fiscal responsibility, scarce resources, cards, and strategy. They also know there are no trivia questions, movie quotes, drawing pictures or putting words together. Good, we have a starting point. You are dealing with a game that is mildly serious and can go for over an hour.

Now, Think About Chess

Then, I go to the other end of the spectrum, chess. Again, this is a game most everyone has seen or played at some point. Heck, it even shows up in the first book of Harry Potter. They understand that this is a deep strategy game that many play and only some master. They also know that it is two players ONLY and those watching need to be very, very quiet...like golf. They are probably also aware that if you are good at chess, you are respected and considered intelligent, by most.

Now, you have your two extremes.

Next Up...Risk

This is a third game that is more complicated, and closer to the standard modern board game. And, everyone is fairly familiar with it. The thing you have to watch out for with this game is that not everyone has had a positive experience with it. It tends to be long and drawn out with two sides battling it out until the wee hours of the morning - while the eliminated players go and watch TV or munch on snacks and watch the clock.

So, Modern Board Games Are like Risk

You can actually say that a lot of the adult board games are like "Risk on steroids". But, people actually enjoy them and most of the time everyone plays for the entire game. These games are strategy-oriented. You get to shape a country or landscape, manage an economy, manage energy infrastructures, or handle political races or micromanaging small businesses.

Unlike typical board games, the Risk board looks like a map of the world, with zones that have value. This is much more like a eurogame, than Monopoly - where all you do is go around and around hoping to land on GO! or Free Parking.

Also, you can talk to them about the imagery of the games. This is something that really attracted my wife. When she saw the level of art involved with Ticket to Ride, she was really interested. Carcassonne is similar - the art is more cartoon-like, but you build the city as you go. It is very rewarding to see the final city once it is done.

Have You Ever Played Video Games?

This is a really good leap because most 30-year-olds have, at some point, seen an RTS (real time strategy) game on a PC. They may have played Warcraft, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer, or Civilization. Or, they may have played games like The Sims, SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. If so, they are in! These are the PC game cousin to the modern board game.

Sid Meyer, Will Right, John Romero, Chris Sawyer

These names are familiar to PC gamers. They created games like Civilization. SimCity, Railroad Tycoon, Doom, Quake, Roller Coaster Tycoon. One of the cool things about Designer board games is that the designer of a good board game can become a star in his own right.

If they know the PC designer names, you can share your excitement for Klaus Teuber, Alan R. Moon, Richard Borg, and Andreas Seyfarth. They should understand the respect.

Blizzard and ID

If you don't hit the note with the designer names, just throw out these two names and you should get a nod of recognition. Blizzard has put out several games (all of them hits, by the way) such as Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. They are also responsible for the Online Multiplayer game World of Warcraft. ID is the gaming company that busted down the doors of the first-person shooter game with Doom - the most downloaded shareware of its time.

Rio Grande, Days Of Wonder, and Fantasy Flight

If you have hit the nerve talking about PC gaming companies, you can make the logical jump to Adult Board Game Companies. These three companies should be at the forefront of the discussion. Most of the "hit" games come from these. Oh, and don't forget Mayfair with Settlers of Catan.

Here is an interesting point you can share with your new-found connection...

Many PC Games are also Board Games

And, they land squarely in the modern board game genre. This is what some of the gamers call Amertrash games. But, they are games you can point to that might draw the non-gamer in. Point them at Fantasy Flight Games For example, they will recognize Starcraft, World of Warcraft, and Doom. They will also be familiar with Age of Empires and Railroad Tycoon. It really should not be too much of a leap to get them to Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Memoir '44 or Power Grid.

What You Don't Want to Do

Unfortunately, when people think of board gaming as a hobby, and they have never tried it, they get a single image in their head...it is a bunch of geeky guys with greasy hair in a basement or back room with funny shaped dice, a bunch of metal figures, and lots of paper. This image also usually involves someone screaming "Shoot my +3 Fireball at the hill troll for 2d Damage...roll for initiative" What?

They had a friend at some time that was into Dungeons and Dragons. This crowd is always portrayed in the same manner as trekkies.

You also don't act like a snob about how your games are better than their old games from when they were younger. This will just turn them off.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

Just keep a couple of games in your car trunk or at the ready. When the opportunity arises, offer to bring it out and show it. Let them see the rules, touch the game, maybe even give it a shot. If they like it, great! If they don't, oh well. You gave it a fair shot and shared the gems with one more person.

Not Everyone is Going to Be a Fan

The one thing in all of this that you can not forget is that you can not please all the people all the time. Personally, converting my wife was not a hard sell. She loves puzzles. However, my sister and her husband, on the other hand, run in completely different circles than I do and I don't think they will ever try a eurogame. I might get them to try Pizza Box Football, but that is where it will end. My brother might actually convert at some point.

Don't let it bother you. Just keep talking about it and we will eventually create a few more addicts together! Keep on playing the best games in the WORLD!

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Internet games

Computer games have drastically changed how we are looking for entertainment. Now with Internet play, digital gaming has an all new look. With broadband connectivity and super fast computer, always the norm of the day mobile phones and game consoles everyone today can a game of chess or Poker, play a game during your stay by the half of the Earth separately.

It is an unlimited games of nearly every type of play amazingly fun with people, you should never see. Online games, come in hundreds of different players have fun and fill the pockets of thousands of game developers. Not all games are alike. Some games are more fun than others.

There are different genres of games, adventure games America, India epic topic games, Japan manga games, etc. add richness of the whole scenario. Choice of a game depends on the general attitude of the players and the State of mind in the selection of the games.

Internet games, many of them ask you pay a fee in order to play the games. There are also a few sites that offer the online games absolutely free. Trial versions or games available are on the sites, the games on subscription offer. Players can get an idea of the nature of the game full version. It is always advisable, the full version of the game play the trial before subscribing. It will be very bad, if you watch the game not up to your mark, after you pay the full amount.

Online games are pretty much addicted. Preteens of older people who uses Internet and Internet games infected by can be found for hours together at various play without an indication of the hours, the of fly. Nothing apart from the game attracts their attention progress while they are in the game. It's so amazing and so exciting for the players, but can for the audience some crazy things.

Different themes Internet games to fill all you have to do is your hours with endless fun and excitement on the Internet login and select your game from the thousands available out there.

With almost every type of game, especially multiplayer games, you can chat with players during the game. It's way fun, make new friends with similar skills and interests play.

War games, strategy games, close encounters, puzzle solving, speed & control, games, etc. come in large numbers and infinite variety. Sometimes, you have also the problem of too much of choices in front of you. Each game is good and will switch to the correct play, on a correction. There are hundreds of games for your attention within a single genre compete.

Subscription games are of two types. Paying a fixed amount for one month subscription and pay-as-you-go games, i.e. every game you play, cost you £ 1-£ 10, to the type of the game. When you consider games bets, can the costs through the roof go.

Online games are primarily browser-based Java Flash games. Internet game developers work differently to develop creative games themes that remain stable in different environments.

If you think it's time you check online for some fun, games, play, alone or with someone from a different city or with some of the other side of the world, please be assured that Internet can, games for you, come with unlimited fun pass time and entertainment.

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