Everyone, please congratulate our most recent Three-Eyed Bingo winner, Gamesviller "gammylady" of Haysville, KS. Gammylady won $4,717 on April 4 and, after spending a few moments on the phone with her today, it's clear that she's quite deserving of her good fortune. Stay tuned for an interview with gammylady coming later this week.

Thanks to "mopsyhouse" and everyone else who wrote in about connectivity problems with the games this weekend, our engineers were able to track down the problem and, moments ago, release an update that has fixed the problem for "mopsyhouse", "bakingmaven", and several other members that we've been able to contact this morning and test with.

Please note: This fix does not require you to do anything except exit your browser, restart your browser, and then try to play again. 

If you're still experiencing troubles getting games to load, please go to http://www.javatester.org/version.html and scroll down the page until you see "Method 1: Ask Java". In that part of the page there should be a pink box with some text in it. For example, the text might say something like "Java Version: 1.5.0_11 from Sun Microsystems Inc.". Write down the text that appears in that pink box and submit it to customer service using the Lycos ticket submission form

Some of you have written in with troubles finding your GV Rewards sweepstakes pages and friends lists. All of these can be found in the "My Gamesville" box at the top of most of our pages; when you sign in, click "edit" in the "My Gamesville" box and it will take you to your My Gamesville page which has all that information and more. We're working on an update that will make this more apparent. In the meantime, you can navigate to those pages directly by going to:

Weekly GV Rewards sweepstakes:
http://www.gamesville.com/rewards/entries/weekly 

Monthly GV Rewards sweepstakes:
http://www.gamesville.com/rewards/entries/monthly 

Friends list: 
http://www.gamesville.com/my_gv.php

Note, you will need to sign into Gamesville first to access any of these pages.

On Thursday, March 29, we had our first Magic 21 winner: Gamesviller "steve3265" of Jeffersonville, NY. Steve3265 won $1,765, and he nearly fell out of his chair when it happened. Steve3265 took a few minutes to chat with us about his win, his 42-year-old African parrot Clancy, and more. Read on...

Congratulations again on your win. How does it feel? 
Oh, man; I still can't believe it. I nearly fell out of my chair when the words "jackpot win" came up on the screen. I play in Three-Eyed Bingo all the time, and my friends in there still can't believe I won.

How long have you been playing on Gamesville?
I joined in 1999. I've been playing ever since.

What are your plans for your winnings?
I have some medical bills that need paying off, so this came at just the right time.

I'm glad we could help. 
Me, too! 

Now, let's get to know you a little better: Favorite movie?
Definitely the Rocky movies. I own them all on DVD, so I can watch them any time. But whenever they come on TV, I have to stop and watch them. Sylvestor Stallone is my idol.

So if you could have a party and invite anyone in the world, living or dead, real or fictional...?
Stallone would be there, definitely. I'd also invite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Willie Randolph (the manager of the New York Mets).

I'm sensing a trend here.
(Laughs.) You know what, since I'm a big wrestling fan, I'd also invite Hulk Hogan.

Now, I know our members are proud of their pets so I have to ask: Any pets in your house?
Yes, two dogs and an African parrot.

What kind of dogs?
Molly is a beagle and Carmel is a mutt.  

Any distinguishing or fun facts about them?
Well, Molly weighs 90-pounds; she is the biggest beagle her vet has ever seen.

And you mentioned a parrot, too?
Yes, Clancy; he's 42-years old, and I inherited him from my mother-in-law who asked me to babysit the bird while she went on vacation. When she came back, she asked me to keep him.

How's that working out?
Clancy's all right. He definitely has his own personality: he doesn't speak when spoken to; he talks only when he feels like it.

Well, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to say to your fellow Gamesvillers?
It happened to me; just keep playing, having fun, and it could happen to you, too.

Gamesville.com will be brought down for an upgrade tonight, April 5, at around midnight eastern time. The down time should last for no more than two hours.

UPDATE, April 6: The upgrade is complete. Part of the release included upgrading the version of Java the games use. (Java is the software allows you to play games on Gamesville and elsewhere, and it is 100% free.)

PLEASE NOTE: If you are having trouble getting games to load, please download the latest version of Java at http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Thank you, everyone, for all your comments on the new look for Gamesville and the other changes we've made. We are reading each of your comments and acting on them. Some things, like the Spite & Malice connectivity problems, have been resolved. Others are actively being worked on. Watch this space for updates.

Chris

Update - July 13, 2007

Good news: Gamesville Avatars are now live! Try Gamesville Avatars now--it's 100% FREE.

Note: As of this moment, you can only see your own avatar. However, very soon we're going to give you the ability to see each other's avatars through chat and other means--so get creating!

To everyone who wrote in about avatars over the last several weeks: This was a different kind of project for us to work on--and we appreciate your patience as we worked on it--and we hope you enjoy it. 

If you have comments about things you want to see (more eye choices, for example, or a certain kind of hat, etc.) please post those ideas here and we'll take them into consideration as we introduce new pieces of clothing and other items to dress up your avatars.

If you have questions or comments about the avatar system, post them here as well and we'll do a round up of questions and answers in the coming days.

Have a great weekend, and have fun with the Gamesville Avatars!

Sincerely, 

Chris Cummings
Manager, Gamesville.com 

Update - June 21, 2007

We've entered the QA phase for the project, which is great news. Our target launch for avatars is the second week of July. In the meantime, here is a preview of just a handful of the avatars you can create easily and quickly with the Gamesville avatar system...

Update - April 4, 2007

Avatars are one of the new features coming to Gamesville.com over the next few weeks--and we're really excited about them.

What are avatars? Basically, avatars are a representation of yourself that are connected to your username. 

Those of you who have been around here awhile will know that Gamesville currently offers a rudimentary set of avatars in games like spades and euchre. We will continue to support those avatars; so if you like being the crazy baby head, you can continue being the crazy baby head. But we're soon going to add dozens of brand new avatars that will help you express yourself and your mood like never before.

Best of all, the Gamesville avatars will be available to all users, FREE of charge. 

The new design for Gamesville.com is live. Please use this page to let us know what you think of Gamesville's current direction and what you'd like to see next...

Thanks, 
Chris Cummings,
Manager, Gamesville.com 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are having trouble getting games to load, please download the latest version of Java at http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp

Java is the software allows you to play games on Gamesville (and elsewhere), and it is 100% free.

Hi, everyone. We're on the verge of releasing the brand new Gamesville, so everyone at GV HQ is feeling excited and a little wistful, too. Before we go back to the future, I wanted to take a moment to look at where we've been so we can better understand where we're headed. Our first stop: 1997!

Gamesville.com, v1 

Several Gamesvillers have written into customer service recently, asking us to reinstate the "three block rule" in chat. If you read this blog, you know chat is a very hot topic; that's one reason why the changes we made to the chat system recently were not made lightly. Let me explain:

When we first instituted the "three-block rule" in chat, we did so with the best of intentions, figuring that if three or more people in a room blocked the same player, we would do the entire room a favor by automatically blocking that player for everyone. The block was meant to be temporary, with the idea that the rude chatters would learn their lesson and act less boorish next time around.

What we discovered over time, however, is that most rude chatters won't change their behavior--and, worse, several overly clever players were routinely exploiting the three-block rule, using it to punish innocent players or players they just didn't like. For example, if Sue and Lou were having an argument, Sue would block Lou and then ask two of her friends to block Lou as well, preventing Lou from talking with the other people in the room.

When we upgraded our chat system earlier this month, we made two substantial changes: first, we removed the three-block rule so it could no longer be wielded as a weapon against other users who may not deserve it; and second, we made blocking permanent. That second change is very important. Now if you block someone, that username is blocked from communicating with you forever, unless you choose to unblock them. We also made a change to My Gamesville so you can see a full list of the users you've added to your block list. To see your full block list go to: http://www.gamesville.com/my_gv.php

As our distinguished competition will tell you, rude people in chat rooms on games sites are a fact of life; no matter where you go, there they are. The fairest thing any of us can do is give you powerful tools to prevent rude players from bothering you as an individual, and hope that you will tell your friends and new players how to block people they find offensive. Of course, if and when rude chatters are reported to us, we will investigate and take appropriate action; but the best, most direct course of action is to use the block button to kick the rude chatters out of your life.

Thanks again to everyone who wrote in on this topic; your comments and questions about chat, and everything else, are always appreciated and welcome.

PS: To cazadoes_az and everyone who wrote in or posted complaints about tournament players in chat: we're working on something now that should help address your concerns. More information on that soon.

PPS: It looks like the "reset" button will officially pressed next week; keep your eyes peeled for updates.