Topic: Feedback

Several people have written into the blog about bad ads slowing down their games or interfering with their games.

If you encounter ads on Gamesville that slow down your computer, here are things you can do on your own to help yourself and a couple things you can do to help everyone (including you and us).

• How to resolve bad ads on your own:
• How to take a screenshot:

How to resolve bad ads on your own:

If advertising appears to be interfering with your games by making them slow or freezing them up, it's likely that the advertisement you're seeing uses Flash technology which siphon your computer's resources away from the games. Fortunately, you can adjust the Flash settings for individual ads to regain your computer power and apply it back toward your games.

To do this...

• Right-click on the troublesome ad
• Uncheck "Play and Loop"
• Click "Rewind"

This should stop the animation and restore the normal performance of the game. If it doesn't...

• Right-click on the ad and choose "Quality"
• Set "Quality" to "Low"

This will display the ad at a lower quality, which will use much less of your computer's processing power, leaving more resources for your game.

If there are particular advertisements that cause problems for you time and again, please take a screenshot of the ad and send it to us so we can work with the particular advertiser to resolve the problem at the source. For instructions on how to take a screenshot, please go to

How to take a screenshot:

Being able to take a screenshot (that is, a picture of the activity on your computer screen) is a very handy trick because pictures can sometime explain what words cannot, and will likely help us better understand the particular problem you're encountering or bad ad you're seeing.

The easiest way to capture a screenshot using Microsoft Windows is to press one of the following on your keyboard:

• Alt + Print Screen to capture the active window, or
• Print Screen to capture your full computer screen

You then need to paste this screen capture into a graphic to create the screenshot.

To paste this screenshot into an actual graphic...

• Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Paint. This will open the Paint application.
• Press Ctrl + V to paste the screen capture into Paint.
• Now go to Select File > Save As.
• In the Save In field, select a location to save the file, such as your Desktop.
• In the File name field, type in a name for the file.
• In the Type field, select .bmp, .gif, or .jpg.
• Click Save.

If you're using a Macintosh computer, the process is a little more streamlined: With the window up that you want to take a screenshot of, click these three keys simultaneously: Shift-Apple-3. This will save a "Picture" file to your dekstop automatically.

Send us your screenshot and a description of your issue using our ticket submission form.

Topic: New Games

Hi, everyone. Today, we'd like to reaquaint you with some long-lost friends: Collapse, Pop & Drop, Text Twist, and What Word. Please take a moment this weekend to drop by and let them know how much you've missed them.

Also, a number of you have written in, commenting that the multi-page format for our blog comments is pretty annoying. Well, we agreed with you, so we spoke with our friends at Tripod, who provide the technology for our blog, and they agreed, too... so now comments for a single post appear on the same page as the post itself; no more clicking through page after page of comments to find the latest one. (Thanks, Tripod!)

We have a couple of new games scheduled for next week, so stayed tuned.

Thanks,
Chris
Manager, Gamesville.com

PS: phmaness, we've added The Rise of Atlantis to our downloads section. Enjoy!

Topic: Feedback

Sometimes when you undertake a project as big as redesigning an entire site, a page or two falls between the cracks. As many of you in the blog have noticed, the GV Rewards winners list is one of those items that didn't make the transition from the old site to the new site. Well, that's not the case any more.

As of today,  you can now see the most recent 10 GV Rewards sweepstakes winners by visiting either the monthly or weekly entry page. Even better, you can now view all the GV Rewards sweepstakes winners since the dawn of these sweepstakes by clicking the "See more results »" link at the bottom of those pages or going directly to http://www.gamesville.com/rewards/winners.php

Thank you, everyone, who reminded us that we needed to bring these pages back online. Later this week, we'll be bringing back some old favorites that people have been asking about ... so stay tuned.

Chris
Manager, Gamesville.com 

Topic: New Features

At this point, you know we're making changes to Gamesville--sometimes, it feels, on a daily basis!

Let me tell you about something that's not changing: Poker Inferno is not going away. Neither is Three-Eyed Bingo, nor Magic 21. See, over the last couple days, we've heard rumors about this game going away or that game being cancelled, and these rumors just aren't true.

In fact, it's pretty much the exact opposite.

Over the coming weeks and months, we're going to be introducing (or, in some cases, reintroducing) a number of games, and also making over some of our classic games, such as the aforementioned Three-Eyed Bingo.

Actually, we already made over Three-Eyed Bingo.

Here's the before picture, circa summer 2000...

Here's the after picture, from April 2007:

Making over an existing game like Three-Eyed can be tricky because the existing players have certain expectations that need to be met, and what we need to do is balance those expectations against the needs of new players, and hopefully make something that can be enjoyed by our loyal players as well as the new players who are just finding out about Gamesville.

Ultimately, it's up to all of you to judge if we succeeded or not, and to help us make improvements that will take the game to the next level. (For example, is anyone interested in side-games that could be played during bingo..?)

Please let us know what you think of the new look for Three-Eyed Bingo, and anything else; we hope you enjoy playing!

Chris

PS: We've already made some tweaks to the new Three-Eyed Bingo based on your feedback, including changing the color of the gold daub so it contrasts better against the cards, and updating the "free space" to remove the eyelash artifact that was being left behind when the eye blinked. Thanks to "hanky75", "sarahpa15666", and everyone else who has written in about these issues.

PPS: While we're talking about Three-Eyed Bingo and dismissing rumors... please be advised, there is another Three-Eyed Bingo rumor out there that says if you leave the gold balls dabbed in a certain way and you win, you won't be paid your winnings. That is completely false. Our system is only checking to verify that you daub the balls that match the stated pattern. As long as you daub the balls that match the stated pattern and click "Bingo" before the game ends, you will win the game; simple as that; nothing else matters. If you know someone out there who is spreading this rumor, please point them to this blog entry and set them straight.

Topic: Feedback

If you read the comments in this blog, you know that tournaments are kind of a hot topic at Gamesville. 

As of this moment, Gamesville does not host any official tournaments or leagues. However, we are aware that various sites, including Rankmonster, use our game rooms for player-run tournaments and similar activities. We've heard from players who like these tournaments and we've heard from players who don't like these tournaments.

Here's what we've done to try and meet the needs of both groups of players...

As of April 6, we've started offering rooms that are specifically for tournament play. These rooms are easily identified by their names: "Tournament Room" followed by a number (e.g., "Tournament Room 1").

Right now, we offer tournament rooms for the following games:

• Dominoes
• Euchre
• Frantic Fish
• Hearts
• Magic 21
• Miami Dice
• Pool
• Spades
• Spite and Malice

If you're a member of a tournament or league, please be polite to your fellow players and use ONLY these tournament rooms for your tournaments.

If you're not currently a tournament player and you're looking for a tournament or league to join, please enter one of these new tournament rooms and ask a tournament host or member for more information.

If people are using a non-tournament room for their gameplay, please politely ask them to use a tournament room. If that doesn't work, simply use your block button to silence them.

Thanks for your assistance in this matter. As always, please be sure to give us your feeback on this topic, or any other.

Chris

Topic: Members

Congratulations to Gamesviller "char_kng" of Val Caron, Ontario! She won $1,939 today playing Magic 21! Nicely played, Char; nicely played.

Topic: Members

Gamesviller "gammylady" of Haysville, KS, recently won $4,717 playing Three-Eyed Bingo. We were lucky enough to chat with her and we think you'll agree that she is quite deserving of her good fortune. Read on...

Congratulations on your win. How did it feel to claim that winning bingo?
It was so exciting; I was screaming my head off. My daughter heard me in the other room and came running to me, afraid I'd hurt myself!

Anything fun planned for your winnings?
I'm going to pay off some bills, then spend the rest on a good time. Maybe a trip to the casino.

When you're not playing at Gamesville.com, what do you enjoy doing?
I volunteer as a tutor for special ed children at a local middle school.

That sounds like rewarding work.
It is. I love working with those kids and helping them overcome obstacles in their lives.

You sound like a very special woman, yourself.
No, I'm no different than anyone else. We all just want to give something back to the world.

Looking back on your own life so far, what are you most proud of?
My adopted daughter. She has overcome so much in her own life; she is just a joy to me.

What's the best movie or book you've enjoyed recently?
The Guardian. It's about a rescue diver unit and what they go through to help people at sea.

Any pets in your house?
Yes, a three-year-old cat named Pooh; she's the same color as the bear.

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?
I'm proof that if you keep plugging away, you can hit it big!

Topic: Feedback

At Gamesville.com, we really do read through every comment you post here or send to customer service. Three questions keep coming up in the feedback on the redesign...

- How do I sign in?
- Where is my friend's list?
- Where did the sweepstakes go?

In response to these questions, we're soon going to change the "My Gamesville" module on the homepage and other pages to make it easier to find all these things.

Soon, when you come to Gamesville.com and you are not signed in, the My Gamesville module will look like this:

After you sign in (or sign up), the "My Gamesville" module will reload and look like this:

The yellow box will link you directly to your friend's list; the links for the GV Rewards sweepstakes will take you directly to the monthly and weekly sweepstakes pages; and the other functionality (favorite games, current badge) will remain the same.

A few people have written in, noting that the current badge displayed in the "My Gamesville" module is different from their actual badge; this problem will be fixed when this revised "My Gamesville" module goes live.

Thanks again for all your great feedback; it's greatly appreciated. You folks are the best.

Chris

UPDATE April 12: These changes are now live; please let us know, what do you think?   

Topic: Members

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.

Topic: Feedback

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