This week's Best Pet is a duo that flew in from Lowell, MA...

Pet Names:
Munchkin & Isabella

Pet Owner:
Gamesviller "moonswirl"

Distinguishing Personality Traits:
Moonswirl says: "Munchkin (white) and Isabella (black) are fantail pigeons. They adore each other and spend all day billing and cooing. They also enjoy showing off their pretty tail feathers, building nests, and preening. Munchkin's favorite snack is raw sunflower seeds. Isabella purrs like a kitten when we scratch her neck. "

Want to share photos of your own favorite pet with the Gamesville community?

Send photos to: members@gamesville.com

In addition to your pet's picture, please include:

• your member name
• your pet's most distinguishing personality trait

Please note: All submissions become the sole property of Gamesville, which reserves the right to hold, reject and/or edit submissions without notice and without limitation in perpetuity.

All games start with an idea... at Gamesville, the ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. Today, I thought I'd talk a little bit about the birth of our latest jackpot game, Magic 21, and give you a peek at the original pen sketch for the game.

Magic 21 was the answer to a question that we at Gamesville were wrestling with earlier in the year. The question was this: We know we want to make a new game; how do we make that game stand out in the crowd? What do we bring to the table that's different and worth playing?

We analyzed the competition, played a ton of games, listened to your feedback, used some good old-fashioned common sense, and eventually came to realize that the core values of Gamesville still rang true--and the new game, whatever it would be, had to adhere to them.

Gamesville.com was established back in 1996 with the founding belief that people didn't want to just watch game shows on TV; they wanted to be in those game shows and compete to win prizes. What we needed to do was "get back to basics" ... let people play in realtime, against one another, to win free money and other prizes. Using that concept as the foundation, we generated a ton of game ideas: many were good, many were terrible, and a handful were great. The competition was fierce, but eventually Magic 21 rose up as the right game at the right time.

When developing ideas for new games, the Gamesville crew tends to favor quick sketches on whiteboards or in notebooks so everyone can get on the same page and start to develop a shared vision of the concept.

Here is the original pitch for Magic 21: 

"Magic 21 is a new 1st party game from Gamesville. It is massively multiplayer (e.g., one vs. everyone else playing in realtime) jackpot game. The play area has a certain number of columns where you can place cards. Every (5?) seconds, a new card is drawn for all players. You have (5?) seconds to discard the drawn card or place the drawn card in the column of your choice to get that column to total 21 without going over. Clear out a column to reveal either varying amounts of GV Rewards or the jackpot prize. After a column is cleared and the reward revealed, the column regenerates so it can be played again."

And here is one of the earliest sketches that helped flesh out the pitch:  

Some the early questions that needed to be answered about the game are on the sketch above... "Can players cycle through discarded cards?", "Do we total the card values for each column for the player?", "Do we show ads during the game?" The team that tackled Magic 21 had to answer those questions (and more) while taking Magic 21 from the conceptual stage all the way to the finish line. But that's a story for another day.

I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the curtain of game development at Gamesville.com. Next Wednesday, we'll continue this discussion, digging a little deeper into how Magic 21 went from a sketch in a notebook to an actual game that you can play on your computer.

Gamesviller "neisi85" of Fordyce, AR, sends us this joke:

Roger is a millionaire with a collection of exotic animals. One night, Roger invites several friends over to admire his collection of animals and have some drinks. While looking down upon his indoor alligator sanctuary, Roger says to his friends, "I'll give any one of you a million dollars if you jump into the alligator pool below and wrestle one of those beasts to the death."

His friends look at one another, disbelief clear on their faces. One says, "Yeah, right."

To prove his sincerity, Roger turns to get his checkbook. Suddenly, he hears a splash; he turns to see one of his friends in the pool, wrestling one of the alligators. The fight is quick and brutal; within seconds, both man and beast vanish below the water...

Blood comes slowly to surface, followed by the body of the alligator. Roger cheers when he sees his friend rise out of the water and climb back over the railing.

"I'm a man of my word," Roger tells his friends. "Here you go; a check for one million dollars."

The friend refuses the check, several times. But Roger insists. After going back and forth over the money several times more, Roger finally says, "Well, if you won't take the money, what can I give you?"

The friend says, "You can give me the name of the S.O.B. that pushed me into the pool!"

Do you have a favorite joke to share with the Gamesville community?

Send it to: members@gamesville.com

Please include:

•    your Gamesville member name
•    the complete joke

If we use your joke as a feature article, you'll receive 200 GV Rewards!

At the Gamesville Blog, our team of crack reporters keeps an eye out for weird stories that come across the news wires. Here's one from our friends at Sawf News:

A Japanese man who set a world record by wolfing down dozens of hot dogs within minutes has suffered a severe jaw injury due to his rigorous training, making his next title uncertain.

Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi said he can only open his mouth to make a gap the size of a fingertip after being diagnosed with jaw arthritis.

In an entry on his blog entitled "Occupational hazard," Kobayashi said: "My jaw refused to fight any more."

The injury occurred only a week after the slender 29-year-old started training to win his seventh straight title at the annual July 4 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating event on New York's Coney Island.

"I feel ashamed that I couldn't notice the alarm bells set off by my own body," he said. "But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn't stop my training so close to the competition."

[...]

Last year, Kobayashi put down a world-record 53 and three-quarters hot dogs in just 12 minutes.

In addition to the Nathan's Famous titles, he holds world records for scoffing cows' brains and rice balls.

This recipe for Baked Zucchini Chips was sent to us by Gamesviller "gameplayer7000" from Boston, MA.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini, cut into quarter-inch slices
• 1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper (ground)
• 2.5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
2. In a small bowl, stir the bread crumbs, pepper, and Parmesan cheese altogether.
3. Place the egg whites in a different bowl. Dip zucchini slices into egg whites; coat breadcrumb mixture. Place on a greased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven; turn over and bake for another 7 minutes, until nice and crispy.

Do you have a favorite recipe to share with the Gamesville community?

Send it to: members@gamesville.com

Please include:

•    your Gamesville member name
•    the complete recipe with ingredients and directions

If we use your recipe as a feature article, you'll receive 500 GV Rewards!

This week's Best Pet hails from Wolverine, MI...

Pet Name:
Mazie

Pet Owner:
Gamesviller "mazie714"

Distinguishing Personality Traits:
Mazie714 says: "This is our chocolate lab, Mazie; she will be 12 in July. As you can see, she doesn't especially like having her pic taken when she's travelling, LOL!"

Want to share photos of your own favorite pet with the Gamesville community?

Send photos to: members@gamesville.com

In addition to your pet's picture, please include:

• your member name
• your pet's most distinguishing personality trait

Please note: All submissions become the sole property of Gamesville, which reserves the right to hold, reject and/or edit submissions without notice and without limitation in perpetuity.

It's been awhile since we talked about the new avatar system, so I wanted to give you all an update. We've entered the QA phase for the project, which is great news. Our target launch 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...

Congratulations to Gamesviller "crismvkp66" of Centerville, OH, who won the largest Magic 21 jackpot to date! Crismvkp66 played the cards right and took home a whopping $4,247 on June 19, 2007. Nicely done!

Yesterday, we spoke about chat safety and identity theft. While that is a matter not to be taken lightly, a more pressing concern for some of you is handling the garden variety abusive chatter.

If you see someone acting in an abusive manner in chat (excessive swearing, personal attacks, etc.), don't try to argue with them or force them to be polite; instead, please add that player to your block list so you never see messages from that player again.

To block individual players, click the player's member name in the player list and select "Block from Chat". When a player is on your blocked list, you will not see any messages from them in chat again, unless you remove them from your block list.

"Block" is an extremely powerful tool because chat abusers really want your attention, and they can't stand being ignored. Once chat abusers stop getting your attention, they grow bored and eventually move on or stop altogether. 

To view your full block list, go to My Gamesville where you can add other players to your block list or remove players from your block list.

There may be times when intervention is needed, because the chat violates our Terms of Service. If a situation has arisen that you feel needs to be investigated, please send customer service an Abuse Report using our ticket submission form.

NOTE: DO NOT POST CHAT ABUSE REPORTS HERE IN THIS BLOG. 

When sending an Abuse Report to customer service using our ticket submission form, be sure to include...

• Abuser's Gamesville member name
• Date and time the incident took place
• Game name in which the incident took place
• Room name in which the incident took place
• Brief description of what tooks place, including language used

Note: We will never discuss ongoing or completed investigations into specific users who have been reported for abuse.

Once you've reported an alleged chat abuser to customer service, your job is done; please leave it up to our customer service representatives to conduct their investigation and render their decision.

Finally, if you see someone responding to an abuser in chat, please private message that player and remind them about the block feature, and remind them that denying chat abusers attention is the surest way to make them go away.

A few people have expressed concerns about chat and identity theft. This post contains some advice and some suggested resources for more information.

Imagine this scenario: If someone spent a few weeks in a chat room and wrote down every single thing that you said in that chat room, how much would they know about you? Have you revealed your place of work? Your telephone number? Your street address? What have you said in private chats that you might not want the entire world to know?

The fact is, anything you type in a chat room can be seen by whoever is in that chat room with you--and they may repeat this information to anyone else, until the end of time--so you must always pay careful attention to what you type and never give out vital personal information, such as your telephone or cell phone numbers, your passwords, your banking details, your Social Security number, etc. 

If you feel that your real-life identity has been compromised and that someone is using your personal information to commit crimes, there are resources online to turn to for help. See the FTC's ID Theft: Facts for Consumers for details on identity theft and actions you can take to re-secure your identity.

Please remember: It is absolutely vital that everyone use good judgment when using a chat room--any chat room, on any website. Have fun and socialize, but always err on the side of caution and common sense.