Winning a sweepstakes is, by its very definition, up to the luck of the draw. However, by creating a smart plan to enter sweepstakes, you can improve your chances of winning and maybe--maybe--take home the prize. Here are Gamesville's Top Five Tips on winning at sweepstakes.

1. Focus On What You Want, What You Could Use
A brief search for sweepstakes reveals far more sweepstakes than any one person could possibly enter, with new sweepstakes rolling out all the time. So what should you do? Focus on what you really want, and what you can really use. For example, if you can't fit a 50-inch widescreen television in your apartment, or wouldn't be able to attend a concert on the other side of the country, don't waste your time trying to win those prizes. Instead, focus on prizes you really want to win, and that you could realistically use.

2. Avoid Highly Advertised, National Sweepstakes
Have you seen the same sweepstakes advertised online, on television, and on the radio? Then it's probably reasonable to assume the number of entries will be astronomical, and your chances of winning will be quite low. Instead, target sweepstakes that do not advertise everywhere under the sun. In particular, online-only sweepstakes and local sweepstakes could be a gold mine for you, since the number of entries can be very small compared to the number of entries received by national sweepstakes.

3. Exploit Restrictions
In the United States, the state governments set their own rules governing sweepstakes. To avoid running afoul of state laws, some sponsors will prohibit residents of certain states (in particular, Florida and New York) from entering sweepstakes. Age is another potential restriction that may work out in your favor; many sweepstakes are open to people 18+, but some are restricted to 21 or greater. Wherever possible, exploit these restrictions to your advantage; the fewer people who can enter, the better off you might be.

4. Look For Close Deadlines
Some sweepstakes have entry periods that last one to two weeks while others last for months or even years. The longer the sweepstakes is available, the worse your odds become because more people will find the sweep and enter to win. Entering sweepstakes with close deadlines, such as daily or weekly sweepstakes, can better your odds because most people don't have the drive to enter the same sweepstakes every day or every week. The lower the turnout, the better your chances of winning.

5. Follow The Rules
Every legitimate sweepstakes has official rules. Before entering a sweepstakes, read its rules carefully and follow them exactly. If you don't follow the rules exactly, your entry will be disqualified. Similarly, when you win, follow the requirements to claim your prize--make sure you complete the affidavit, if needed, and return any required paperwork in a timely fashion. Some sweepstakes may grant you leeway, but it's always best to assume that if you fail to follow the rules, you're decreasing your chances of winning.

My final piece of advice is this: While there are things you can do to improve your chances of winning, your odds of winning a sweepstakes, for the most part, will remain quite low. For your own mental health, enter sweepstakes for the thrill of it and expect nothing more. And remember: in the United States, you do not have to buy or pay anything to enter a sweepstakes and have a chance to win a prize, so be wary of any sweepstakes that requires any kind of cash payment or donation.

Gamesviller "maureenbennicoff" wrote in recently saying: "It would be nice to have some idea of how many GV Rewards are necessary to compete in the weekly and monthly drawings. Can you share how many GV Rewards the winners have used?"

Good question, maureenbennicoff. While we won't reveal exact numbers for any individual sweepstakes or member, here are three stats that should give you a good picture of what it can take to win...

• One member has won with as little as 3 entries
• Half a dozen members have won with 10 entries or less
• Over 1 in 4 of all GV Rewards winners have used 100 entries or less

Tomorrow, we'll talk more generally about sweepstakes and how to improve your chances of winning the sweepstakes you enter.

This week's Best Pet is from the United Kingdom...

Pet Name:
Ozzie

Pet Owner:
Gamesviller "Talley41"

Distinguishing Personality Traits:
Talley41 says: "This is our Yorkshire Terrier, Ozzie. He is 10 months old and is more work than my three year old granddaughter! Ozzie insists on chewing everything that doesn't belong to him, and he steals our stuff and hides it under the furniture. His favourite hobbies include kissing cats and digging up my flowers. His dislikes include listening and bathing. I have aged considerably since Ozzie joined our family, but I wouldn't change him for the world."

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.

Is a Gamesville game getting slowed down because of an ad? Here are tips on how to adjust certain settings on the ads to speed things up, and also help us track down ads that are causing slowness.

Happy fourth of July, U.S.A.!

Last time on "Gamesville: Behind The Scenes", we took a look at the evolution of Magic 21--from a raw germ of an idea to a sketch in a notebook. Today, we'll look at how that sketch became a fully realized game you can play on your computer.

Magic 21 was created by two full-time people (a game designer and a game developer) and one part-time game developer, with the able assistance of several Gamesville crew members who tested the game for us for "fun factor" and bugs/problems. The game designer was responsible for the vision of the game and the graphics and sounds of the game; the developers were responsible for coding the game; and together, the team was responsible for the core gameplay and final product.

Before full-scale production for Magic 21 could begin, the game designer and the game developers had to flesh out as much of the gameplay as possible. From these discussions and email exchanges came a design document, which contained detailed information on the gameplay, and, eventually, a raw prototype of the game that demonstrated how the game would work without any "frills" such as sounds and pretty graphics to gloss over any defects in gameplay.

Once folks internally were satisfied that Magic 21 was fun in action, not just as an idea, production began on the game: The developers churned out code; the game designer created assets (e.g., the burning cards, the game buttons, the sound effects, etc.); and the team worked together to modify the game design as it evolved over time. As versions of the game were completed and new features were added, people internally tested the game by playing the game.

You might think that the testing staff had the "easy" part of the job; after all, they're just playing games and having fun, right? Unfortunately, they kind of get the short end of the stick because not only do they need to test the new features and bug fixes, they also need to do what's called "regression testing" to make sure that the old features still work as intended and that the new features and bug fixes aren't now breaking something that worked just fine before. After several rounds of testing and bug fixing, Magic 21 was given the green light for release.

On Magic 15, 2007, we released Magic 21 to the live site. And it worked just fine... except for a bug that wasn't present during internal testing where GV Rewards on the live site were not being tracked correctly for all members. To address this problem, we had to bring the game down for a few hours, fix the defect, test the fix, and then re-release the game to everyone to play--thankfully, this time, without any issues.

Magic 21 has grown to be one of the most popular games on Gamesville, providing hours of fun for thousands of people every day.  Everyone at Gamesville is proud of Magic 21, and is impressed and delighted by how well the game has been received. If you haven't played Magic 21 yet, what are you waiting for?  Play now!

We hope you've enjoyed this peek behind the scenes at how Magic 21 was created. If you did enjoy it, please let us know and we'll make delving behind the scenes a semi-regular feature in the Gamesville Blog.

IBM (whom you've probably heard of) and Seriosity (whom you may not have heard of) have conducted a series of studies focused on how the rules of multiplayer online games could apply to business in the real world.

Here are the specific game concepts that businesses should adopt to enhance productivity, innovation, and leadership in the workplace:

• Incentive structures that motivate workers immediately and longer term
• Virtual economies that create a marketplace for information and collaboration
• Transparency of performance and capabilities
• Recognition for achievements
• Visibility into networks of communication across an organization

The games studied were more of the World of Warcraft vein than the Three-Eyed Bingo type, but, based on what they've uncovered, I think many of the same concepts apply to the kinds of games we play. What do you think? What have you learned playing online games that you think the business world could benefit from?

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!