Gamesville Community Manager Ryan Kelley presenting Sharon with her check

Armed with a giant novelty check and some special treats (including a live check for $4,999), we knocked on Sharon's door. Sharon met us with her mother (Gamesviller Ms-dee58) and was delighted to chat for a bit about her win and pose for some photos.

Our lucky winner Sharnlee222 and her mom Ms-dee58

Gamesville: Sharon, congratulations on the big win! What was it like when you realized you won?
The 'jackpot!' screen came up and I was completely shocked! The whole chat room was going nuts and congratulated me. Some GV friends that were playing in other rooms even came into my regular chat room to say congratulations. It was all very special.

How will you spend your winnings?
I'm about to go deposit this in the bank and do a little shopping for myself. Both of my children have birthdays in June and July so I'm sure I'll spend some on that. My mother and I are also planning a trip to Vegas in this fall so I'll save some to spend on that as well.

An ecstatic Sharon will be depositing her real check for $4,999 soon

What do you do for a living?
Full-time mom, part-time cashier for a local grocery store. Sometimes it provides a vacation away from the kids.

Are you a morning person or a night person?
Definitely a night person. I work 'til midnight most days, come home and unwind with Gamesville.

What adjective would a close friend use to describe you?
Shy at first. Fun. And a workaholic!

What game would you like to see Gamesville make next?
I'm loving the new Quick-Draw Poker right now and would love to see more card games and even more word or puzzle games. I'm really into gaining GV rewards and new badges and wish there were more more ways to earn GVs!

Thanks for being such a great sport Sharon -- and congratulations again on your win!

Two weeks ago we previewed a BIG update to the Gamesville homepage. Today the new Gamesville homepage has finally arrived!

The all-new design includes some enhanced social features such as the ability to see which games your friends are currently playing and the Top 5 Games ranked by jackpot payout as soon as you login.

Like it? Love it? Questions about it? Check out the new homepage and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

In all the excitement and WINNING in the web's latest poker craze (that'd be Quick-Draw Poker, for the uninitiated, natch) -- we'd be completely remiss if we didn't mention all the other lucky members in other games winning cash left and right. So without further ado...

Last week we announced another BIG jackpot win by Mommabear292 of Hellertown, PA, who won $413 in CatchUp CoverAll. What we neglected to mention was there were four other Lucky Ball winners who took home cold hard cash as a result of Mommabear292's jackpot. Congratulations to our four Lucky Ball winners: Grand1111, Ungracefullyaging, Mountaingal3, Momof2jocks.

And who could forget...

We're not through with the celebrations just yet! Because another BIG congratulations are due to Azngrl0813 of Azusa, CA who joined the party last week and took home a cool $4,275 in Magic 21!

But that's not all!

One more BIG congratulations to Kimprice8 of Clanton, AL, who won our super hot Nintendo Wii Console with a brand new Wii Fit in last month's GV Rewards Sweepstakes!

Congratulations to these folks--and all our lucky winners--in the month of May!

Please note: Gamesville will be offline for a few minutes this afternoon as we perform routine maintence. The outage should last only about five minutes. Thank you for your patience, and see you back in the games shortly.

Sincerely,
Chris Cummings
Manager, Gamesville.com

UPDATE - 12:05PM

The site is back online and games are now available to play.

The cards in Quick-Draw Poker are ON FIRE! Since Rockerbear's $200 DOUBLE JACKPOT WIN last week, THREE MORE poker players scored some fast money in Quick-Draw Poker! Congratulations to:

Gumby427 won $63 on Sunday

Masteroanh won $76 on Saturday

Quick-Draw Poker is fun, free, and fast--just the way we like 'em. And if you go Gold, you get larger chat and automatic double jackpots!

Either way--don't leave this red hot action on the table! Try your hand at Quick-Draw Poker today!

Grab your helmets, gang: There's an exciting new prize cruising into June's GV Rewards Sweepstakes at Gamesville.com!

This month we're helping you hit the streets with a chance at this three-wheeled Triton recumbent bike. With a very unique, yet simple steering mechanism, this 20" cruising bike is not only fun and enjoyable to steer, it's easy to ride, and a fun way to get a great workout!

Congratulations to Kimprice8 of Clanton, AL, who won our super hot Nintendo Wii Console with a brand new Wii Fit in last month's monthly GV Rewards sweepstakes.

Yee-haw! And congratulations to Gamesviller Rockerbear of Lansing, MI.  On May 28, she proved to be the fastest gun in the West--and became our first Quick-Draw Poker 2009 jackpot winner!

Rockerbear of Lansing, MI

Rockerbear enjoys bingo, crafts, and ther wild outdoors. We're guessing, she's going to add Quick-Draw Poker to that last pretty soon :-)

Congratulations again to Rockerbear--and thank you, everyone, for your feedback on Quick-Draw Poker.

We understand there are some hardware/software configurations that are having troubles connecting with certain game rooms, and thanks to the awesome assistance of members like Crickettot and others, we're diagnosing those problems and releasing updates that are fixing them. We released two updates on Friday, and have another planned for early next week.

We truly appreciate your support, and are very happy you're enjoying the game. But hold onto your hats, because there's much more to come at Gamesville in 2009! More fun, more prizes, more.... more. 

For sneak peaks at what's coming up, be sure to follow this Blog and follow us on Twitter. And for behind the scenes info and pictures, become our friend on Facebook.

Sincerely,
Chris Cummings
Manager, Gamesville.com

The Richard family tried out the Wii vs. real-life exercise for a week

Can computer simulated fitness compete with the exercise of a traditional active life style? To find out The Sun recruited the help of the Richard family to put the new wave of virtually enhanced exercise to the test.

Their mission: Try Sports Active, a new fitness activity game for the Wii, for five days then switch to 30 minutes of real-life exercise a day. To see how each compare the family did the same activities they've played in the game and then kept a journal of their daily exercise. Read the family's full review at The Sun...

Last Chance!!! Get Fit With Your Own Wii + Wii Fit at Gamesville!

This weekend is your last chance to win a brand new Nintendo Wii prize pack including a copy of Wii Fit! What are you waiting for? Enter to win so you can get active just like the Richard family today!

Distinguishing Personality Traits

Nealla says, "This is our siamese-mix cat Nanami. She is usually a very loud, demanding, princess of a cat and definitely lets you know when she's entered a room. Here is a candid shot we caught of her asleep in my husband's arms while he works at his computer."

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 be sure to include:

• Your Gamesville member name
• Your pet's most distinguishing personality trait

If we publish your pet as a "Best Pet," we'll give you 5,000 GV Rewards. Submit your pet today!

Gamesville is renown for the web's best, free online bingo games -- but we're doubling down on our all-new version of our classic video poker game show, Quick-Draw Poker:

What's new in Quick-Draw Poker:

• Progressive Jackpot Prizes
  Jackpot prizes range from $5.00 to $100.00 in cold hard cash!

• Special Double Jackpots
  Any GV Gold member who hits the jackpot automatically wins DOUBLE the current jackpot, up to $200 cash money!

• Bet your GV rewards in 7 hands per turn
  Wager your GV rewards on each turn, and that wager is multiplied by your 7 hands in that turn.

• New Game Design
  New playing cards, a redesign chat room, and more!

Play your cards right and you could be walking away with cold hard cash in no time. Play Quick-Draw Poker today and let us know what you think with your comments in the blog. Looking forward to seeing everyone in game!