Kathleen Brunnett

SLM 521

June 20, 2003

Games Online

My first experience with online gaming did not sit well with me. I selected this assignment because my stereotyped opinion of people who play games on line was not a positive one. I decided to become “one of those people” who spend time playing games with strangers for the pure satisfaction of winning.

I signed on at http://games.yahoo.com/ and was immediately dumbfounded by how many people were currently online playing games-177,955 people. I was also impressed with how many different type of games were offered. Most of the games offered were unfamiliar to me. I played it safe by selecting Go Fish as my first venture. I loaded the game and selected the lowest level of competition. I selected the option of watching a few hands before participating in a game. The graphics made it easy to follow as to whose turn it was, etc. When I played against one person I won the hand, but when I played with three others, I lost. I then selected a checkers game and followed the same pattern: I loaded the game, watched a few games and then played (and lost) a game. I played two other games and ended up winning one of them. The pop-up conversations at the bottom of the screen were a bit annoying as I was trying to concentrate during this game.

I enjoy playing MohJong solo on my computer, so I decided to give it a try. Once I watched a game, I felt it was too complicated for me to try. Even though I didn’t know my opponents, I didn’t want to hamper their enjoyment of the game by my ineptness.

The entire time I was playing or watching the online games, I had a creepy feeling. I didn’t like the fact that people could “talk” to me even though I was opting to just watch. I also found some of the online names offensive. I am glad I did this assignment because it was more validation that I will never waste hours of my life playing online games with strangers.