Future Of Gaming?

What will we play next ? And more important how will we play?

As you can see in the last decade the video games bussiness has increased constantly and will grow even bigger. Many people usually find in video games a great form of entertainment. Since the number of people from poor countries that can buy a computer is becoming bigger and bigger every day we might see a boost in the industry.

In the last years many online games appeared like World of Warcraft, Project Entropia, Lineage II and so on. And some gamers can make a living from these games. Recently in Project Entropia have been sold some virtual property deeds for the huge amount of 99,000 USD. The buyer competed last year with another player for buying an island in the same game. The owner of the island paid 26,000 USD and few months ago he claimed that he got the investment money back from the taxes he claimed on his land. Also we can see many sites that sell virtual money for a lot of online games. These online games will be the future of entertainment because you can meet real people like in a community site and also have lots of fun playing the game.

Playing for real money can also be seen in other video games like World of Warcraft and Lineage II where people train their characters for few months and then they sell them on eBay for a good sum of money. Is this a good thing ?! Only time will tell us but as far as I’m concerned it’s a great thing to combine fun with making some pocket money. You can earn lots of money only if you try harder and work (play) many hours a day. The Project Entropia concept is great because instead of paying for the game you can be paid to play. The game economy is based on the players the don’t play for money but for fun whitch invest their money in the game for better armors or weapons.

In the near future I suspect we will see more games of this kind on the market because they are really popular.

Try an alternate way to have fun at Flash Funny Online Addictive Games Free

Eat Your Fruits And Vegetables - And Play Video Games

The continued battle of the “games are good” “games are bad” war plays on with a recent article in Discover Magazine that examines the growing body of research suggesting that video games exercise the mind similar to the way physical activity exercises the body.

Laparoscopic surgery, also known as keyhole surgery or band-aid surgery, involves manipulating controls/joysticks to control a fiber optic camera and surgical tools to perform minimally invasive surgery with only tiny incisions in the person’s body. Laparoscopic surgery has been around for many years now, but doctors have only recently begun to notice a stirring correlation between the top surgeons and video gamers.

Surgeon Butch Rosser, directory of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, read a reporter’s comments about one of his procedures that referred to him as a “Nintendo surgeon”. This started his thinking that perhaps his apparent gift among many of his peers was because he was a gamer.

Rosser set out to see if there was a correlation by using a standardized laparoscopic training exercise called “Top Gun” to test laparoscopic surgeons that had never played a video game and those that were gamers. “The results were really astounding,” he says. “First of all, if you played video game [at any time] in the past, it was found that you were significantly faster and, more importantly, you created fewer errors than people who had no previous video game experience. Then when we looked at whether you were a current video gamer, we found that if you played video games currently, you were over 30 percent better — faster, and created fewer errors — than someone who did not play video games at all.”

Alan Castel, psychology professor at Washington University of St. Louis, performed another study where people from different groups are given a series of standard visual tests looking for a particular object (e.g. a letter) among a group of other objects on a computer monitor. “Video game players had faster reaction times on the order of 100 milliseconds, which might not sound like a lot but in this domain it’s quite a strong finding,” says Castel. “And you can imagine, when driving, a difference of 100 milliseconds could really help you avoid accidents.”

The research showed that gamers used the same search patterns as non-gamer, “but video game players were faster and more efficient when carrying out this search,” says Castel.

“Previous research has shown that video game players have more attentional capacity and can carry out search functions in more efficient manners,” says Castel. “Our research was interested in examining whether there were differences in how video game players and non-video game players search the visual environment, how they carry out visual search. We were interested in whether video game players would carry out visual search in a different way relative to people who don’t play video games.”

Castel suggests that not only are video games good “practice” for many mental tasks around activities like military flight training and surgery but that they may also be a good tool for rehabilitation of people recovering from brain injuries.

The mental improvement from video games is clearly there. However, Rosser does point out that surgeons perform better with just three hours of video game play per week. Rosser goes on to say to kids “That Butch Rosser would not be here in this capacity if he played video games and did not have good grades, did not develop perseverance. And I would say to that child out there that thinks that they got a free pass to play video games carte blanche, I say ‘Nooo, sadly mistaken.”

With the current talk from politicians, trying to get “airtime”, of banning video games, imposing regulations beyond other entertainment mediums such as books or movies, and the “detriments” of video games, the work of organizations like the International Game Developers Association, who advocate for a more balanced and fair look at games, is needed more now than ever. Research has shown the positive effects of playing video games and has shown very mixed results of any ill effects.

Those in positions to regulate the video game industry need to take a fair look at the studies in the area before attempting to impose any unfair requirements on the industry. With that said, not all games are appropriate for all ages. Parents need to know what their kids are playing. The industries ESRB ratings are a great first step for this, as are many of the review sites online.

To the kids out there, do you homework, but please play your video games. You may be the one operating on me one day…

Kurt Uhlir, a Chicago technologist and regular commentator on video games by day, oversees products and strategy for Extremely Sharp Swords, Knives & Martial Arts.

The MMORPG phenomenon: Digital Addiction?

For the uninitiated, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. The basic premise of these epic online games is that players from around the world converge on servers to do battle against computer driven opponents and often each other. Each server can hold on average up to 5,000 players at a time. It is then no wonder that these servers become home to a unique subculture of players who eat, sleep and breathe these fantasy worlds - sometimes to the detriment of everything else in their life. Countless News articles tell of players whom have forsaken family, friends, jobs and sometimes even their own lives to continue to play. Big companies continue to make money while people’s lives are turned upside down by the constant attention that these types of games demand of their players. So what keeps players coming back every day and why do they pay for the privilege?

As an ex-MMORPG enthusiast I can tell you that the hooks for players are many and varied. For the casual player the level increase and the character statistic boosts associated are your first traps. Knowing that you are only a few hours away from being better at fighting the monsters that haunt your online existence is a very good reason to keep playing. Who wouldn’t want to be 10 points stronger for only a few hours work? The problem with this is that the games designers are always one step ahead of you. Now that you can easily kill the monsters you were struggling with only moments before you leveled up, they are worth virtually no experience points. This means that in order to get to your next level, you will have to go out and find some harder monsters to kill. To someone on the outside of the trap, it is painfully obvious what is happening here - you really haven’t progressed at all. Then why do people keep playing?

Equipment drops. While you are fighting those creatures to get more experience points to go up levels to fight more monsters, they have a chance to drop useful equipment each time you kill them. Unlike the leveling process which is very linear, good equipment can drop at any time but quite often doesn’t. It seems that no matter what equipment drops, there will always be something bigger or better that the player is waiting for. Again, the onlooker can see that this is nothing more than a form of gambling. Granted the cost is only slight in real dollar terms, but the players’ time is the commodity that is spent in this transaction.

The combination of gaining new levels and waiting for equipment to drop can keep a player occupied for weeks on end. So what happens when the player realizes that this is going on and decides that they might be better off doing something a little more productive with their time? The games designers are hoping by this stage that players have made friends in the virtual world with whom they can chat and share their experiences. This makes leaving the game all the more difficult as other people may have grown to rely on the unique skills a certain player can bring to the game. Peer pressure is as alive in MMORPG players as it was in the schoolyard and this can be one of the biggest factors for people to keep playing. When players are in the game for more than a few months they are highly unlikely to give it up due to a combination of all these hooks.

Just like anything else that comes with the risk of addiction; this does not affect the entire gaming population. It is also something that I think we can’t just ignore anymore. There are so many similarities between an MMORPG and any other type of addiction that it’s hard not to become quite worried about people who are caught in this particular trap. You wouldn’t want any of your friends or family to have an uncontrollable problem with alcohol, drugs or gambling, yet we tend to see no immediate harm in someone playing a computer game to excess. With the influx of new players to this genre I think our attitude will have to change towards the ever growing problem of digital addictions before we start to loose too many good people to it.

Brendon Kirk is a creative writer working at M6.Net: ‘The web-hosting company for humans.’ M6.Net is working hard to help humanity experience the power and freedom to develop their own part of the Internet, to share their information and connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

PS3 To Cost Twice As Much As Xbox 360

According to Merrill Lynch, because of the cost of hardware components, the PS3 may cost twice as much as the Xbox 360 by the end of 2006. The report includes estimated breakdown of hardware costs by component at the time of launch and 3 years from now.

The new figures show that the majority of the cost are from the Blu-Ray drive, and the Cell processor which total $580 alone. After three years, the manufacturing cost of the two will drop to $180 total.

Several months ago the same team released data which compared the cost of the PS3 to the Xbox 360 (see below). As you can see, the estimated costs of Blu-Ray and the Cell Process have increased dramatically.

On the cost of goods side, Merrill Lynch believes that the Cell processor will initially cost $230 to make which is more than the Xenon CPU which currently rings in at $100.

Though price reduction will eventually drop to approximately $30, both the Nividia’s RSXand the ATI’s cost about $70 each to produce.

iSuppli, a well know Market researcher, did a break down on the cost of all the components used by Microsoft in the Xbox 360 and found that the cost per console is roughly $525, or almost $400 dollars less than thn the Sony PS3.

The results of the report are based on the assumption that Sony will have to sell at a loss due to the estimated costs of hardware. However, if Sony is willing to be aggressive on pricing with PS3, the report concedes that many of these numbers are likely to change.

For more information on this story and more PS3 news please visit PS3 News or for information on getting a free Sony ps3 visit, Free PS3 page.

Role Playing Games - Builder’s Guide 3

The Challenge: At its base, a role playing game is an interactive story. A group of people get together to collectively create an entertaining tale. There are rules, of course, and it is a game, which means there has to be some element of challenge. However, the intrinsic definition remains the same.

That said, if the players simply wanted to watch a story unfold before them, they would read a book or watch a movie. Role playing games are fun because the players have a degree of control over how the story flows and what it entails. The players control the protagonists, in many ways the most important elements of a good story. Their actions will shape the way the story develops, even though the majority of the story lies in the referee’s hands.

Ergo, all players should have a chance to impact the story. This ability is lost if the game designer has failed to overcome the third challenge of RPG design: the challenge of character value.

Even if it plays a rogue in a combat oriented game or a warrior in a politically oriented game, a player should be able the affect the story. The challenge that comes to game designers, then, is that the game must make sure that whatever sort of character a player chooses, that player will be able to use its character and have fun. However, the designer has to do so without faltering in the first challenge, making sure different types of characters are, in fact, different.

Character value is based on the character being unique, and having powers that are useful, but don’t overshadow other characters. The most common way of doing this is using a benefit-restriction style of design. For each benefit a character has, it suffers a corresponding restriction (even if that restriction is “you don’t have other benefits.”)

Creating a role playing game following a benefit-restriction style is practically a requirement, depending on how much you distill the concept. The point of having different types of characters and abilities is that certain characters are best in certain situations. They are strong in one area only at the expense of being weak in another. However, the designer still has to decide how strong the character can be in its given field, and how much it must give up to obtain that level of power.

The Risk: Carelessness here can potentially do more to harm a role playing game than in any other challenge. A designer must examine the powers it awards, the restrictions therein, and the abilities a player must give up as a result, to determine balance. There are no equations for this process, and sometimes playtesting is the only way to truly decide if a certain power is balanced.

But balanced the characters must be. If one type of character is much stronger than any other type in a majority of situations, there is no real point in playing other types. Players who do so will feel almost punished for wanting to use the less-optimal characters. This flaw is most common in combat-oriented characters, who gain their superior combat stats at the expense of utility powers. These characters need backup—healers, troubleshooters, diplomats, and so on—but these other character types suffer a severe limitation in battle.

And combat, as a rule of thumb, is the most common sort of challenge in role playing games. Simulated battles are exciting, straightforward ways to use the game rules, and promote keen thinking and logic. However, if only certain types of characters excel in combat, but other characters are necessary to succeeding in other areas, players of the less combatively powerful characters find themselves suffering in most encounters. Meanwhile, on those occasions where they do have the chance to shine, it is generally only one character in his or her best area. Other players—combat and non-combat alike—have to sit on the sidelines while one character handles the entire encounter.

Beyond the combat/non-combat gap, there is also the risk of combat characters whose abilities come at a cost. Most role playing games have some pretty common templates of characters, the most traditional archetypes being the tank, the blaster, the healer, and the sneak. The tank is the best fighter, able to deal respectable damage time after time and take the hits. The blaster can deal greater damage than the tank and attack multiple foes easily, but has limits to how often it can use its powers, and also has low survivability, poor defenses, and pathetic basic skills. The healer’s power is all-important in a combat-heavy game, but comes at the expense of real fighting talent. The sneak can usually surprise foes and even deal heavy damage (often more than a blaster, but to single opponents) when fighting on its terms, but loses out big time in a stand up fight.

These archetypes seem balanced enough, but really create a powerful divide between character types. The tank feels overshadowed by the blaster’s ability to devastate entire enemy groups and the sneak’s power to deal tremendous harm in the right conditions. The blaster envies the tank’s ability to keep fighting at full strength battle after battle and the healer’s survivability. The healer yearns for the power to actually have effect in battle when its allies are not injured. The sneak would give much to be able to have something to fall back on if it can’t surprise its foes.

The balance is there, and each player is more than happy for its choice when fighting in the right circumstance, but when the fight is not on their terms, they lose interest. This also pits the referee in the position where the best (or even only) way to make a battle difficult is to specifically prey on each character’s weak points, which can lead to a string of cliché fights. This is especially common at higher levels of play, where characters are otherwise so powerful that trying to take them on at full strength is an example of futility.

The Solution: In QoTR, the first thing I did was made sure that each character choice has value in combat. Sure, attackers deal the most damage and defenders are the best at avoiding attacks, but everyone has some offensive and defensive capability (although the latter is sometimes “the ability to take them down before they get a chance to attack you.”)

I do limit abilities, but these are practical limits and costs that allow them to be used regularly, just not overused. A blaster in QoTR can hurl its high-damage, large-area attacks battle after battle, but has to charge up to get the really big ones, taking valuable time or effort. A healer can also enhance its (or its allies’) fighting powers, even doing so in the same move as it heals with a certain ability, but this also takes time and energy. Sneaks can use their skills in the midst of combat and for both offense and defense, and although if they don’t bother to do so, their basic skills might not be as good, they are rarely actually prevented from doing so. Tanks can play with their damage, stamina, and chance to hit, developing a number of tactics. And so on.

Also, since the opponents have the same options as the players, there is no need to seek out weak points in character abilities. Foes can use all the same tricks, allowing challenging battles without the cliché of the high-level wizard’s foes all strangely being immune to magic (tip for inexperienced game masters: this isn’t an intriguing mystery, it is an annoying cliché).

All abilities are useful, and the upper-level ones are quite powerful. I see the best way to balance a game to be that every character can handle various situations in its own way—and with style. A purely defensive character might not win a fight as quickly as an offensive character, but it can win the fight, and has a better chance of surviving for long enough to do so to boot.

Character value is among the most important factors in designing and balancing a role playing game. By allowing every player the chance to hold its own—especially in the important field of combat—your game will remain fun and interesting to more players in more situations. Limitations may look balanced on paper, but the hindrances outweigh the benefits when put into practice.

Copyright © 2006 Dustin Schwerman.

Dustin Schwerman has been playing RPGs for over a decade, using an analytical approach to critically evaluate the game systems (and so to create the most powerful characters he could get away with). He used the extensive experience gained doing so to create his own game, Quests of the Realm. QoTR focuses on unlimited character customization, relying on its author’s understanding to detect and counter game-breaking power plays. Though balanced, QoTR still allows players to create highly effective characters and run them through heroic story lines. To contact Dustin, read more of his writings, or learn more about Quests of the Realm, visit his web site, Quellian-dyrae.

How Pacman Changed Gaming

Games today are so flashy and expensive to make that they almost seem to miss the point. So bent on outdoing the last game made by a competitor, they seem to lose sight of the most important things in the consumers. Because of that, it is always nice to look back and see how a simple game like Pacman touched the hearts of gamers all around the world and still remains a favorite of many in the present.

To start out with, lets give a brief history of how the game of Pacman was first made and how it gained such popularity. The maze game was made when the creator saw a pizza with one slice missing, think about what Pacman looks like, and was supposed to revolve around eating. It was first made in 1980 but was not very popular as games like Space Invaders made it overlooked in Japan. It was originally named Puckman. Later in 1980, the game was sent to the United States and renamed under the name we recognize it as today. In America the newly named Pacman was a big hit and a welcome change from the same old games Americans were used to. It took no real time after that for the rest of the world to catch onto the game and join in the celebration. If you are wondering why the name was changed, Americans thought the name Puckman would be changed by vandals to a cuss word (replace the P with a F). In Europe, Puckman games can still be found. Another fun fact about Pacman is that a perfect game is when you are able to finish all two hundred and fifty five levels without ever being caught. It was first done in 1999 by someone with way too much time on their hands.

Why has Pacman been popular for so long? Well there are several reasons why. For one it is really easy to play, there is nothing more to the game then moving Pacman with the control buttons, four in total, up, down, right, or left. Anyone who knows what the buttons are can play the game perfectly well within seconds of picking it up. Nowadays games focus so much on making controls hard and take long to pick up. It just seems to take away from the overall gaming experience provided by current games.

Another fun feature to the game was the eating. Who didn’t want to spend their entire day just eating and running away from ghosts? And how much fun was it when you could actually eat the ghosts and they ran away? Pacman’s unique gaming was clearly a reason why the game has lasted so long.

And with all other classics, Pacman is extremely accessible and can be found all over the internet for free. Nothing is more appealing than a game which can be easily loaded and doesn’t cost any money to play. Why pay fifty dollars for a game that will take hours to learn when you can pay nothing for instant fun? Flash versions and others can be found of Pacman in numerous places around the web.

So what is the future of this gaming franchise? Well many next generation consoles are releasing revamped and newer versions of Pacman, in three dimensions and with a story to boot. So if you are looking for a more advanced Pacman adventure, they do exist. But the old classic versions will always be available for the gamers looking for a blast in the past!

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can play a free version of Pacman at PlayedOnline.com which offers a
wide collection of Free Games

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Review

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was hailed as the “killer PSP game”. The popular GTA series had to make its way onto the PSP sooner or later, and it’s PSP debut is great.

The game takes place, as the title suggests, in Liberty City, which is the city that Grand Theft Auto III (the series’ first 3D game) is also situated in. Rockstar Leeds simply converted the city onto the UMD, and changed a few things to make it look more modern, as LCS is set after III. Having said that, the only real changes are shops, which have different names and styles, which is quite disappointing. A new city to explore would have been much better.

You play as Toni Cipriani, a no nonsense guy who’s willing to do anything and remove anybody in his way. Unlike GTA III, he can talk, which makes the cutscenes better. The basic story mode consists of missions that do tend to get repetitive. You’ll go to a guy on your map, he’ll give you a mission that usually involves killing someone, and you get paid once you’re done. Once you’ve completed enough missions, you’ll move on to the second island of Liberty City. There are three islands in total, and you unlock them over time. It’s a good incentive to complete the missions, but for people who have played GTA III, there’s nothing really new.

Though the game focuses on missions, the free roam ability is truly magnificent. You may find yourself playing it over and over again, and rarely getting tired of it. There is no free roam mode, in fact there are no modes, the game simply loads when you turn it on. Whether or not you choose to engage in a mission is up to you. If you choose not to, you can roam freely around the city, causing havoc, or just exploring. You can also collect a number of weapons, ranging from pistols and UZI’s to rocket launchers, flamethrowers and sniper rifles. You’ll also have melee weapons such as knives and baseball bats. Or, if you want to do some damage from a distance, use a grenade or Molotov cocktail.The amount of weapons in the game is similar to the PS2 versions, which means there’s loads.

The cops are still present, so if you blow off too many heads, you’ll get some heat on you. The cops are divided into levels with the usual system. You have 1 star at the beginning, and if you keep blowing things up, eventually it will increase to 6 stars, and you’ll have the army after you.

The vehicles in the game are again similar to previous versions. Veterans will remember the Patriot, Cheetah, Infernus, Banshee and so on, although some have redesigns which look more modern. You can also have motorbikes, which have never been seen around Liberty City before Motorbikes are generally faster and have better handling than the cars, and make it easier to perform unique jumps, and such. There are no bicycles in the game, which was a nice addition to San Andreas. As you progress through the game you will also have the chance to ride boats. It’s not as fun as it sounds, and it never really has been in any of the GTA games. Boat handling is sluggish and it’s not fun to drive them. You can no longer fly. Anything. Not a thing. The Dodo was a plane on GTA III that was located in the airport, which you could fly, or at least try to. This time there is no Dodo, no helicopters, no planes whatsoever. It really feels like a missing factor, although in one of the missions it is possible to steal a helicopter, so the physics and controls are still technically in the game. Why there are no planes to fly is confusing. The police still have choppers following you, so watch out.

A new mode of transportation is the ferry. It’s basically a slow boat ride and you don’t get to drive the boat. You even have to pay for the service. It is a quick way of getting from island to island though, and you do get to keep your car.

The general controls of vehicles is good. Sports cars have great speeds and handling, and slow cars have reduced turning capacity. The controls on foot have been changed dramatically. You use the small analog style stick to control Toni, and vehicles. The directional buttons are used for changing weapons and starting various side missions. Of course the PSP has less buttons than the PS2 controller, so condensing everything was not an easy task. Sometimes the controls do feel very fiddly and it can be frustrating when you need to target things quickly.

Adding on to the “Toni Can’t” list, is the ability to swim. Implemented in San Andreas, this feature is absent. It’s only really missed when you fall off a cliff into the water, as you could swim to the side and get out. Instead, Toni simply drowns. All of the abilities to increase stats are no longer present, but it’s not particularly missed.

Toni can change clothes, and there are some nice options. He is unable to change specific body parts, instead you choose from full suits. Though changing clothes is a small part of the game, you probably would never notice this option if it wasn’t required for some missions.

If you don’t want to do any main missions, you can engage in some of the side missions. Famous in all PS2 GTA games, these usually involve Taxi missions, in which you act as a taxi driver and deliver passengers before time elapses. Ambulance missions, where you take sick people to hospital. Firetruck missions, which involves putting out fires like burning cars. A new side mission is the dump truck mission. You simply need to collect all the green trash cans within the time limit. All these missions are basically the same repetitive actions. The rewards are worth the effort though.

There are also hidden packages throughout the game in various locations. Nothing new to the series, but collecting all 100 adds weapons to your hide out. Unique jumps are large jumps where the camera changes and it goes in slow motion. When you successfully complete a unique jump, you’ll get money for your effort. While these things are by no means new additions, they are nice to have, and it expands the game.

We all know that the PSP has wireless capabilities, and Liberty City Stories takes advantage of that. The wireless multiplayer action is staggeringly good. You must have friends with PSP’s and copies of the game, but if you do, you’re in luck. The game allows for total free play with your friends. There are many different game modes which adhere to the capture the flag premise. Most of the games work in this way. Liberty City Survivor allows players to play against each other. This is the mode you’ll be playing none stop. Even after you have finished the game, it is unlikely that you will get bored of the multiplayer action.

Liberty City Stories has the same radio themed soundtrack. When you enter a vehicle you can choose from a number of radio stations, all of which have different styles of music. The soundtrack has some known tracks from the era, but nothing too impressive. In comparison with the Vice City and San Andreas soundtracks, this is sub-standard.

The graphics throughout the game are fairly cartoony. The series was never meant to be a simulator, but some smoother graphics would have been nice. Sometimes it can seem that Toni has several legs when you are running. Also, at times the frame rate has trouble keeping up, but only when there is lots on the screen at once. For the most part, the frame rate holds up well. The loading times are acceptable. There is a loading period at the start and then as you cross between islands, a loading screen will appear, but only for a few seconds.

Overall, it’s a great addition to the Grand Theft Auto series, and the PSP line up. You can’t help but feel it’s just a watered down version of a PS2 GTA, or simply an expansion pack, that doesn’t expand on much. Nevertheless, the action in single player, and in particular, multiplayer, is well worth the purchase.

http://www.articlecore.com was created to provide articles on a number of different subjects ranging from PSP game reviews to Science.

The site is owned and run by Carl S. Richardson and Joe Denison, who are also known for a number of other websites including http://www.rawpulse.com a Playstation gaming website.

Mahjong Sets

Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game, which literally means “the game of a hundred intelligences” (in Chinese). There are various versions of mahjong today: the Chinese, the Japanese and the American, each with its own set of rules. Mahjong is a game that involves skill, intelligence, estimation as well as luck. It has been traditionally a gambling game and is still played today in clubs and special mahjong houses.

There are also international mahjong tournaments held across the world. Ma Chiao, Mo Tsiah, Ma Cheuk, Ma Jong, Ma Chiang, Ma Chong, Man Chu, Mah Diao, Pung Chow, Mah Chong, Ching Chong, Mah Cheuk, Ma Chiang, Kong Chow, Mah Deuck, Lung Chan, Mah Lowe, Pe Ling, Baak Ling are other names for Mahjong.

A typical Mahjong set contains 144 tiles, 2 season tiles, 4 “red 5” bonus tiles, 1 table wind Tessera, 4 dice, scoring tallies, storage trays and a carrying case. The set may contain 136, 144, 148 or 152 tiles though the most common are the 136 and the 144 tile sets. The most common tiles are: the circle suit (contains circles), the bamboo (contains bamboos), character suit (Chinese characters representing ten thousand coins each), wind tiles (representing north, south, east and west), dragon tiles (red, green and white), flower tiles (containing art work) and joker tiles (used like a wild card, as a substitute for any tile).

The tiles are made of ivory, ebony, white bone, wood or plastic, depending on the quality and the price. The case is also made of oak or teak wood. Good quality mahjong sets made of ivory or oak are priced at hundreds of dollars while normal plastic or white bone tiles in tin or faux leather boxes are cheaper, starting at $20. A traditional box contains a cabinet with four drawers for storing the tiles. Modern boxes just contain one box with four trays inlaid in the box.

Each tile is around 1 1/2 inch x 1 inch x 3/4 inches in size and rectangular in shape. They have hand-engraved designs etched on them and painted in colors. These tiles are of 34 kinds, in five different suits or designs - wan, circle, bamboo, wind and prime (4X34=136) and 8 flower tiles.

Mahjong sets are available in most stores that have sports and games equipment. They can also be bought online through the hundreds of websites that provide comprehensive information and details about mahjong sets.

Mahjong provides detailed information about mahjong, mahjong solitaire, mahjong tiles, mahjong online and more. Mahjong is the sister site of Free Online Casinos.

What Every World of WarCraft Alliance Player Must Know

I have compiled a list of the most important things every WOW player on the Alliance must know and have narrowed it down to five. Read them below.

1.) If you want to go solo, get yourself a Night Elf Hunter or a Warlock.

While there isn’t any one particular character template that works perfectly for soloing, this is about the best that there is on the Alliance side. First, there really isn’t any equal level monster in the game that a properly tricked out Hunter can’t tackle one-on-one without breaking a sweat. While Warlocks are a bit more fragile, they have an excellent complement of damage dealing spells that will let them survive - albeit while taking more damage. Unfortunately, many creatures will attack in groups if they notice one of their buddies getting pounded on (Elite creatures are particularly nasty with this).

That’s where pets come in, Any “Pet” class can use their animal (or demonic) companion to do what’s called “crowd control” - basically pulling one creature away from a group and a time and killing it. The Warlock’s Void Walker is particularly good at this. Night Elves quest lines at low levels are also pretty self-contained within the geographically isolated Teldrassil, meaning you never have far to run to reach a quest destination or to retrieve your corpse.

2.) Gnomes have the best (worst) dancing emotes.

Trust me on this one. Simply typing /dance into the game while playing as a gnome will show you what I mean. Gnome dancing is the most offensive thing in Azeroth - rumor has it that the Horde offers 10 gold pieces to anyone who can actually manage to kill a Gnome in PvP during a dance. This makes Gnomes perfect for role-players who want to annoy other players and have a good laugh.

3.) Everyone loves a Human Priest.

This is the perfect class for players looking to group. Humans’ racial talents help a Priest hold his or her own in combat and there isn’t a group alive that isn’t thrilled when a Priest shows up just before heading into an Elite dungeon or an instance. Priests are also pretty rare in the game, there aren’t really all that many players who enjoy taking on the social/support roles, so your skills will always be in demand - and you’ll level pretty fast.

4.) You don’t have follow the quest lines for your own race!

One of the biggest misconceptions that new players have about World of Warcraft is that quests are restricted by race - in other words, that if you’re playing a Human, you must take the “Human” quests in Elwynn Forest when you start out. That’s simply not true. Players can take any level-appropriate quest regardless of their race. For Alliance players looking to level up a bit faster, there is a bit of a shortcut. Simply head to the hub cities of Ironforge or Stormwind as soon as you’re strong enough to get out of the newbie zone (around level 5). From there, find the passage to Teldrassil, the Night Elf homeland and start collecting quests. Teldrassil is very small, contains the hub city of Darnassus that offers every service, and players rarely have to run far to complete quests. You’ll find yourself at level 10 or even higher in no time!

5.) The Alliance means more content, but more people.

For whatever reason, the Alliance races as a whole (Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes) are more popular with players. This can often mean severe crowding in popular regions along with what we like to call “mass extinction events”. That basically means that several quests in the area that require players to kill a particular animal may make it hard to find that animal for a while - and that you may be racing other players who are standing around waiting for them to spawn. The good news is that the Alliance has a lot more quest-based content than the Horde. While this isn’t noticeable at the earlier levels, many Horde players often find themselves running low on quests around level 25-30 and being forced to just “farm” random creatures for experience.

Mark MacKay is a researcher, marketer, and an avid online gamer, including World of Warcraft and also the creator of the World of Warcraft Gold Price List Guide, a web site setup to help WOW players find the cheapest place to buy their gold.

Laser Ball High Tech Game of the Future

The future game of laser ball is a high tech game for the virtual reality video game player and the reality world ball player. It is played with teams or individually, as one team pits off against the other. A ball the size of a beach ball is thrust various directions using laser propulsion. Each team or player on each side has a set or single set of laser controls which fire one or more lasers at the ball or at the reflectors on the top, bottom and side of the field. The field is played in three dimensions and it is not necessary to play of the bottom or side. This fast acting game has no time out and no out of bounds. The field is a tube, box or sphere and is played within that boundary.

The ball has a pattern like a soccer ball, but each of the pentagons is convex in a smooth even flow as the lasers hit the ball it thrusts the ball forward, as the laser builds up nearly instantaneously the power with in the concave cups or cones it explodes and sends the ball bouncing off the walls, which also reflect the laser, bank shots multiple angles using many portions of the interior of the field are possible. Yet at the same time your opponent is pushing or attempting to push the ball too, using any shot he can make. If you hit the ball perfectly you send it towards your opponent’s goal. Each player sits behind their own goal with a clean reflective shield, so they are not killed by the high-powered laser.

In the advanced versions of the game the player can re-position himself to get a better angle on the ball by operating within a circle of possible positions. Each time he scores the possible positions and circle of possible positions is increased. The future of high tech reality-VR mix is almost here and the designs are ready to be build, if you think you have the skill to take on the best? Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/