The Fascinating History of Bingo

The amazing success of the favourite pastime of many, Bingo does not happen overnight. It does has its own history, which dates back to it first appearance in the early 1800s. Bingo is a direct descendent of lottery-type games and its roots can be traced back into Europe, to the year 1530, when the Italian state run game of Lo Giuoco del Lotto was organized.

Over the centuries, an offshoot of that game spread through the whole of Europe. It was played quite differently from now as the game card was divided into 3 horizontal rows and nine vertical columns, instead of the usual 5x 5 grid. Another difference is that the numbers used are in the range of 1-90 while nowadays we use only numbers from 1 to 75.

The horizontal rows contained 5 numbered squares and 4 blank ones. As usual, the objective of the game was to cross out a horizontal row or vertical column. The blank squares were marked as "free" , similar to our present game, and the player needed to have the 5 numbered squares called.

Each player would be given one unique card and has to wait for the caller to draw numbers from a bag that contain wooden chips which are numbered from 1-90.

Bingo in its current form, grew out of the depression and was immediately a big hit with the Americans looking for a diversion from the everyday drudgery of life. As its fundraising potential was realized by churches and various groups, Bingo grew out of proportions and spread from coast to coast rapidly. By the middle of 1930s, thousands and thousands of Bingo games were played each week and this game subsequently ended up as the favourite pastime for many players.

On the east coast, New Jersey legalized the game in the 1950s and New York did the same in 1959. As other states realized the popularity of Bingo, the game simply became unstoppable and everyone seems to be playing it everyday.

The lucrative possibilities of Bingo was also attracting the attention of other neighbouring countries who were looking for revenue generating opportunities. Thus, it did not take long for these countries to jump onto the Bingo bandwagon.

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My Take On Video Game Testing Centers

Have you ever heard of testing centers?

Those places where some companies send their games to be tested by one of the many testers employed there.

When it comes to your own career as a video game tester, there's both a positive and a negative to these centers, and that's what I'll be discussing below.

I'll start with the positives:

These centers provide quality testing jobs in which you will gain a lot of experience in the field.

Not only will you get experience that looks great on your resume, but you also won't be stuck testing the one game for months at a time. These centers get games from all different game companies, and each time you move on to the next task you will likely be testing a different game.

Now for the negatives, and there is just one big one:

These centers give you no opportunity to expand your career. You probably wouldn't have had much chance to get to know anybody in other areas of the video game industry.

If you did decide you wanted to move up the ranks you'd have to quit your job and start fresh with a different company.

So should you look into getting a job at one of these testing centers or not?

They may seem like the best choice in the short term but if you are looking for a lengthy career in the industry, I'd recommend finding a job with an actual game publishing company.

Testing centers are still a good way to get experience, but I'd only recommend working at one part-time (is possible) or while you are still studying to expand your qualifications.

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5 Keys to the Kingdom How to Conquer Any Online Video Game

Today's online video games (MMORPG's) are extraordinarily complex worlds that take a lot of time to master. Whether you play a couple of hours a week or a couple of hours every day there are some fundamental rules you should follow to maximize what you achieve within these online worlds.

Kingdom Key 1: Tracking and managing your time spent

This is the most important key. Regardless of how much time you play you have to make the maximum of your time. This means keeping track of what is going on and what you learn in the game then applying a simple rule: Do what makes the most use of your limited time. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Often times you will embark on a quest or harvest and mine raw materials. Let's say you do a specific task that takes you 1 hour to complete and your reward is 1,000 gold. This is great. You now understand that for this particular task one hour is worth 1,000 gold. But this isn't the end of your learning. There are many other tasks that you can do. Maybe there is a simple harvesting task that reaps you 100 gold every five minutes. Well if you do the math on this task you will see that in one hour you can actually earn 1,200 gold. This is a 20% improvement of your time. By doing this you will actually be squeezing in an extra hour of game time every five hours. See how this can be significant? This careful tracking of your time also works in the other direction. There may be a complex task that takes you a five full hours to complete. But this task rewards you with 10,000 gold. If you were to do the original one-hour task for five hours you would have earned 5,000 gold. This more complex task has earned you twice as much gold.

The simple rule here is to keep notes on the various tasks you do and to record how much of a reward these tasks earn you. You will quickly see which tasks earn you more money for the time you spend.

I will often do a very specific task for one full hour and include all the ancillary necessities in the task, which might mean trips to the shop, repair of equipment, buying, selling or anything else that the task entails. At the end of one hour I have an exact count of what I earned. This gives me accurate data that I can compare to other tasks.

Kingdom Key 2: Harnessing the Power of other People

This key is also very important whether you are new to an online game or a seasoned player. There are people in the game that know things about it that you don't know. This is plain and simple, and you have to get them to help you to get better faster. There are three things that you can do to maximize your benefit from other people. The first thing you should do is join a guild or clan as soon as possible. It should be a medium to large clan because this will give you access to a wider variety of people, and it should be a clan that is in alignment with your goals for the game. If you really like PK (Player-killer) action then you should join this type of guild. If you really like magic or a certain type of character you should join a guild that focuses on that. The second thing you should do is join online forums that are devoted to the game. Forums have an absolute wealth of knowledge about games and they give you a quick understanding of the people that are knowledgeable. You can quickly form a friendship with an experienced player after just a few friendly forum comments and posts. The third thing you can do, and this is the most difficult, is to start your own guild or clan. If you have the people skills and leadership ability this can be the absolute best thing you can do because you can guide groups of people toward tasks that benefit your guild and you can achieve your personal goals at the same time. The wealthiest players in many games are almost always either guild leaders or in a leadership position. You can even assign other people to gather information and keep notes for you and for your guild. This is a great savings of your time.

Kingdom Key 3: Keeping track of the enormous amount of information.

You are playing a game that is enormously complex. It is probably more complex than the city you live in. There are more people, more tasks, more quests, more locations and more opportunities. Do you know every location and every street in your city? Probably not, and when you need to find something where do you look? In the Yellow pages or on map quest! You need to create your own yellow pages for the game you play. Get a brand new empty notebook and take extensive notes. Where are the interesting things? Run into something unusual and don't know what it is all about? Write a note about it in your book. I guarantee you that at some point in the future you will need that note! Draw small sketches and take down all sorts of information you discover. Did you find an interesting mine or a nice plant that you can harvest? Did you find a den of goblins and can't fight them yet? Having all this down in a notebook will make you so much better as you progress through the game. This step is hard for some people to do because it means actually taking your hand off the mouse and not playing the game for a minute but it is well worth the effort. It is also a very good idea to make notes about other players in the game. Did you meet somebody that is an expert on a certain topic or quest? Write that person's character name down and a quick note about them. You will be able to look them up in the future when you need that type of information.

Kingdom Key 4: Do your Out of Game Research

But Don't Cheat! Every popular online game has lots of websites, forums, and chat rooms affiliated with it. People are very passionate about these games and many people give lots of tips, hints, and ideas about the games. Spend the time out of the game surfing the Internet for good information that will help you solve quests, find resources, and make more money faster. But, never do anything unethical, don't use cheat programs, automated programs, or any other type of software or information that the developers of the game would consider a violation. And always avoid any website that offers these kinds of cheats. If a website will help you cheat the game company they will have no problem cheating you too. Some of these websites lure you to them then secretly load programs, viruses and worms on your computer so they can steal your game password and login information. Trying to cheat is just not worth this risk. At the minimum you will get caught by the game company and banned and at the worst your account could be hijacked by an unscrupulous webmaster and you could log in to your character one day to find all your stuff missing and your account emptied out.

Kingdom Key 5: Remember to have fun!

It is after all just a game and that's the whole point. If keeping track of all this stuff becomes a chore to you then scale it back a bit and spend time just enjoying the game and chatting with other characters. Acquiring the skills I have outlined here takes time. They are habits you will get into over time. Just don't give up on them. Do them a little at a time and before you know it you will have a great compilation of information about the game and you will gain a reputation as one of the best players in the game.

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Pending Castle Defending

Imagine this, you are sent back to medieval times where all lived in castles and feared inevitable attack from neighbouring power hungry countries. A mission is bestowed upon you, You must protect your castle at all costs. Many men will try to penetrate your castle walls and if they do your people will fall.

Ok basically it’s a game where you being the mouse, and god I suppose, have to stop all the stick men that run at the castle and kill them by chucking them high into the air and watching them as they plummet to an ear bending thud on the ground.

As the levels progress you earn more money and can purchase more defences which you need as the attacks become faster and more intense and their attack artillery grows faster than you defences.

The best I have done on this game is about the 4th level, I know that’s bad but it’s hard, very addictive though, I very much like this game hence why I have placed it on my website.

This online game is very similar to another game I have played and can't think what is called but is also very fun something about castles and trying to attack them. Basically if you make a game with a castle in it and a lot of stick men dying it will be a successful game… Saying that any game with a lot of stick people dying in my opinion will be a very successful game but I am easily amused. Anyway I digress … the online game I am reviewing here is “defend your castle” and yea it’s a really fun online game. I have spent many an hour playing it. If you wish to play this game the link to it is below.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Pending-Castle-Defending&id=340633

Game Cheats And How You Can Use Them Without Feelig Bad

Amaterasu, the brave adventurer from the widely popular and standard setting Okami game, has just entered an area with a tree, a dark looking tree without further use than being just a tree… or is it…? Looking closer you realize there is a ribbon tied around it and your gamer instincts tells you that ribbon has a meaning – but what on earth could it be?

You try different approaches, Amaterasu tries all the powers he have and still you just stand there beside a dark tree with no clue as how to move on in the game.

Would you stop playing? No. You would resort to one of the very popular “game cheat sites”. The word cheat would put off many who do not really know what these sites are about. Sure can be certain to find real cheats there, in the form of special codes that you can enter with special game console peripherals.

But for the most part people come to these sites in search of Guides and Tutorials. It works like this; say you are playing a Zelda game and Link, the hero, is stuck in a fire temple room. You have tried for three hours and simply can not find out how to move that blasted obstacle blocking your way.

Enter the Cheat site, and you search for the game you are playing. Great, you find 5 different tutorials so you enter the first one, search within the document to find “Fire temple” and you read, scroll, read and recognize every step you have taken within the temple and WHAM – it hits you in the face, all you needed was to light the torches and then use the mirror spell to remove the block – why on earth didn’t you think of that? (Or why on earth did Miyamoto think of that, might be a sound question).

So you remove the obstacle and can keep playing, leaving the cheat/guide site and try to figure out the rest of the way in the game for yourself without outside help. Until you confront that “Unbeatable” boss…

Is it cheating? That’s really up to each person to decide. Personally I don’t consider getting outside help now and then cheating. Putting in codes for unlimited life, unlimited ammo etc on the other hand, yes, that’s what we call cheating.

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Arcade Games The Good Ole Days

I remember playing my first arcade game in a bar in Montreal. It was 1981 I was underage, drunk, in a digital delirium, and the arcade game was the original Pacman. This was about the coolest thing I had ever seen. I'd always had a thing for games, even before the first arcades and arcade games sprung up. Even before computer games for the home PC. I used to subscribe to games magazines that never, ever mentioned the word computer. This was something totally new and sumptuously fascinating. Countless hours of my well wasted youth were spent in arcades, long after plenty of beer swilling at the local pub. Arcade games, and computer games have come a long way since then, but there's nothing like your first time.

Frag This You Bourgeoisie Backgammond Barnacle

Shortly after my lascivious encounter with arcades and the hypnotizing arcade game jewels hidden within, my family purchased it's first home PC. A radio shack trs-80. More commonly called a trash-80. It was here that I learned the cunningly devious game of backgammon. Not sure I would have ever learned that game without being introduced to it by a computer. It's not the kind of game that would have appealed to a veteran of the arcade game wars. Something that belonged more to the smoky backrooms of a retirement home. Computers, arcades, and arcade games were already broadening my vistas.

Avast Commodore, Ya Scurvy Megabyte

Next on my list of technological wonders ya scallywags, is the Commodore 64. Now here was an arcade game killer if I every gazed upon one. Arcades are few and far between now, and the Commodore, is one of the reasons why. Why spend hours in an arcade, having a machina suck and swallow every last quarter in my pocket? When I can sit in the less the luxurious decadence of my basement playing the likes of jumpman, and setting arcade game style high scores for my baby brother to frantically try to match. Not like in the arcades where he could be humbled in front of the masses, but this arcade game jewel would serve my purposes none the less.

Arcadia Arise Oh Mighty Griffon

Old is new, black is blue, and from the depth, arises the legends of old and times forgotten. Huh? What I'm frothing forth about here, is that arcade games are back with a vengeance. All us old fogies, who remember time spent in arcades watching the neighborhood masters pummel evil incarnate up till level 9999 rejoice! You can once again relive the glories of the golden age of arcade games. Just google around a little, and you'll find free versions of all the great arcade game from the past. Not to mention a few new legends being born in the ancient art of arcade games. And hey save your quarters. These games are free as the air you breathe. Of course you better not let those quarters get too far, your gonna need them to keep that old jalopy of a Commodore in running order.

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My Life with the Sims

My favorite computer game of all-time is "The Sims" and I was not surprised at all when I read the news announcing that the game was voted as one of the most popular and best-selling games of all time, based on an online survey of PC gamers.

According to the game’s distributors, Electronic Arts, the virtual-life Sims game has sold over 7 million copies worldwide as of 2002, dislodging Myst as the top-selling computer game of all time. First created by Will Wright and Maxis, “The Sims” has spawned a number of expansion versions which, if taken into account, would reflect total worldwide sales of The Sims series at over 13 million.

Since the game was first issued to the public on February 4, 2000, there have been seven expansion packs that followed as well as a sequel, The Sims 2.

What makes the game so appealing is its unique gameplay. Instead of meeting a set of objectives like the great majority of computer games, The Sims allows players to engage in a fully interactive environment and the Sims characters can make their own choices about everyday living. The challenge to the player is how to best spend the Sims’ time in a "virtual day." And like real life, the only real objective is how to organize the Sims’ time and activities to give him maximum happiness and to help him attain his personal goals.

One unique quality of the Sims is that, like real people, they also possess a certain amount of free will. This allows them to ignore a player's commands if they wish and instead embark on something that they consider to be more pressing and important, just like real people. For instance, a player may order a Sim to go to the supermarket or visit a friend, but if the Sim is tired and fatigued, it may simply fall asleep instead to restore its energy.

Players also have control over how their Sim character relates with other characters. For instance, they can make the Sim a real jerk who insults, slaps or even attacks other Sims, which, just like in real life, often means that they get insulted, slapped around and attacked in return.

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