Play Sites

Forum Archive : Play Sites

 
MSN Gaming Zone--Overall experience

From:   Mark Ferrante
Address:   M.Ferrante@juno.com
Date:   16 November 1997
Subject:   Re: Internet Gaming Zone
Forum:   rec.games.backgammon
Google:   346ef844.1834041@news.primenet.com

> I am really enjoying the Internet Gaming Zone.  Was suprised this was
> not mentioned as one of the good bg sites.

It is the best site! Fibs and the other have graphics that are
horrible. How anyone could like those sites is beyond me. What people
have at The Zone is far more than they will find anywhere else and I
know as I have been to all of them.

People who do not visit: http://www.zone.com are doing themselves a
disservice.

I might also add that for those who enjoy The Zone, you should join
the Backgammon ladder at: http://www.burbs.com
Great place to post challenges and compete and just have lots of fun.

Kevin Bastian  writes:

It's not the graphics that keeps people playing on FIBS, although
they're perfectly fine. It's the caliber of play.  As a tournament
player I'm an intermediate player with absolutely no illusion of being
better than that. There are TONS of players on FIBS who can have me for
lunch at will.

Clearly, "different strokes for different folks," and if the virtual
reality setting is what one is looking for, then the Zone might be the
best. The one time I played on there, it seemed like it was very strong on
3-D animation but light on skillful backgammon opponents. I will
acknowledge that the latter observation might have been too harsh or too
hasty. I've just never heard any of any of the top players who play on FIBS
also playing on the Zone. Nor have I ever seen any r.g.b posts from Zone
players commenting on anything but "how neat" the Zone is.

Mark Ferrante  writes:

Ok, maybe there are better players on FIBS, but not everyone is a
great player. Also, the ability of players was not the focal point of
my initial post.

As I stated before, there are many great players in The Zone. Two
rooms for those competitive types are there. Right now, I am just an
average player so I enjoy the people I play against. Maybe you might
try it and see what you think now? You may feel about FIBS as I do
about The Zone--I am satisfied there so I feel no need to go anywhere
else.

Patti Beadles  writes:

Since I have IE on my work PC, I decided to wander over to the Zone
and see what it was like.  Here are my observations:

- Pretty board.  Drag-and-drop for checker handling slows down play
  quite a bit.  You had to make intermediate moves... 13-3 had to be
  played 13-7-3.  The board colors were hard to see on my laptop, and
  I couldn't find a way to change them.
- Breaking areas up into competitive and social is a good idea.
- There's no rating or other history mechanism, so you have no clue
  about the strength of your opponent, or what his experience is, or
  even what host he's coming from.  The only information you have is
  his name.
- The "choose an opponent" mechanism is awkward.  You sit down at a
  table and wait to see who appears.  I still haven't figured out
  exactly what the choose-a-match-length mechanism is.  Are there
  options for money games, Jacoby rule, beavers, turning off Crawford,
  etc?
- What happens if you drop in mid-game?  Is the game saved?  I have
  no clue.
- The game seemed s-l-o-w.
- The only communication mechanisms are shoutlike and kibitzlike....
  there was no "talk to one player" mechanism except at the table.
- There's no automove or greedy type option, and you're forced to roll
  the dice even if your opponent holds the cube or if you're closed out.
  This slows gameplay way down.

On Sunday evening, I couldn't get a game in any of the competitive
rooms.  The users were very snotty, and talked to me only long enough
to chew me out for sitting down at a tournament table.  (How the heck
was I supposed to know it was a tournament table?  There's no
indication anywhere.)  So I went over to the social area and found a
game, and was dropped on shortly after closing my opponent out.

As mentioned elsewhere, the zone is ActiveX based, and therefor only
accessible through MSIE.  It also isn't accessible through a firewall,
and the errors that you get in trying to do so are extremely cryptic
and awkward.

Summary: it's pretty, the interface is extremely unsophisticated,
it lacks most of the features that I would want in a competitive
environment, it's slow, platforms are limited.  It seems like
something that would be OK for occasional social players.

And most of the screens contain ads.  Thankfully, they were left off
of the actual board.

-Patti
 
Did you find the information in this article useful?          

Do you have any comments you'd like to add?     

 

Play Sites

Arkadium  (Michael Volpatt, Oct 2003) 
BG Room  (Stanley E. Richards+, Oct 2007)  [GammOnLine forum]
Backgammon4Money--Announcement  (Will Edison, Dec 2001) 
Best value  (Kenny Lee Smith+, June 1998) 
Club Games  (Ashton Haze, Sept 2005) 
Club Games  (Tomawaky+, May 2005) 
Comparison of rakes  (Raccoon, Dec 2006)  [GammOnLine forum]
Comparison of rakes  (Raccoon, July 2006)  [GammOnLine forum]
Comparison of rakes  (Hank Youngerman+, Oct 2005)  [Long message]
Comparison of rakes  (Daniel, Aug 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
DailyGammon  (Dan Wittkopp+, July 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
DailyGammon  (Scott Steiner+, Apr 2004) 
DailyGammon  (Phil Vanicek, May 2001) 
FIBS vs. GamesGrid  (Bob Stringer, May 2000) 
FIBS--Financial support  (Kit Woolsey, Aug 1997) 
FIBS--Original announcement  (Andreas Schneider, July 1992) 
FIBS--Top Tournament Performers  (Osman Guner, July 2003) 
FIBS--Your worst fears  (Richard Greenberg, Nov 1995)  [Long message] [Recommended reading]
Fair Backgammon  (info, May 2006) 
Free online tournaments  (Ricardo Hui+, Mar 2009) 
Friendly play site  (Ian Dunstan+, Feb 2006) 
GameDesire  (Maciej Mróz, Sept 2004) 
GameSite2000--Announcment  (GameSite 2000, Jan 2000) 
Games4Dollars  (Info Team, Apr 2004) 
GamesGrid vs FIBS  (Jim Cochrane, Jan 1999) 
GamesGrid--Announcement  (CyberArts Inc., June 1996) 
GamesGrid--Comparison to FIBS  (Ken Arnold, May 1997) 
GamesGrid--Second version  (Ken Arnold, Sept 1996) 
GamesGrid--Update  (Ken Arnold, Mar 1998) 
Gammon Empire--Announcement  (Jerry, Nov 2004) 
Gammon11  (sirkaber, May 2006) 
HigherGames--Announcement  (Michael Gilbert, Dec 2003) 
ItsYourTurn--Announcement  (Tom Buhrman, Sept 1999) 
Ladbrokes.com  (mccm1976, May 2006) 
Link to review of play sites  (cindybel+, May 2006) 
MSN Gaming Zone--Overall experience  (Mark Ferrante+, Nov 1997) 
MSN Gaming Zone--Thoughts  (Gregg Cattanach, Dec 1998) 
MoneyGaming.com  (max+, July 2005) 
NOBS  (Lou Poppler+, Aug 1996) 
Overview  (chinaski+, June 2008) 
Overview  (Alan Webb, Jan 1999) 
PiranhaGammon  (Piranha, Dec 2007) 
Play site wish list  (Perry Gartner+, Dec 2012)  [Long message]
Play65/GammonEmpire  (Butch Meese+, July 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Play65/GammonEmpire  (Daniel Murphy+, Dec 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Play65/GammonEmpire vs. TrueMoneyGames  (oneprime+, Feb 2005) 
Play65/GammonEmpire--Are they the same?  (Tony Yarwood+, Aug 2005) 
Play65/GammonEmpire--Review  (Tom Keith+, Sept 2005) 
Play65/GammonEmpire--Withdrawal symptoms  (David Warmind+, May 2007)  [GammOnLine forum]
Play65/GammonEmpire--Withdrawal symptoms  (Erik Sorensen+, Apr 2007)  [GammOnLine forum]
Playmaker World--Announcement  (Michael Crane, Nov 2001) 
Playsite--Announcement  (Seth Tapper, Mar 1997) 
Ratings comparison  (Daniel Murphy, Aug 1999) 
Richard's Play-by-E-mail Server  (Richard Rognlie, May 1997) 
TrueMoneygames--Announcement  (TrueMoneygames Info, Apr 2002) 
VOG  (Glenn+, Feb 2000) 
Where to play for money  (mginat+, May 2006) 
Where to play for money  (Victor Zanfer+, Apr 2005) 
Yahoo Games  (Steve Fiete+, Mar 1998) 
Yahoo Games--Ratings  (Neil GoBlu+, July 2000) 
melBG--Announcement  (David Kinston, Dec 2000) 

[GammOnLine forum]  From GammOnLine       [Long message]  Long message       [Recommended reading]  Recommended reading       [Recent addition]  Recent addition
 

  Book Suggestions
Books
Cheating
Chouettes
Computer Dice
Cube Handling
Cube Handling in Races
Equipment
Etiquette
Extreme Gammon
Fun and frustration
GNU Backgammon
History
Jellyfish
Learning
Luck versus Skill
Magazines & E-zines
Match Archives
Match Equities
Match Play
Match Play at 2-away/2-away
Miscellaneous
Opening Rolls
Pip Counting
Play Sites
Probability and Statistics
Programming
Propositions
Puzzles
Ratings
Rollouts
Rules
Rulings
Snowie
Software
Source Code
Strategy--Backgames
Strategy--Bearing Off
Strategy--Checker play
Terminology
Theory
Tournaments
Uncategorized
Variations

 

Return to:  Backgammon Galore : Forum Archive Main Page