Online Gaming: Yahoo Pool

Objective:

Yahoo Pool Stats Thus Far: (updated weekly)

Hours Played:

Each game takes about roughly 7- 8 minutes to play, depending on how good your opponent's experience, internet connection, and if you or your opponent are playing multiple games at once.
I've calculated to have played about roughly: ~ 27 hours thus far.

Experiences:

Sunday, February 17, 2008:

Today my Yahoo Pool adventure begins, I do have to admit that I've had a Yahoo account for quite a while and have played Yahoo Pool a few times. However, I've never chosen an avatar, nor have I tried to take the game seriously. Today will be the beginning of my Yahoo Pool reign against other players who choose to challenge me.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

So after playing Yahoo Pool for a couple of hours I was starting to think that I was really bad at the game. However, after chatting with a couple of people in the chat rooms I came to realize that most people play on regular computers rather than laptops (like myself). I found out that most people who did use laptops made sure they had a mouse, because it makes playing the game that much easier. I also found out that most people who had laptops didn't like playing Yahoo Pool on Mac computers. When i asked why, their answer was because most Macs don't have a right click button, which is essential to playing the game and shooting the ball. I unfortunately (for the sake of this game) own a Mac, but quickly learned how to get around the right click button.

Thursday, February 21, 2008:

I've come to realize that a lot of young kids mostly use Yahoo Pools chat rooms as way of trying to get a hold of chicks. Most of the people in these chat rooms ask for A/S/L, which among this community stands for Age, Sex, and Location. There are some very vulgar things being said at times, and I've also come to realize that there aren't hosts who govern theses chat rooms like other websites i've been to before. Needless to say, there are some horny, creepy kids out there.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008:

So I've somewhat forgot to record my experiences and adequately report them on my Wiki, however, playing Yahoo pool and some of the things that happen on the website still haven't changed. I've discovered a new way of playing the game today, apparently you can time the game so that it goes by much faster than usual. Usually games go at the leisure and paste that anyone desires, however, this game gave you a maximum of 20 seconds to decide and choose where to shoot the ball. I found this very difficult when I found myself playing multiple games. I think this is a much better way of playing the game, because this forces opponents to hurry up and play. I've figured out that these games go by much faster than the regular ones.

Snap Shots of The Game:

Media Gallery:

Practicum Project Presentation:

Overview:

Yahoo Pool is one of many gaming options on the famous Yahoo.com website. This game, just like many other Yahoo games, requires a user to have an account (which is free) in order to play them. Yahoo Pool is essentially an online billiard game, and comes to ease for those who have played pool before. This game offers online gamers to play, chat, meet others who enjoy playing pool, as well as other interesting characteristics while sitting comfortably at their home. Unlike Halo 3 (my partners project), Yahoo pool doesn't allow multiple players to play at once, doesn't require a game console, and doesn't require an additional controllers or remotes to play the game. However, both Yahoo pool and Halo 3, allow you to invite players to certain games, where you're allowed to interact and play with familiar people. As well as player rankings, where a player is based on skill, games played, and experience (games won). Yahoo pool, also allows players to enter and create different chat/game rooms where online users are logged on anywhere from 0-200 people max (usually indicated next to the chat/game room name).

Cultural Studies Approach:

How did identity figure in your game?

Identity isn't really a factor in Yahoo pool, although there are avatars one can choose in order to identify oneself, many of them are funny, or silly. For example: your avatar can be anything from an alien, cat, dog, lion, etc, to a normal person. Although race isn't much of a factor in this community, Age, Sex, and Location come into play when others gammers want to touch on a more personal level, or want to spark up a conversation.

What were some of the dominant discourses, assumptions, values or representations that you noticed?

Discourses in Yahoo pool mostly take place in the large chat rooms, and vary from chat room to chat room. For example: gammers have the ability to choose different game rooms to accommodate their needs, such as social, beginner, intermediate, and advanced level game rooms. Some assumptions I noticed was that people of high ranks were given some amount of respect when they entered game rooms, and sometimes other players seemed hesitant to play against these high ranked players in order to not negatively effect their ranking status.

Does the game have a large fan community and if so, how does the fan activity impact the game?

There is a large community of online gamers, of those who are logged on at particular times of the day. However, the fan community rarely ever impacts the game. It seems that most people (especially those in social game rooms) are there to meet and interact with other people, often times of the opposite sex.

Describe any economic systems that you noticed in your game. What was valued, traded, or exchanged? How could you tell?

There wasn't anything really traded or exchanged. Yahoo pool is one of those games that you play and can only get better with time. There are however some "trick" shots you can do, but you can only do those trick shots in practice mode, and it doesn't effect your rating. Almost everyone however, valued rank and how many games/experience the person had. For example; if you tried to play someone of higher rank, they might check your Yahoo account and see how many games you've played, games you've abandoned, or your streak was for the day. Yahoo allows other players to view how good you're doing on a particular day, so if you have a bad day and your at a negative 3 streak, players of higher rank will usually boot you from their table. Players can become hosts of a table not necessarily based on rank, but whether or not you were at the table first. Giving you power of who you want to play, and the ability to boot them from your table if you desire.

How do you think the networked aspect of the games affect game play and distinguished the game experience from a stand-alone or non-networked game? How did your interactions with other players impact the way you played?

I believe that being to interact with other players added a helpful resource at hand when I needed a specific question answered. However, it didn't help my game play and found myself distracted at times when I was talking to someone about other issues and wasn't focused on the game. I think for Yahoo pool this feature is useless, Because most people don't talk about the game itself, and often times just talk about other uninteresting matters.

Discussion Question:

Do you believe that interactions within these games are essential elements to the gaming experience? If so, do these interactions often distract you from your original intentions of playing the game, such as the provocative statements about race, sex, etc? Should these interactions be monitored in order to prevent young adolescents from partaking in the communication aspect of the game?

Links:

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