krybulon: Well first I would say that ponds is just another game on the site just like Chess, Backgammon, Jungle, or Frog Finder.

I would also say Stairs is just a different way to compete - kind of like Tournaments. There is another site I play at that I was a free member, and only once they started to have regular tournaments - I upgraded to a paid membership. Heck, on of the main reasons I purchased my first membership on this site was so I could create my own tournaments. Yea, the games I liked got me here - but a non-game thing like being able to create my own tournament was the biggest reason I paid for my first membership. Going along with that, having a template to create my tournaments would be very welcomed (that is if i could also add tournament name & description to template - otherwise they are worthless to me).

I would still love to see the brains / action points turned into it's own game type system - that is do something like you earn points for moves, wins, etc - but be able to use those earned points to put up for prize, wadger in game against others, trade, give away, purchase items like a personailzed rook icon (maybe a purple rook), or purchase the ability to have your own unique smiley to use that no one else can use. I could be a very nice system which the brains & action points just scratch the serface. But a system like that would also be something that would keep users here longer.

For example - what is better: (1) a user who comes on once a day, plays their 20 games then leaves until tomorrow, or (2) a user who comes on and plays their 20 games, then checks out the discussion boards, then does some other stuff, then plays a few more games since they are here, and etc.... leaving them on the site longer giving this site more opponents online at one time. Because without the "extras", people would play then leave. After awhile with no one around that gets a little boring. I can think of a couple of site which I like their games, but nothing "keeps" me there - so I slowly grow away from the site where I don't even start new games there.