no problem ... he loves to play bridge ... do I have to continue ?... the whole gamut of card games ( played in real time, named maybe "cardking.com") ... dominoes is untouched
with at least 5-10 superb games waiting for implementation ... solitaire games, board and card games ... sudoku and the whole series of japanese Nikoli puzzles ... etc, etc ...
I think there are too many decorations creating more and more confusions ...
Andy.

krybulon: I can understand your feelings. However, whistles, fountains, etc...are what gives BK it marketability. If it didn't have all the bells and whistles, most people would find another site. Fencer is not doing this because he is bored. He wants to make money. The games are nice, but the bells and whistles are what sells. I've seen web pages that offered games, but no pretty features. I don't think they are even still around.

I do not agree with you ... people are coming to this site because of diversity of games played here, not because there are Action Points, Stairs or Ponds or Brains ... do you want to tell me that you came here as a result of "googling" for pente fellowship or ponds, for example, or just simply because you were looking for a site to play pente ?
Andy.

krybulon: Oh, no...you are right. They come here because of the games. They STAY here because of the features.

oh no, you are wrong ... they come here because of games and stay here because of MORE GAMES ...
u r missing the point ... I was in and out of brainking several times and my comeback was always to see new chess variations or other games but never to check a new fountain ...
Regards,
Andy.

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.

of course, u can create the whole virtual village, like casinos, where u can eat, sleep and play 24/7/365 ... this system works for you, but could you tell me what percentage of players actually take part in discussions ? few percent I bet. I think playing your games (variety) and leaving is healthier than playing, chating, playing, discussing etc ... this is just artificially pumped crowd ... I love this place what I told Fencer many times, but I think that it's getting too "populated" with features ...
Look at Amazon.com, they started with books but now u can buy everything from them and I do not like globalisation, wallmartysm and putting every possible idea under one roof ... in some point, control must be lost which will affect the quality and the focus will be lost ...
Regards,
Andy.

krybulon: Lets go back to your original post...

what are you talking about all the time ? Why do we need all those whistles, fountains and special features for our games ? It takes so much Fencer's creative energy which could be used for some other stuff ...

All we can do is submit suggestions. Fencer decides what he is going to do. My suggestions don't take ANY of his energy (resources?). He can (and often does) ignore them. well, maybe not ignore, but he decided whether he thinks a suggestion will benefit the MAJORITY of the members.

I never use these brains, ponds, stairs, templates ... for what ? It's like having 900 TV channels while you need only 3 or 4 ...

so...everyone else should give up the 896/897 channels that they like and only watch the 3 or 4 that you like? Or should they not even be offered because you don't like them?

With all the respect .. please stop it.

How respectful is it to ask everyone to quit submitting suggestions because YOU are happy with the way BK is? Or only submit suggestions for games because YOU don't want to use certain features?

With all respect to you...feel free to NOT make any suggestions. But until you own BK, what gives you the right to tell everyone else what to do?

Summertop: