Online gaming issues: Are we losing culture and ethics?

The virtual world – a little haven for people who are sort-of anti-social, and probably their preferable place to socialize instead of doing such in the real world; and in this kind of world where you communicate to someone quite anonymous with only a pseudonym and/or picture as identity, it is easier to make enemies and more difficult to make friends.

Zooming in, online gaming comprises more slice of the pie in the virtual world. People would love to have a few games at hand, wanting to excel on it compared to millions of people who want to do just the same. And in the virtual gaming world, can we still think of proper attitude, culture, and gaming ethics? First things first, are there such thing?

There may not be any but common sense would tell us that there is. Where are all the manners that our parents teach us while we were kids? In online gaming, they are forgotten.

China aired out on the goal of most online games: killing monsters and even human characters. They see this as something that would influence the physical activities and mental thinking of minors. True enough, most online games (especially RPG) are violent and full of gore. But there is more to violence than what people see on the game. Outside that is something more dangerous.

In an article found through the net entitled Online Gaming’s Dirty Little Secret, it stated:

Fast-forward to the current generation of games, and hearing racial epithets like the "n word" or homophobic slang like the "f word" shouted online is more commonplace than you might want to believe. Meanwhile, women who play in the male-dominated world of online gaming sometimes find themselves the victims of sexually suggestive comments and gender-based taunting.

We rant about these but, who should take action? There are not much regulations with regards to online violence. Some countries have, some countries don’t. Measures should be taken but if it’s online, it is quite inevitable.

Game developers should take the first step with regards to this matter since they’re the ones who are feeding the people with violence. With their games, it is like telling the people that violence is fun. It may not be their main goal in making such games but, have they thought about it when they made such games? Maybe no. Or maybe yes – but maybe they just disregarded ethics over marketability.

Social Media on online poker? Possible.

Online poker software has become plain and too simple. It has stayed that way for quite a long time that most players are used to the boring facade they see while they play. The usual interface, the usual actions - entirely the usual gaming. It stayed long that way because it's what's working for everybody. Players of all ages, novice or veteran, or those who are used to playing online or those who play traditional finds the online poker software working for them. They could play any game and at any table that they want, and they could make use of that old platform, use it as an advantage and earn like there's no tomorrow.

But what if an online poker software company would include social media to online poker? It is highly possible.

A lot of gaming companies are now including social media in their gaming. Some would acquire existing social gaming platforms while some do a little gamble and try something new and place their games on social networking sites. Slowly but surely, it is working for them, and it is working for the gamers. How much more in poker?

Online poker is widely played. With proper control over the money at stake and with enticing game bonuses, this online game has been known worldwide and even invading reality television. It's popularity is undeniable. And so does social networking. With these two combined, it would be a winning platform already.

Imagine players getting so excited to play and would really try their best so that they can brag themselves on Facebook! Or probably players can invite other players to join in their table, or even encourage them to get into online poker. It's hitting two birds with one stone.

So probably in the coming days, we would expect that kind of online poker platform to come to surface.

Online Poker Software that could aid in your playing

In a world where poker dominates, online gamers have seen tough and enjoyable competition in playing such game. Every player would want to place their A-game in every table they invade. But with constant advancement of technology, one could never help but to seek for virtual aid in their gaming. Thus, the creation of 3^rd party software.

In poker, these 3^rd party software helps a player a step further in winning a poker game. It isn’t necessarily cheating. It is just like calling a friend to help you with your cards out, only that it is virtual.

There are different kinds of 3^rd party software that players used in online poker. We’ll discuss each one briefly, give you a few ideas about it and hopefully give a valuable insight in helping you with your game.

CALCULATORS

Calculators are 3^rd party software that helps the player find odds and possible combinations of the cards he’s playing. The probability of these combinations plays around all the cards in the deck - cards both on the deck or those at the hands of the opponents.

Often, calculators are seen to be deceiving and known to be a software for cheating. But it isn’t really CHEATING. It’s simply showing what probably combinations could be used. The calculator cannot and does not reveal the cards of the opponents, so it’s simply like the player’s mind thinking of combinations only that the computer is doing it for him.

BOTS

There are also a few misconceptions of bots. Bots, in others’ understanding, bots makes instant money for a player in a certain pot. Although these bots really exist, but the real purpose of bots is to play for a player.

The bot is turned on, and does the playing for the player in case he is on a game and would badly need to do an errand – or have a visit in the toilet. It simply plays for the player.

TRACKERS

Poker trackers are probably the most helpful 3^rd party software - it may not be of the time being of poker playing, but its long-term contribution would make it very helpful.

Poker trackers track down the number of wins and losses, good and bad hands, betting patterns, and the likes. These factors would easily help players, especially the beginners, to track their gaming and further learn from their playing patterns helping them make a better move in their next games.

Third party software are okay, as long as the intentions on using them are clean. They aid, they help. They don’t mean to destruct, they don’t mean to cheat. And as far as online poker is concerned, there might still be a lot to do to make sure that these software are indeed safe. But as of the moment, if one player intends to use such in playing online poker, he should be careful and responsible in using it.

Online poker software to “stalk” players

Now, an online poker software adds fun to poker playing by allowing the players to “stalk” other poker players. Don’t take it that serious though. Give it a read and know why.

A software called Player Stalker is a poker buddy list that would allow players to create a list of poker buddies and could track if they would go online (just like how instant messenger works). A player can enter the screen name, and if the player is online the software would give information like the casino and table where that certain player is. This online poker software is helpful to track friends on where they are currently playing or having their poker sessions.

Security is of no worry with this online poker software. The player being tracked is notified instantly when a player tracks him around and if their account is accessed.

An additional feature for this innovative online poker software is that a person can simply add other players and keep track of their own account through alerts via SMS messages through their mobile phones, e-mail, and other widely-used instant messaging software.

For those who are interested to give Player Stalker a try, there is an available 7-day free trial. Once the trial expires, they could subscribe to Lite Level (at $20 per month), Standard Level (at $30 per month) and Full Package with an equivalent of 150 text messages per month. Any level of this online poker software would allow unlimited number of people to stalk.

Basically, it isn’t the scary tactic type of stalking we’re talking about here. It’s the safe tracking of friends that might lead and endless fun on casino tables making sure you make the most out of your online poker playing.

How can online gaming rise from the fall

The sudden recession and emergence of the global economic crisis has brought different industries into a decline of sales and revenues. A lot of companies have suffered losses, and left them to the choice of manpower-cutting increasing the unemployment rate.

Rising from the sudden fall is a big challenge for every affected company and one industry that has been greatly affected is online gaming. Sales have been low on software and consoles, not all patrons of their products still have the purchasing power and demands are getting low. What marketing strategy should they do? Should they decrease price and production and increase promotion? Would there be a win-win solution?

For online gaming, it has been and would be a great struggle to keep players on playing and purchasing their products. One thing that they could do is make a better version, improving the development of online games that they make. Once players would see a great improvement that they could take advantage of from the game, they would surely purchase the product to enjoy online gaming further.

Or they could take the risk of making new games from fresh ideas and the likes. They could probably take the advices or requests from avid gamers who purchase and use their products in a maximum level. From this, they could make a little transition of releasing a new game for a cheaper price before they sell the usual top-selling online games on its usual price.

Another challenge on the online gaming industry is how to lessen the cases of piracy. Piracy has brought a great impact in the loss of sales of these online games developers. Since people have lesser purchasing power, they would prefer cheaper software although it is pirated. Once piracy would lessen, online gaming companies can bounce back from the recession.There are many possible ways to rise online gaming from the economic fall. It would all depend on implementation and promotion, and who is willing to take the risk for change.

Problem Gambling: Signs and Cure

One most debatable fact in the fight to legalize online poker is the possibility of a player to get into problem gambling. Problem Gambling is an urge to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop.

Problem gambling is more feared to occur in the existence of gambling online since games like blackjack, baccarat, and poker are already made available and accessible with just a simple click.
If you, or a close family or friend, love playing online gambling games, then you should check if there are existing signs and symptoms that might lead to a serious problem gambling.

One sign is when you try to keep gambling a secret. You don’t tell anyone, not even your spouse. You secretly access through gambling sites and you make a secret bank account where you keep your bets and winnings. Another sign is once you start gambling, it is difficult to leave the poker room and your pc. You tend to gamble until the very last dollar you have, and when you lost some, you would still gamble to make up for lost bucks.

You can also detect problem gambling symptoms from family and close friends. One could probably be nearing problem gambling when he/she has been overly defensive when the topic of gambling comes out, and even though he/she wasn’t tagged would suddenly become defensive as if the comments lead to him/her. And since gambling involves money, your loved ones or close friends might be in deep trouble if they hide their finances from the people close to them, and would sometimes borrow some money.

All these signs can be prevented, and for those who are already indulged into the game of gambling can still be cured.

There are various support groups for those who experience problem gambling. One could be also sent to a therapist. Even simple gestures of cure (like separating and abstaining oneself to using and accessing the computer) can help a person recover from such disorder.

Cheats, Hacks, 3rd Party Software: Possible in Online Poker?

In every poker software, there is always a brilliant mind behind it all. From the interface to coding, each developer of an online poker software is working a step further to make their software better, hence satisfying their clients and customers.
But other “brilliant” minds are working contrary to these developers. Is hacking really possible for online poker software?

Hacking a poker software is hardly possible and remains a myth until now. There was one case of an online poker site being hacked but that was only because there was a flaw in a random number generation code. Since then, this problem has been addressed to and has been fixed. The encryption of the different poker software has been updated making it impossible for hacking.

It has also been said that there are certain sites that has cheats on it (for additional cash or to have a better hand) but it was never proven. Like hacking, cheats on online poker software is hardly possible. These software are made to have a strong protection against hacking and cheating to assure security in a player’s game play.

3rd party software, however are possible. There are certain poker bots and poker calculators that can aid a player’s game of poker but are barely harmful or can’t be called cheating. They help in strategizing and keeping records on the player’s game.However a hacker would like to invade a poker software, a good online poker software developer would always make sure that the poker software they develop is 100% hack and cheat proof.