Global affair Mystic Island (All Online Games in general)

Member Name: wishywalshy

Product:	All Online Games in general
Date:	12/08/01 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly, non commercial, home from home

Disadvantages: Island time not universal, Addictive

A non-profit making un commercial web based card playing community site, incorporating spades and euchre, in leagues and tournament form.

Situated on an imaginary island in deepest cyberspace the site has been operational since June 2000, and currently has approximately 1,000 members and is increasing all the time.
There can be anything from 10 to 200 users on the site at one time, and is a global affair.
I know !! my husband spends most of his time here.
I swear he speaks to the other players more than me.;+)


Entry to the playing arena is by registration that requires a username, password and email address.

A confirmation email will be sent to you upon successful registration.

The homepage is quite self-explanatory and provides registration and download areas, as well as other information as to who runs the site and a brief history.

Their technical support system appears to be effective both in looks and in practice.
It also includes details of forthcoming events, tournaments and leagues.

It is important at this point to read the rules and guidelines.
You will note that “Any” offensive behaviour is taken a very dim view of, and a ban from the site will shortly follow.

The system is manned by sysop/park security that has the capability to help to make your stay more enjoyable.
These members have gained their status by being vetted as being helpful, friendly and fair, with a good knowledge of both the games and the site.
These members are easily identified by the + sign before their username who will automatically rise to the top of the rooms.

Punishments for offenders can range from an hour to a lifetime site ban depending on the severity of the incident involved.

The site is operated for the entire families entertainment so profanity is not accepted anywhere in the site.

You will need to download the necessary software to play on th
e island, which available to down load for free and as the program is very small it takes up minimal hardrive space.
The program is unobtrusive and remains out of sight until needed.

My hubby has assured me that the actual program is very quick to download.
After you have downloaded the initial program a small palm tree icon will appear on your desktop, requiring only the clicketty click of a mouse to take you to a card players heaven.

When opening the program for the first time you will notice that it is in its own window, allowing the rest of the net to be used if required.

As your membership is new, you will be issued with an anchor icon which identifies you to other users as a new player.
Over a period of time you will have the chance to exchange your icon to a season pass(established)

You are now in the playing area, where the design of the site is fairly basic, but extremely effective.

It consists of 5 separate areas/options.

The site map.
Extremely relevant
This will show you the way around the park.
Currently there are three playing areas in use.
Casa de spades, where all games are spades related, and includes variants such as, suicide spades(2 partners one of which must call NIL (0 tricks), regular spades, cut-throat spades(single players), and mirror spades (Players bids the spades in their hand)

The Euchre pavilion All games are Euchre related. I don’t play euchre so I cannot go into many more details about that.

The tournament arena is frequently host to competition games.

Tournament time is set by pacific time, which does cause great confusion.
If by any chance other users of the site read this then they may take note that it would be far easier to display their own island time as a small unobtrusive icon in the corner of the screen allowing the user to set their own times.

Preferences. Nerdy computer stuff LOL.

Althou
gh there are no real prizes the winners have the privilege of then wearing a winners Rosette for the next 2 days

Under construction is Gin city and Hearts del mar, which will add to the repertoire of games available to play in Mystic Island, completion is expected shortly.

Each one of the types of card games has their own ranking system and league tables.
There is a league ladder for each style too, including suicide spades, mirrors etc. These are generally reset every three months; however there is exception and these are the lifetime ladder which are never reset.
If you are fortunate enough to be at the top of a league you will have the privilege of displaying a golden cup icon next to your user name.

The lobby, which is where requests for players are made, and general chit chat between players.
(It’s also the place to show off a winners rosette)

Tables, where the games are played

Both card games are played in rooms requiring a maximum of 4 players and which will also accommodate an unlimited number of spectators.
The spectators also have the capability to view all of the player’s cards.

The actual game play is effective and well set out.The dark background makes it easy to see the cards in your hand.
Displayed at all time is the current score and a chat box which allows conversation between players and spectators.
I might add here that cheating is not tolerated, and you will be found out. Instant messages etc are out of the question.

Community, where the days forthcoming events are displayed.

The site was originally set up by Pokah who created it and now maintains it in his spare time as lead programmer, he is also the park manager.

Pam is Tournament and park manager she is also the co-founder.

Both founders realised the potential in a non-profit making site and are quoted to say,
“We are a non-profit game site built by playe
rs for players ,free of politics, abusive owners and sysops, our goal is to make every single player happy”

In all this is a great site,set up for the right reasons and maintained to the same standards, it is lovely just to go somewhere with out damn adverts popping up all over the place with friendly company all wanting to play a good game of cards with no cheats.

http://www.mysticisland.net
is where to go

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