World of Card Games

A number of players have requested that they be given the ability to completely block chats. Maybe they find them distracting, or just don't type fast enough to chat effectively. They just want to play cards, that's all.

That's fine with me, and I hope that they are not being given a hard time if they don't chat... it's everyone's right to remain silent, isn't it, after all?!

Now, these players can easily ignore chats by checking the "Hide All Chats" checkbox in their Settings area. You find your Settings by clicking on your user name in the upper right corner. The new checkbox is encircled in green in the screenshot below:

use "Hide All Chats" to block chats at World of Card Games

Other players tell me that there are one or two players whose chats annoy them. They'd prefer to avoid these players' chats. There's something for these players, too. There's now a little "volume" control beside each player other than yourself. If you want to block a single player's chats, click that volume control. It stops the player's chats from being shown.

If you want to undo this action, use the "Manage Chats" area shown under your Settings in the screenshot above.

use the "Hide Chats" icon to block an individual player's chats

Please keep in mind that just because you cannot see a player's chats does not mean that they are not chatting!

Kick Players

 

Finally, there's also a new feature that has been added specifically for players of the game Twenty-Nine [and other team games]. I've had a number of people tell me that they want to be able to kick players from a table. This is the internet and there are times when someone comes in who is extremely ill-behaved. Everyone at the table agrees that this is the case, and wants them out, but their only recourse is to dislike the player and leave. This is more painful in Twenty-Nine than in other games because Twenty-Nine is a very long-lived game. Imagine playing at a table for 1 hour, when a troll comes in and starts harassing you...

For these people, I've added back the "kick player" feature. If there are four human players at a table and three players have all disliked the same, single player, then that player is ejected.

If you wind up being ejected, you may very well know why. I expect that this may get used to eject slower players in addition to trolls. I'm sorry that this can happen, since I don't think slow players should be penalized. Personally, though, I'd rather not be sitting at a table where 3 other players don't like me. So I think it's fair enough to add this feature now.

Sorry for the brief downtime this morning! World of Card Games was updated so that you can now see who is sitting at each table by using the table listings. All you need to do is hover your mouse over any seat that is occupied. This can help to make a choice between tables.

player names in table listings

Have you ever wondered how long a game has been going on? You can now view the total elapsed time for your game by clicking on the table info link in the lower left corner (it shows you the total game time, which may be longer than the time you've been playing, if you entered mid-game):

elapsed game time

[Edit: I just played a game and noticed the time does not always function correctly. If you reload the page it seems to be correct, however. Next time I make changes, I'll fix this. Update: fixed this issue May 19 2015]

Tournament players will be interested to know that I've increased the time to take your turn in tourneys to 1 minute. This will help people who are sometimes affected by a spotty internet connection.

Finally, I've added a quick-setting panel that allows people who are new to the site to choose between playing with robots and/or playing with people:

quick options settings

This panel will appear if the site does not detect that you've visited there before. I did this because I'm concerned that people are coming to the site and getting confused by popping into the middle of a game, not knowing how to set their options. This way, they can make the choice to play against the computer or play against people immediately.

You may see this "quick options" panel just after you've logged out. This happens because the site doesn't realize you've visited before. You can use the "Remember this choice" checkbox to quickly set your options this way, in that case.

If you're wondering how to set options - use the Options button! Here it is for Hearts:

Options button for Hearts card game

The server at World of Card Games was down for a short period this morning, to apply some bug fixes and updates - sorry for the interruption in service!

There's a new category in your "stats" area: "absolute" wins and losses.

The rules for a game counting as an "absolute" win or loss are as follows:

1. There is only 1 winner per game.
2. If you leave a game before it ends, you forfeit that game, and it counts as a loss for you.
1. Exception: If you are seated at a table for less than 30 seconds, it will not be counted as a forfeit if you leave. This is done to be fair to someone who takes a losing seat directly at the end of a game.
3. Only human players are counted as winning or losing; if a bot wins or loses, it does not show up in the global statistics for absolute wins and losses.

new "absolute" statistics

This is in contrast to your "Games Played" number. That includes all games that you have been in, even if you left after 1 second! If you stay with the game until the end, that is counted in your "Games Finished" number. If you quit before the end, it is counted in your "Games Abandoned" number. So the absolute stats are  a little more lenient. They forgive you if you take a seat by accident, perhaps with a very poor losing position, and quickly leave.

These new statistics are being recorded for a couple of different reasons.

First - the original way that statistics were recorded at World of Card Games was confusing to many. These statistics are now shown as the "Relative Win Ratio". An example will explain the counting used: If you came in 1st place in Hearts, you were counted as winning against 3 other players. If you came in 2nd place, you were counted as winning against 2 other players and losing against 1 player. This counting method is relatively expressive - a person who comes in 2nd place a lot is probably a better player than someone who comes in 3rd place a lot, but if you count both placings as "losses" then you'll never see this distinction. However, most people expect a single winner for a game! This new statistic provides that clarity.

As an aside, the above counting method would not lead to confusion in team games like Spades, because there are exactly two winners and two losers (the winning and losing teams) in that type of game. It was really only a problem in Hearts, 3-5-8, and Go Fish.

Second - it has been proposed that some players are leaving a losing position  shortly before a game ends so as to avoid having a loss counted against them. With the new forfeit rule, there will be no encouragement to leave a game early. I am a little skeptical that this will help with the "quitting players" problem, but we shall see.

These new statistics are experimental, so don't get too attached to them yet. In the next few weeks or months, I may make modifications based upon feedback; in that case I'll probably wipe the new stats and start fresh. Stay tuned.

This morning, World of Card Games was down for a short time to apply some bug fixes and new features.

Exclude Games in Progress option

Here's a brief summary:

1. There is now an additional option to "Exclude Games in Progress". If you only want to be seated at tables where the game has not yet started, choose this Option (click the Options button to get to your game options). Keep in mind, it may take you a bit longer to get started in this case.
2. The List of Tables now shows how long a game has been in progress. If you really dislike being seated at a long-running table, this is a good feature to use!
3. A few people reported to me that when joining a game in progress, sometimes their cards did not appear in front of them. This bug is now fixed. Please let me know if you see this happen again; it should not! A big thank you goes out especially to "no bots plz" and "davidly" - the two players who gave me enough information to reproduce this bug, so that I could squash it!
4. There is now an audio alert when a game that was paused is restarted.
5. You may use the "replace robots" link after a game has started, now. Previously it could only be used at the start of a game.
6. The "Seventh Card" option has been added to Twenty-Nine. I've written about that in a separate blog post.

A number of players have written asking that some variations of the game "Twenty-Nine" (29) be allowed at World of Card Games. One popular request is the "Seventh Card" option. Today, this option is available, and it is turned on by default. (If you absolutely don't want to play with this option, you will have to edit your Options, and set "Allow Seventh Card" to "No").

Choosing the 7th card to decide the trump suit

The Seventh Card option gives you a new choice for choosing the trump suit. If you choose this option, the trump suit is taken from the 7th card that is dealt to you. The 7th card is placed to one side of your hand. It is not allowed to be used until you cannot follow suit (i.e., you cannot lead with this card). When you do play it, the trump suit is declared.

The 7th card is 8 of Clubs; the trump suit is Clubs

Trump is usually declared when a player cannot follow suit. However, if the high bidder chose the 7th card, then they do not have to declare trump when they are unable to follow suit. They also do not have to play their 7th card. Instead, they can discard an off-suit card, if it appears strategically wise to do so. This keeps the trump suit secret for longer than is usual in 29.

I hope you enjoy this new option! Please let me know if you see any bugs related to it. I'll be adding options for other variations when I have more time.

photo credit: "358" by Graham Richardson cc license

World of Card Games has a new game! It's called "Sergeant Major" or "3-5-8". It's a 3-player game. So there are no teams: every man for himself, so to speak. Every player is given a target number of tricks that they have to take. If you fail to hit your target, you will be at a disadvantage, because you'll have to trade away your high cards to other players. So take as many tricks as you can!

The game is fairly straightforward. Any rules that need to be followed are applied by the site, and you get instructions about what to do next. So don't be afraid to try this new game. You can try out the tutorial and then play some games with bots to get the hang of it before challenging people.

In other news, the server had a little bit of indigestion this afternoon, so I restarted it. I took advantage of this little hiccup to deploy the new game. I'm very sorry for the disruption in games! Please let me know if you have any trouble with the site now.

The server is now up and humming again at World of Card Games! Sorry for the interruption in service.

A new feature has been added to the Spades game. If a player leaves the game, the remaining (human) players are given the opportunity to fold their hand and re-deal. All current tricks taken and bids made are wiped away - the hand is effectively a do-over.

To make this happen, all players must agree to re-deal by clicking the "redeal" message box, which appears in the upper left corner. Redeals are allowed a maximum of 5 times per game.

redeal link in upper left corner

This is a new, experimental feature. As always, feedback is welcome. In particular, if you notice any problems, please let me know.

[Edit: as of December 27, 2015, you are given 30 seconds to vote for a redeal.]

Recently, a player at the site (you know who you are!) suggested that I add World of Card Games to the Chrome Web Store.

So here it is - World of Card Games at Chrome Web Store!

This won't matter to most people, who come to the site by typing the site name into their browser address bar. However, it will be handy for those who use Chrome's app launcher - you can just click on an icon and go directly to the site. It saves a little time.
If you like this widget, please give it a good review in the web store :) Remember, this widget is only available for Google Chrome. But anyone can play at the site - most browsers will handle the games without problems. Things do work best on Google Chrome, though.

If you experience any trouble with the widget, please let me know! I've tested and it works fine for me.

Sometimes, you're in the middle of a card game with friends, and you need a break. You want to refill your drink, let in the cat, baste the turkey, etc. If you were all sitting around a table at home, you could do this. However, it hasn't been possible at World of Card Games... until now.

A "Pause" button was added, for private tables only, with this morning's update. Please chat amongst yourselves if you want to pause the game, to let people know your plan. You must recruit a majority of players for the pause to take effect. For example, if there are 4 (human) players at the table, at least 2 must hit the Pause button. If there are 2 players, then 1 player hitting the pause button is sufficient. When everyone is ready to continue, hit the "Continue" button.

Here's a screenshot of the new buttons, in the upper left corner:


I hope that using this new feature is relatively intuitive. If anyone has trouble with it, please write me with details. I may make changes to this in the future; it's experimental.

By the way, I did not add this to public tables, since I thought that most players, who are not really chummy with each other, would not take kindly to pausing a game.

There are some other, more minor changes.

I have increased the timeouts in 29 (Twenty-Nine) from 15 to 20 seconds for playing a card. It doesn't seem like much, but I hope it makes a difference. Timeouts at private tables are now 40 30 seconds, for all games. [Edit: 30 second timeout at private tables was applied Nov 19 2014 due to feedback.]

I've also deployed a few bug fixes. The site has had a problem with tables freezing in Hearts. I discovered a major bug that could cause that to happen, and it has been fixed. A big thank you goes out to the person who reported this to me most recently!

I've fixed a bug in Gin Rummy that allowed you to knock when you shouldn't be able to do so - another big thank you goes to the player who reported this (including a screenshot)!

Finally, I've added a small improvement to the Euchre bot strategy. This was suggested by a player who noticed that they could use a little fine-tuning. I'm no expert, but I think the bots are getting pretty difficult to beat in Euchre. This is largely thanks to a couple of very helpful Euchre players who have been great about giving me tips. Thanks to you both!

As always, let me know if you see any problems at the site. I'm constantly working to improve it.

This morning, the server was updated with a couple of new features.

Hopefully everyone knows about the "dislike player" icon that can help you avoid players you don't like... (if you don't, go take a look at the blog post which describes it). Now, you have a way to keep track of players that you like as well! There's a yellow star next to each player:

like this player

Click the yellow star to "like" the player. This adds them to your "liked player list." You can edit this list by clicking on your player name at the upper right, and scrolling down to the "Manage Likes" section.

Another new feature is the table listings area. Use the "list of tables" link at the lower left corner to open a panel that displays card games with available seats:

table listings

Notice the emphasis on "available" - only tables where you are allowed and that have open seats are shown. For example, if you are not a registered user, and there's a table that allows "Registered Users Only" with openings, it will not be displayed in the list. Full tables with games in progress are not shown either.

The list displays registered users with a green "R" while Guests are indicated by the letter "G" and robots are a pink "B". A yellow star (★) indicates a player that you have liked. Empty seats are indicated with an open square (☐). Relevant information is displayed about the table as well.

You may click on an empty seat, indicated by an open square, to take that seat. Be aware that if the seat is taken before the panel updates, you won't be able to take that seat! So grab it quick if you are interested.

Gin Rummy - click to play!

 Gin Rummy is now available at World of Card Games! This is a 2-player game that tests your pattern-matching abilities and your memory. The rules are described at the Pagat website.


As usual, there's a tutorial to get you started (click on the "Tutorial" button to the lower right of the Gin Rummy panel on the main page). And you can play with robots if you want to get comfortable before playing with real live humans.

One thing that will help when playing is the ability to sort your cards via "drag-and-drop" functionality.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Please let me know if you notice any bugs.

[Edit: I just noticed a bug near the end of the Tutorial - a warning message shows up which says "You are not currently playing a game!". I'll fix this eventually, but in the meantime, you can continue the tutorial just by clicking the "x" in the upper right corner of the message - Sep 28 '14 12 PM EDT]

The "replace robots" feature is back at World of Card Games. You can use it to start a game with bots, and allow humans to replace them as they arrive. Details are in this blog post.

This feature was first added on January 13 2014. But after several hours of good behavior, the site crashed. So I pulled it back, and worked to figure out what went wrong.

I tried with a new version on February 12, but it caused the site to crash too!

This time, I'm pretty sure that I know what was going wrong. With the bug fixed, I think this new version will work correctly. Is this third time a charm? I hope so!

To celebrate the upcoming Easter holiday, 6 new avatars have been added to World of Card Games. Happy Easter everyone!





There's also a small change to the "no bag penalty" option in Spades, which was introduced a couple of weeks ago. Previously the option was "Yes" or "No," which made it very exclusive.

This has been changed to be similar to the "Bots" option. Now, there is a radio button with the choices "Yes," "No," or "Either." The option is turned off by default, which means you can continue to play games in the usual way without doing anything.

If you absolutely love the "no-bag-penalty" variation of Spades and only want to play that way, edit your Spades options and hit "Yes" next to the "No Bag Penalty?" question. If you are happy to play either way, choose "Either."

Note: If you are the first person to be seated at a table, your options decide how the table rules are configured. If the "No Bag Penalty" option is set to "Either" or "No" then the table does not use the new option. If you set it to "Yes," then the table will apply the "No Bag Penalty" rule.

Once seated at a table, you can check what the options are by clicking the "table info" link at the bottom left of the screen:

I've played with the new option, and it's fun! I had to adjust my usual strategy a bit, which has been interesting. Also, if you prefer shorter games, this option makes the game go more quickly.

[Note! This post has been edited to reflect some small changes to the options dialog that were made April 14 2014. The new changes are cosmetic.]

My mid-March post about a "no bag penalty" variation of Spades caused a little stir, with lots of comments. There were a surprising number of players who wanted to try it. So let's give it a whirl! Starting this morning, you can try out the new variation at World of Card Games.

To explain how the variation works, I quote Pagat: "Some play without any penalty for 10 sandbags - overtricks are simply worth an extra point each." It's that simple. You have to forget about being concerned about accruing too many bags. Their only effect is to give you 1 point each. Otherwise, they don't add up, and they don't roll over with a penalty at the count of 10.

To avoid disrupting the (apparent) majority who prefer playing with the usual penalty, I've added this option to private tables only. You may only play with the new option at private tables.

This is how you set up a private table:

1. On the main page, click on the Spades "Options" button, which is at the lower left of the Spades panel. This opens the options settings dialog (a screenshot is shown above).
2. Click the "Private Table" checkbox. Below this will appear the text "Name: none (change)". Click on the "(change)" link, and enter your table name (it can be whatever you want). If you leave it "none," then no one else can get into it - usually people do this if they want to play with robots, only.
3. Click the "No" radio button next to the "Bag Penalty" setting.
4. Hit the OK button in the dialog, which closes. Your options have been saved!

The next time you play Spades, you'll be sitting at a table with these options applied. Keep in mind that you will need to share your private table name with other people in order to play with them! So for those who are eager to try this out, you'll need to chat with others to find some recruits to sit at your private table and play with you.

I've also excluded these games from the Spades statistics, at least for now. I'm going to wait for feedback before deciding what to do about the stats. I may add them in later on.

I am interested to know what people think about the new option. Leave feedback in the comments section, or send me an email.

And as usual, please report any bugs, should you notice anything strange happening.

"No 29 - lichen" by Kirsty Hall

There's a new game up at World of Card Games! It's called Twenty-Nine. It's a little bit like Euchre, a little bit like Spades. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I suggest running through the tutorial first, and maybe playing a few games with robots, before trying to play with other people. It can be confusing playing with new rules, especially since the cards do not have the "usual" ranking.

And do please report any bugs or problems, if you happen to notice them. I'm starting work on adding another game very soon...

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, 5 new avatars have been added to World of Card Games... Enjoy!

It has been almost a month since the "replace robots" feature was introduced to World of Card Games, only to be removed when a bug was uncovered. Today this feature was reintroduced. I think the bug has been fixed... Give it a try! And please let me know if you experience any issues with this new feature. For more info about how it works, visit the "replace robots" blog post.

[Edit Feb 14 2014: another bug occurred on the same day which caused serious problems, so the replace robots feature has been removed once again. I'll be working to fix it, and it should return in the future.]

There are three new avatars at World of Card Games. Wishing you an early Happy Valentine's Day!

Some players at World of Card Games get frustrated with new users of the site. What do I mean by a "new user"? That's a person who has never visited the site before, or someone who has only played a game or two at the site. They are probably still learning the ropes. They might play poorly, or leave a game quickly because they don't understand what they should do. That can annoy more experienced users, who just want to get on with their game.

Up until now there was not much you could do about this. There's always been an option to play with "Registered Players Only". However, this excludes a lot of unregistered players (Guests) who have been playing card games at the site for a long time, and who just haven't bothered to register. And it includes very new registered users who may have the same issues as an unregistered new user.

Today, I added a new feature which should help with this problem. Experienced users may now choose to exclude new users from their tables. You will find this new setting under the Options panel (screenshot below).

exclude new users option

The option is not checked, by default - to use it, you will have to edit your options.

In addition, newer users are now indicated by the color of their name - it's shown in yellow (the default color for names is white):

new users have yellow name tags

If you see someone with a yellow nametag, the person hasn't been playing at the site for very long. They might be fine players, but they might also act a little confused. It's just a little warning that you might see unexpected behavior.

There's nothing wrong with being a new user; everyone was a new user at one point! But if you're not the patient sort, you probably will want to choose the "Exclude New Users" option. It might save you some frustration.

Finally, remember that you can always exclude specific players in a more fine-tuned way by using the "dislike players" icon. Disliking a player means you won't be seated with them again.

World of Card Games got an update this morning. A new, experimental feature was added: the ability to replace robots with humans. Please let me know what you think, or if you notice any problems due to this new feature. Below, I give you some details about how it works.

Suppose you come to the site and you're sitting around waiting for some people to play with. You'd like to start playing right away, and you could do that by inviting robots. But, let's face it, the robots don't play very well, so you can't have a normal game with them (sometimes humans don't play very well either, but let's not go there...). And once you invite bots, you are stuck with them for the entirety of the game!

That changes, as of today!

click on message box to use the new replace robots feature

When you sit at a table, you will now see an extra message in the lower right corner: "Click here to start game with robots. Humans may replace them later." When you click on that message box, robots will fill all empty seats at the table. Then when any people want to be seated at a table for that game, they will bump a robot. This way, you can start playing right away, and people will eventually replace the bots.

If you sit at a table and don't see the new "replace robots" message box, that would be because you've set your table options to disallow robots.

There's one other, new change that applies if you have specifically set your table options to "Private Table" with the table name "none" - as shown in the screenshot here:
When you choose your private table to be named "none" (this is the default), then no people will ever come to your table. It's intended to be used if you only want to play with robots - no one else will be seated at such a table.

Previously, if you had set up your options this way, it was up to you to invite three robots to the table. Now, your game will start automatically with robots once you sit down at the table. It's just a little more convenient.

Enjoy the new features! As always, feedback is welcome!