winster.com Review

Although I realize that playing online games can become addictive, I do enjoy small enthusiastic doses now and then.  There appears to be a dearth of really enjoyable free games out there, a fact which tends to cramp my style because I think it is dangerous to indulge in online gaming for money (and the State of Illinois forbids it, which pretty much settles that issue).  I used to be able to play free "Scrabble Cubes" at Worldwinner but now they have set limits -- so many free games and that's it, forever.  All of this means that Winster.com began to look interesting to me.  I decided to give it a whirl and I'm glad I did.

A Fascinating Concept

I found Winster.com games though their affiliation with MyPoints.  Indeed, it is MyPoints points which we are playing for, thus solving the problem of not being able to play for cash in this state.  When I signed up for Winster, I was fully prepared to back out immediately if any mention had been made of surrendering a credit card number but so far it has been really free.

A Winster game is a variation on the old slot machine routine.  Yes, we have some bananas to say nothing of grapes, cherries, lucky Seven's, Diamonds, and single, double and triple bars.  A match of five across is good news, but you can also cash in on three or four matches.  Unlike the typical "one-armed bandit" which depended totally on luck, Winster offers a chance to use strategy and teamwork with other players because you can spin ONE slot at a time -- if you have four Seven's, you can leave them in place and concentrating on spinning for your fifth one for as long as it takes. 

Your "machine" is in the center with two other players on each side of you and you can watch their games and help each other out by trading or giving tiles away.  The other day I traded a Seven with someone else's Diamond and we each got a nice prize for having five of the same thing.  One day, three other players who had finished up their games stayed behind with me and offered me valuable strategic advice which helped my game. 

Each day we receive 200 spins for free.  You can pay for a whole-day pass which I have avoided like the plague because I feel that any game is potentially addictive and also because, as much as I love Winster, 200 spins is about all I can take.

Houston, We May Have Some Problems Here

While it is fun to cooperate with the other players and banter back and forth a bit with the dialogue messages, the teamwork can sometimes reach the point of pestering.  Sometimes you really just want to spin for a while and it can get frankly hectic if three people are trying to trade characters with you at once, especially if there are technical problems which there often are.  When someone is offering to trade with you, you're supposed to be able to see an arrow pointing from their machine to yours, and a chance to click "Yes" or "No".  When it works, this is a great success but it can be very frustrating to be trying to concentrate on spinning and have to deal with frustrated messages asking me to click on "Yes" or "No" when nothing is showing up!  Sometimes it seems to me that we get so engrossed in unsuccessful attempts to trade that I will just boot out for a while and come back in later.  One of my neighbors finally had to give Winster.com up for this very reason.

"Winnie Winster" (if there is such a person) seems to be sincere and supposedly she and her crew are working on ironing out these problems.  (I couldn't get into the game today because maintenance is being done, which I interpret to be a good sign).  When I complained recently about tech problems, I was given an online gift certificate for anything in their shop (which I haven't tried to use yet, but if it involves a credit card number ... AHEM!)

MY VIEWPOINT:

Although I am taking off a star for the technical issues, I must say that I will continue to play my free spins on Winster.com and that I enjoy the game very much.  There is social interaction here that one does not usually find in an online game but as a final caution, I must add that I think everyone should remember that this really IS just a game supposed to be played in fun and good spirit.  I have been so far blessed with friendly, helpful co-players but the potential is here for frustration and impatience associated with overly-aggressive playing.  This is true in any game arena if someone forgets that we are really supposed to be just having fun.