Holidays Are Coming
GREAT BRITAIN Mon 24 Oct 10:55 PM

As the holiday season looms close, it's a good time to remind you about a way you can help Chatgames as you do your shopping.

Chatgames is a free to use site - no joining fee, no monthly charges - but this does not mean that it's cost free to keep it up and running. I am sure you have seen, or been a part of the yearly fundraising, when Chatgamers come up with great ideas to donate items (or even themselves) to help raise funds to keep Chatgames running. But there is another easy way you can help, and it won't cost you a single penny!

It's that time of year when people are thinking about gifts for family and friends for Christmas and other celebrations, and one of the popular places to buy on-line is Amazon. Did you know that if you click on the Amazon link from the main page of the Chatgames web site, and you complete a purchase, Chatgames gets a few pennys every time?

Now you might think that a few pennies here and there doesn't amount to much, but over the course of a year they all add up, and it means that you can keep having this much fun for another year! So remember when you are shopping on-line to click the Amazon link on the Chatgames site every time you shop!

It´s That Time Again!
GREAT BRITAIN Sat 1 Oct 08:30 AM

     Once again, confusion is set to reign in the timeless community that is Chatgames as the world once again moves it's clocks backwards and forwards, in and out of Daylight Saving or BST.

     Australia will be first to change, as they head towards their summer by moving their clocks forward 1 hour on Sunday 2nd October. 

     As the Northern Hemisphere moves into the Winter, the UK and Europe is next to change clocks when they move back 1 hour on Sunday 30th October. 

Finally the USA and Canada change on the 6th November when they too, move back one hour.
     Of course this means there will be some confusion on the schedules, and you may turn up to find two hosts waiting to entertain you with their Inquisitions , or you may find your favourite host running at a slightly different time for the next few weeks until things settle down again.

     The best advice is to make sure you sign into the Chatgames site and make sure your settings are correct for your time zone, then turn up as usual, and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...right until next March when we will go through all this confusion once again!

Less Labour More Chatgames!
GREAT BRITAIN Thu 25 Aug 08:21 PM

Ironically "Labour Day" is a day of rest in many countries around the world and not a day for hard work. And what better way to relax than to settle down and take part in a Chatgames Marathon !

Hang the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, stock up on snacks, put the coffee machine on automatic, send the kids to their Grandmother and make sure you take the phone off the receiver and settle down to a whole 33 hours nonstop Chatgames fun!

As well as your usual Inquisition and Word Warrior games there will be special theme quizzes on film and music as well as some surprises along the way.

The marathon will start with slot 159 on Saturday 3rd September at 2 pm New York time - that’s 7 pm if you are in the UK and 4 am Sunday if you live in the Antipodes, and will run through until slot 23 some 33 hours later.

I suppose the biggest question will be Are you up to betting x10 on the Blind Gambit and answering YES I DO! to the question "Do you have the staying power?”

Elixir: Full of Life
GREAT BRITAIN Sat 2 Apr 02:20 PM

For our next close up look at one of the Chatgames Clan we visit London and the diminutive Elixir aka Paula, winner of the April Word Warrior Tournament .
     Paula played her first games in 2002 and 5 years later she decided to take up the challenge of being a Host. As well as Inquisition, she loves word games, and when not playing Word Warrior she loves playing various word and puzzle games on Facebook.
     She shares her home with her son Sie and 4 very stupid Zebra finches who have not only nested on the open door of their cage, but successfully managed to make a nest on the curtain rail!
     She would have loved to have met Paul Newman “because he seemed so nice” but she has been lucky enough meet many of her fellow Chatgamers at some of the famous Chatgames Meets. When asked about anything to improve Chatgames, she said “It would be nice if players who don’t host could write some questions, maybe on their favourite subjects, and send them to a Host to run for them – that way we would all get some different types of questions.”   Paula herself is renowned for her tough games, and a 50% kill rate is not unusual – at least players get to learn new things in her games!
Paula might be small in stature, but she has a large personality, and is known for liking a drink or two and one of my favourite memories is playing a game watching her get progressively more drunk and funnier, until she was barely making sense and fell off her stool! She has provided us with more than a few of the funniest macros like “a tiger peed in my eye and i was blinded for days” and “i have a scar across mine from when a ceiling fan came at me and threw me on a glass table ”!
Yes, Chatgames is certainly not dull with Paula around!

All About Angela
GREAT BRITAIN Thu 20 Jan 07:19 PM

     The January Tournament  saw the crowning of Angela as Queen of Quiz, and it seemed a perfect opportunity to find out more about our current champion.
     Poor Angela never really stood a chance after her friend’s Mum, Chatgamer crypticpat, told her about Chatgames . Within a short time of joining, Angela found herself playing almost all of the 2009 – 10 NYE Marathon and that was it – she was hooked!

Angela loves hockey and her favourite film “Chak de India” is even about hockey. She also likes reading, her first choices being Stephen King, Gabrielle Lord and Lionel Shriver . As a player, and now a Host, she enjoys pretty much every question, except maybe American and British history which often stump Aussie Angela. “My specialist subjects would probably be 80’s music and all things Australian, especially films and soaps – in particular Prisoner Cell Block H which is my favourite! And I LOVE Brenda’s special Who Am I games where all the questions are blind!”  She is a real animal lover too and once drove a 1600km round trip just to adopt a cat she had seen on the Internet at a shelter. Othello is a real frequent flyer now having clocked up around 25,000km in trips to Perth and back to visit Grandma!

I asked her if there was anything she would like to see incorporated into Chatgames and she suggested maybe a World Clock . “There’s a little vacant spot on the bottom right hand corner of Gamer, and it would be great fun to be able to see the time in North America, UK and Australia whilst we're all playing.”

When she is not playing Chatgames for fun she loves entering competitions and has been very successful, winning a trip to Hong Kong, another to Tasmania, a $2000 clothing voucher, a surround system, a library of 50 books, $500 worth cosmetics and even TWO barbeques in one competition!  Asked if she had ever met any other Chatgamers apart from Pat she said “Not yet – but who knows, if they hold a meet in Las Vegas, maybe I’ll be lucky enough to win a holiday to Vegas to join them!”

Spotlight on Chris
GREAT BRITAIN Sun 12 Dec 08:54 AM

In another of our series in getting to know more about our fellow Chatgamers, we head to Australia, to find out more about Chris .
Although she grew up on the Northern Beaches of Manly and Dee Why, she now lives in the beautiful Bateau Bay about an hour from Sydney. She hasn't always been a Legal Secretary, in fact she once worked for a Porn Mail Order Company!
Chris first stumbled into Chatgames in August 1999, and she now plays and hosts regularly. She has amazing staying power during Marathons, managing to play all but about 4 games over the whole weekend, with just food and bathroom breaks!
Chris loves being creative, whether it's cardmaking and scrapbooking, or sewing, knitting and crochet. She also loves getting into the kitchen and baking, especially her favourite recipe - her Mum's easy fudge cake which she says is not only delicious but really is easy. Thankfully when being creative, Chris has had her kids around to act as guinea pigs to test "Mum's Experiments"!
Chris said "I have seen a lot of improvements over my years in Chatgames , and I love the pictures we can now use. They add a whole new dimension to Games. I'd do miss Enigma though - Bring Back Enigma!"
Some people think Chris is quite quiet and studious but they usually haven't met her. Reading books, watching her favourite TV shows and writing games for Chatgames means she now remembers a lot of things most people would forget, including things you will probably never need to know. As she explained " I now know that a xyster is a surgical instrument for scraping bones and zymurgy is the science of fermentation! All knowledge I have gained from Chatgames !"
And thanks in part to Chris, Hasbro now recognises some of the weird and wonderful Australian wildlife. When Bilby was disallowed during a game of Word Warrior she contacted Hasbro and asked why and lo and behold it was included in the next edition! So next time you play bilby, quokka or quoll in Word Warrior you know who to thank for your points!

Lights Camera Action - Tom!
GREAT BRITAIN Fri 22 Oct 11:04 PM

How much do we really know about our fellow players here in the Chatgame community? I decided to find out more about film buff Tom .
After spending many years in Allentown PA and Seattle WA, Tom currently resides in his native Harrisburg PA, just 10 miles from Hersey home of Chocolate in the USA. Due to eye problems, Tom has not been to a movie house since 2008, but that has not dampened his enthusiam for films of all genres. Trying to get him to name a single film as a favourite was a tough task for someone who has such a wide range of tastes but his short list included Manhattan, The Good The Bad and the Ugly, Singin’ In The Rain, The Great Escape, Blue Velvet and A Clockwork Orange. Asked to recommend two ‘Must See’ films for everyone it was quite a diverse couple, he chose The Godfather Saga - for it's sheer scope and story telling - and The Wizard of Oz which he descibed as "for the magic of movies". Of course there have been many he has not enjoyed so much but only one has made him want to walk out for it's insult to the audience's intelligence and that was Jaws: The Revenge .
Being part of the Chatgames community since 1997, Tom has seen a lot of changes, and although he doesn't miss Pengo, he does miss being able to change his sign in name at will, just for fun as often as he wanted. He enjoys the social aspect of Chatgames as well as the quizzing, " but just remember the Hosts are not perfect, and if you occassionally feel hard done by by the marking, just remember how much it cost you to join and play.  Also, by all means, if the chance permits, attend a Chatgames Meet.  I found they don’t bite, not even those from Arizona (though wouldn’t hurt to get shots).”
In spite of being legally blind, thanks to the technical efforts of Roger, and other programs, Tom is still able to play the live quiz games, where he never ceases to amazes us all with his endless knowledge of all things celluloid. So when you finally get on Millionaire, make sure he's your Phone A Friend for that big money question on film!