OK I admit, it wasn’t a ‘real’ game but it was great fun nonetheless (love that triple word!). uVme has now gone into soft launch so anyone can join as an associate which I did today. While I was waiting for the information to go through, I decided to put a tenner in my players account and see how I could do with some real money games.
Last time I played on the beta site I was quite good at the darts game so I thought I’d wager fiddyp on a game and got a really good score! I was almost nervous while I waited to see what the other player scored and… per-ching! it popped up a few thousand less! I got my fiddyp pack and half of their wager too. yey!
The uVme coders changed the playing format slightly since the beta testing, now instead of aiming, clicking to start the power meter and then clicking again to try and hit the middle (like a golf swing type of game), it is now aim, hold click to start power meter and release the button to throw the dart. The first couple of throws I did I didn’t realize that it was like this and by pure chance the amount of time it took my finger to linger on the button to click and release was just enough to hit the middle of the power button!
As long as you’re aiming in the treble and you hit the middle of the power button, you get the treble and can skip ahead a few numbers on the ’round the clock’ game. I thought I would try a free game (you don’t have to wager) and found quickly that it’s all in the rythm, I got a cracking score and managed to clear the board in only 15 throws and hit the bullseye first time of trying.
Sweet, now to try for 2 quid…
It seems the bigger the wager, the more pressure there is! I totally lost it half way through and ended up with a sub-par score and lost my wager 
It was bloody good fun though and for someone that doesn’t really play games, I had a great time.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for a Chinese player that’s already become (in)famous on the site, last week he was able to rack up over a thousand quid ($2000+) in wager winnings starting from just a small stake. That’s something that’ll develop more and more, just like going on Xbox Live for the first time – you realize that there some awfully good players out there! At least there’s the option to play for free so I can practice a bit more before wagering a whole two quid next time…
You can join for free and play some free games to see if it’s going to be worth the inevitable hype here
PS How can I get that little cloud before the comment link on the blog? Is that Haloscan and Blog template?
not sure what you mean, what little cloud?
Twitter: psychicgeek
Maybe I meant a chat balloon. When you have no comments, the icon shows up.
witchypoo’s last blog post..The Great Interview Experiment
Off-topic: Andy, the 2nd photoshow has just started on my blog. You’ve been tagged.
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Witchypoo: oh ok, that’s probably part of the template, I’ll look into it when i get back home and add it to this comment.
Mira: thanks, i’ll go check it now!
The only problem I have with uVme, is that they claim it’s not gambling because skill is involved. No matter how you look at it, it is gambling. If they change and admit exactly what it is, I’ll happily put my account to use and support them…haha!
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Hi Bobby,
it’s true it is a ‘soft’ type of gambling. Each game takes quite a while to play in relative terms to hard gaming. The maximum ‘wager’ is 2 £/$/E and each game takes around 3 minutes to play plus a minute of going back and forth through the menus and waiting for the games to load. So, in reality, the most that can be wagered and lost in 1 hour of solid playing would be 50 £/$/E.
Even the lottery is called soft gaming and that can have unlimited entries.
but, soft or hard, I agree it’s gambling (with skill.)
Day trading is another gamble disguised as something else that requires skill and knowledge.
also, what would happen if you were able to take the ‘skill’ out of ‘skill games’ ? would it then be gambling? (I may post in depth about this later, I want to see what uVme does with my information first)
Soft gambling? Hahaha! In a casino, every game requires skill to win in most cases; a combination of luck and skill. Gambling is gambling, some less financially dangerous than others. uVme is ‘on line gambling’ and they should just say it rather than paint it as different or like some kind of video game.
Bottom line, they are looking at it incessantly. I don’t blame them for trying to have a semi-clean image. Like my ex girlfriend told me after cheating, “oral sex isn’t sex”!
Bobby Revell’s last blog post..How To Be a Good Blogger: Karma
The UK Home Office states.
“Hard gambling is a colloquialism for those forms of gambling which are considered to carry greater potential risks than others, usually because of the high or rapid staking associated with them”
So in your ex’s case. Cheating would only be hard cheating if there was a high risk of being caught!
I heard somewhere that if you cheat in a different country then it doesn’t count!
With reference to painting gambling as some kind of video game:
At least with these video games you have a chance of making money.
Most video games (arcade, WoW, cell phone games etc) require payment of some kind, does this constitute gambling? of course not, because there is never a chance of getting your money back, let alone making a profit.
I think uVme are ok to not blatantly say it is gambling because, in essence, it could be described as a subscription/PPP (pay per play) based gaming and social site with the proceeds being shared among the winning players. (just made that up!)
I don’t feel it can really be tarred with the gambling brush and sent straight to hell simply because people pay and ‘win’ money. If that was so, ebay could be called gambling… people pay for goods and put them up for auction thus gambling that they will receive more money than they paid out (winning).
Businesses that pitch for investment in a new product could be called gambling, people invest with the ‘gamble’ that their investment be returned with profit. The investors use their skill in determining if the product will be successful thus making investment ‘skill gaming’ – gambling.
crossing the road is a ‘gamble’.
life is a ‘gamble’
although, all these arguments go down the drain when you understand what the gaming board of Great Britain constitute as ‘gambling’, “an activity in which the only commodity to exchange hands is money”
ouch, shot myself in the foot! s’okay though, a nice interesting discussion to have on a Sunday morning!
oh wait, I thought of another one..
people that make MFA sites (made for adsense) and then advertise them on adwords qualify under the gaming act as gambling! I am off to phone google!
and another:
Typepad blogs cost money to pay for hosting, if they use their skill to advertise with adsense and earn money from it, that could be called gambling.
Seriously, the most important reason that there isn’t the word ‘gamble’ or ‘gambling’ on the uvme site is all to do with Google and US Law. International gambling (poker sites and casino sites) is banned in America and banned from being advertised on Google adwords. Skill gaming, however, is not.
Ironically, if you did get uVme to state that it is gambling then as soon as they did, you wouldn’t be able to support them because your president says you’re not allowed to.
Alright Andy…you are cracking me up. Aside from having a great sense of humor, you could probably sell matches to the devil…hahaha!
Bobby Revell’s last blog post..How To Be a Good Blogger: Karma
thanks for coming by Bobby, it’s always a pleasure to hear your honest opinion (even if I don’t always agree!)
does the chinese words means “chinese are good players”? Chinese football team is **** at least,
good article.
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franca: that’s right, do you speak Chinese?
I always try and put a reasonable amount on bet because its not really worth it for the amount you win. Low odds is ok, but I tend to put a bigger bet on.
I speak Chinese.
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I agree with this more than than anything – “It seems the bigger the wager, the more pressure there is” lol this is definitely the key factor when it comes to games like this. I find this when i’m playing williamhill games, one minute i’m brilliant, up the wager and my hand turns to jelly
Dart games are fun if you play with friends and the wager only make it more exciting.
After read the post ,It seems that the sentance— won money at darts!
and 中國人是好球員, is not the same meaning,
China is a nice country , I love it !
PS: I am doing business on Car Accessories in China.
Learning chinese !
This is great! I would really join this if I played games or could find a way to pay for it. Anyways I certainly will have the up my ‘stuff-to-do-on-internet’ list!
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Darts are fun while playing in pubs with some friends and a beer. Online darts sucks in my opinion.
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Hey Andy, I know what you mean when you say these type of games get addictive. I’m not much of a gamer myself but when I’m bored I usually play good ol Pacman. I start getting frustrated mid way when I can’t make it past like level 3 and just when I think I’m getting the hang of it, I see ther people’s score and sheesh, they must of gone to level 1000…lol
I thought I’d try the dart game but its not working. When you get to the site you can’t click on anything!
Hey Andy,
Thanks for that review, I wasn’t even aware that these kind of skill based games were becoming this mainstream next to the usual online casino games and the likes. From a gamers rather than a gamblers point of view this might present a bit of a an alternative entry into the betting scene. Great stuff.