Review about 8Baller

Hello, My name is Sameer and I am currently 16 years old. This is just a short review about 8Baller, created by me. This will just be basically showing how I got to know about the web site, why I thought this was a good site, what I gained and achieved from it and why I don’t think I will ever leave it! 

It all started back in my secondary school when I was 14 years old. I was sitting there just doing the usual math’s lesson. Most of us were bored and finished our work so we just started chatting in the lesson. I heard some of my friends talk about this web site that they called “8Baller” and they kept laughing about it saying how good they are and that “I thrashed you!” etc.

This had been going on for WEEKS non-stop! Eventually I got to the point of saying “You know what? Give me the link to it, I’m gonna give it a shot”. Later that night back at my house, I was talking to Megan on MSN (my girlfriend now) and she was just telling me about the site, trying to convince me enough that it’s a really good site. So I went on to the site, registered and went straight into room 1.

My girlfriend showed me how to play on the site and communicate to everyone. I was pretty gob-smacked when I found out that such a cool web site like this was 100% FREE! Played loads of pool games, won a lot, lost a lot, but it was all fun.

Met loads of people on the web site from all over the world and they also really found this site exhilarating. This site actually made me more social and more confident when it came to talking to people so I found it really good that just a simple pool site could teach me more new things.

About two years have passed and yes I’m still on the site. Theirs has been many new changes and upgrades towards the site, which has provided the site to be more fun in many more new different ways. Your pool account for example now shows your win percentage, this was called “Rating” and this has given 8Baller users an idea of how well they play so that they don’t really need to work out how well they play from calculating how many games they have played/won. It also displays the name of the team you are either in or have created since 8Baller now has it’s very own team page.

The 8Baller Team page allows users to create & join teams on 8Baller and the creator of the team may also type up information about the team if they want such as, why the team was created, what it hopes to achieve, what it represents and what type of people that can join the team. You are also enabled to choose the numbered rating you would like required for people to join. For example, if you set it to 30 then only users with 30+ rating are allowed to join that team, even then though the team leader is the one that needs to accept the person into the team.

When a certain amount of users have joined a team, it then displays the team’s over-all rating. This is done by calculating all the ratings of each user that is in the team, and then calculating the average rating of the team from all the users in it. So in other words, I think the way it manages to calculate averages and everything so show the rating of a team.

8Baller’s Team page also displays all other teams created on 8Baller and also shows leader boards for users to see, such as the “Top 10 Most Rated Teams” which would display the 10 teams with the highest over-all rating. Also the “Most Popular Teams” which would show the 10 teams with the highest amount of members in the team. This is used to inspire other users to create & join teams.

For the ones that are already in a team, they get inspired and want to make their team achieve a higher rating or hold more members in their team so that they may one day expect to get into one of the top 10 leader boards. This is also another good way for people to use the site more often thus keeping it very lively on 8Baller.

8Baller also has it’s very own Fo

Billiards


8-Ball

8-ball is played with 15 balls and a cue ball. The goal of each player is to pocket their set of balls (solid: 1-7, or stripes: 9-15) and then to pocket the 8 ball. The first player to legally pocket the 8 ball wins the game. Players do not need to call their shots in this version of 8-ball. A player`s turn is over when they fail to pocket one of their balls or if they scratch.

Breaking
The break is made by Player 1, beginning from any point behind the Head String. The Head String is defined by an imaginary vertical line across the table at the rightmost spot. If Player 1 pockets a ball on the break, their set of balls (stripes or solid) is selected by the first ball. If Player 1 does not pocked a ball, Player 2 shoots and the table remains open until a ball is pocketed.

Losing the game
A player immediately loses the game for any of the following reasons:
- Pocketing the 8 ball when they are not shooting at the 8 ball.
- Scratching the cue ball while shooting at the 8 ball.
- Pocketing the cue ball and the 8 ball.

9-Ball

9-ball is played with 9 balls (1 to 9) and a cue ball. The goal is to legally pocket the 9 balls before your shot, but the first ball the cue ball hits must be the lowest numbered ball on the table. A players turn ends when they fail to pocket a ball or if they foul/scratch.

Breaking
The break is made by Player One, beginning from any point behind the Head String. Player One must hit the 1 ball with the cue ball first before hitting any other balls. Player One wins if they pocket the 9 ball on the break.

Shooting
A player must strike the lowest ball on the table first.

Scratches/Fouls
If a player fouls for any of the reasons listed below, his turn at the table ends and the incoming player is awarded ball in hand anywhere on the table. Any object balls that he pocketed while fouling are spotted and the table is turned over to his opponent. Possible fouls are:
- Pocketing the cue ball.
- Failure to strike the lowest ball on the table first.
- Failure to strike the lowest ball on the table at all.


Straight Pool

Straight Pool is played with 15 balls and a cue ball. There are no set of balls, and each player can shoot at any ball on the table. The goal is to be first to pocket 8 balls. A player`s turn is over when they fail to pocket a ball or if they scratch.

Breaking
The break is made by Player. If a ball is pocketed on the break the player continues to shoot.

Shooting
A player is allowed to shoot at any ball on the table. A point is awarded for each ball legally pocketed. When one player reaches 8 points the game is over and that player is the winner.

How to start?

First of all you should be registered. Click on "Registration" button to register and login after that.
Logged users can see additional menu items:
Profile - You can change your personal data there.
Game Servers - The list of virtual game rooms. You can try to enter any of them.

NOTE:
There are TCP/IP ports 9000 - 9050 in this game.
So, make sure that your Firewall allows to establish connections on these ports.
Otherwise you will see message "Connection Closed" whenever you try to get into the game room.

Why dont i get an activation email?

Free email accounts like hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. may put these messages into "Junk E-Mail" folder. Click here to resend it

Why some buttons are not working?

You should install the latest Adobe Flash Player. Click here to get it

How to change my icon?

Go to section "Profile" and make all necessary changes.

How are the stars calculated?

It is ratio of Games Played / Games Won. Games Played must be 30 or greater. You are limited to 4 stars untill you have played over 500 games.

How to improve my "Stars"?

Just win more games!

How to invite another user to play?

Click on "arrow" button (Invite) near this user in list.

What is "private message"?

This message will be shown only for sender (in red color) and recipient (in blue color).

How to use guide in Billiards game?

Click "Show / Hide Guide" button to show / hide the guide line. If you want to see its refraction click "Show Refraction" when guide is displayed.

What will happen if my opponent leaves the game?

You will be winner of this game.

How to disallow others to watch my Billiards game?

Just uncheck "Allow others to watch" in New Game dialog.