FAQs and Troubleshooting

Q. WHAT IS GAMETABLE ONLINE?

GameTable Online is an Internet game site featuring web versions of popular, real-world tabletop games that you play against other human players from around the world. Instead of scheduling a face-to-face game session, you can log on to GTO from a computer and play whenever you want.

GameTable Online focuses on turn-based strategy games. All of our games are based on real-world games and are fully licensed (where applicable) so they look and play like their real-world counterparts. Our aim is to provide a variety of games from a variety of publishers.

If there is a particular game that you would like to see on GTO, please let us know by posting your request in the Game Request forum board and tell the publisher of the game how their game would be a perfect at GameTable Online! If you are a game publisher and are interested in having your games brought to the Web, please contact Robert Eng.

Q. WHAT DOES IT COST TO JOIN GAMETABLE ONLINE?

Registration to GameTable Online is absolutely FREE. With registration you get:

• access to all of our live Free Games (human or server opponents)
  
• single-player mode against the server for all of our live Premium Games  

Registering is easy; just fill out our short Registration Form.

To play Premium Games titles against other human (multiplayer), there is a reasonable one time activation fee that be made here using the GameTable Online currency called GTO Coins.

In addition to live (real-time games) there are Play by Email Games or "PBE" Games. A more accurate description of these games are "asynchronous" games where you don't need to be online with your opponents at the same time. If you log off the server saves the game state and you can log back in later to take your next turn. PBE Games cost 3 GTO Coins.

Q. I REGISTERED BUT NEVER GOT MY CONFIRMATION EMAIL?

When this happens most often...

• You mistyped your e-mail address
• Your email rejected us due to spam filter or your inbox was filled
• Your email server blocked us

Please check your spam filter, empty out your inbox and contact support@gametableonline.com with the username and email address that you registered with.

Q. WHERE ARE THE GAMES?

Just click the "Play Live" button to be taken to our game lobby called the Gathering Place. In the Gathering Place you can create games using the "Create" button or join other games by highlighting the table you wish to join and then click the "Join" button. In addition to playing games, you can just chat or play our GTO Slot Machine to win GTO Points.

Q. WHAT ARE GTO COINS?

GTO Coins are GameTable Online's on-site currency used to activate Premium games, participate in official tournaments (both Sit-n-Go and PBE Tournaments), recognize other users with Kudos and winning GTO Points through our bi-weekly raffle and in-lobby slot machine. You can purchase and learn more about GTO Coins here. Your GTO Coin balance can be seen in the left sidebar of the webpages.

Once purchased you cannot redeem GTO Coins for GTO Points.

Q. WHAT ARE GTO POINTS?

GTO Points are points that you earn through site raffles, contests, and for winning in a tournament. These points can be used to buy real-world games and other goods from the GTO Treasure Chest . Your current GTO Points can be seen on the left navigation bar of the site.

Q. WHAT ARE PREMIUM GAMES?

Some of the games on our site are Premium Games, which can be played alone against the computer for free. However, to play them against a human you must pay a one-time fee of GTO Coins. All prices are between $1.80 and $9.00 with most at or below $3.60. To see the list of our premium games and to activate them go here.

Q. HOW CAN I PERSONALIZE MY PROFILE?

At GameTable Online, users have two profiles: a main profile at the GTO website and a forum profile. The forum profile is used by the forums, which are maintained separate from the site, and can be changed there. To modify your GTO profile, click on Edit Profile on the left of the page of the mainsite.

Both profiles have private and public information with the private information being log-in, passwords, email preferences, and email address. The public profile lets you share with the GameTable Online community about yourself: a short bio, any contact information that you want to be public, homepages, pictures, and instant message IDs, email address. 

When you first log in, we recommend that you change your password from the randomly generated initial password to something you will remember. Because the GTO Website and Forum profiles are distinct, so are the passwords. If you change your password on the GTO Profile, select the "Change forum password too" toggle to sync up both passwords.

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Q. WHAT KIND OF COMPUTER IS REQUIRED TO PLAY GAMES AT GTO?

All of our games use Sun Microsystems' Java, so you will need a computer that has Java version 1.6, or later. As of this writing, Java-supported platforms include Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris. *Note: we do not provide technical support for Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris platforms.

To verify your installation of Java, click here.

The minimum system requirements for GameTable Online games in the Windows environment are:

• Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, Millennium, XP, and Vista
  
• Pentium 166MHz processor
• Most of the games require 32 megabytes of RAM but Axis & Allies and Robo Rally need closer to 512 MBs.
• 20 megabytes of free hard drive space
• A monitor display at 1024x768 resolution
  
• A minimum internet browser of: Internet Explorer 6.0, Firefox 2.0, Netscape 7.0, or Opera 
• A 28.8Kbps Internet connection

Q. DOES GTO SUPPORT MACINTOSH COMPUTERS?

No, but there are Mac users playing at GTO. While Java and the GTO games are playable on Macintosh computers, there is a chronic lag between the Mac OS' keeping up with the new Java versions. Because of this constant issue we cannot commit to customer support for Mac users. We recommend that you visit the Apple website for the current status of Java and Macs or consider a Windows emulator.

If you are a Mac user you should test out our Free Games before purchasing GTO Coins to activate games.

Q. WHY AM I UNABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME LOBBY, CREATE A TABLE OR LAUNCH A GAME?

If you have Java on your computer (see above), these problems are most often solved by clearing your Java cache (the temporary Java files have become garbled and need to be cleared) or disabling extra versions of Java (which can confuse your computer). To do both of these you need to open a Java Control Panel.

Opening your Java Control Panel

• Windows/Vista systems: click on the Start button, select Control Panel, and click on Java
• Macintosh systems: select the Java Preferences

Clearing your Java cache

From the Java Control Panel you should be on the General tab, click Settings under Temporary Internet Files, and then Delete Files to clear the cache. When this is complete click the Ok button to close the Temporary Internet Files window.

Disabling extra versions of Java

From the Java Control Panel click on the Java tab, and then under Java Application Runtime Settings, click View. This will bring up a listing of all the Java versions on your computer. You should have only one product version enabled so de-select all but the highest. Currently if you enjoy playing Euphrat & Tigris, it is recommended that you enable Java 1.6.0_07 because other Java versions have display issues. The other games should play fine with 1.6.0_07.

Enabling your browser to use Java

Now days this is less common but your internet browser may not be set to use Java.

• Internet Explorer: select the Tools menu, select Internet Options, and then select the Advanced tab. There will be an alphabetical list of features, scroll down to the Java section and ensure that the Use Java… box is selected.
• Firefox: From the Tools menu, select Options, click on Applications button. There will be a listing of Content Types alphabetically listed. Look up JNLP File and action should be  Use Java... From the Options window click on the Content button and make sure the box Enable Java is checked.
  

Q. WHEN DOES THE SERVER RESET?

We commonly bring our servers down for maintenance every Wednesday at 11AM Eastern Daylight Time. The lobby is brought down at 10:30AM EDT to restrict access to games.  Games currently in progress on our live server will be ended abruptly when servers are brought down. Servers are usually brought back up within the hour.

Q. CAN I PLAY GTO GAMES SMOOTHLY IF I HAVE DIAL-UP INTERNET SERVICE?

There is no problem with playing the games via a dial-up Internet connection. The one-time download of Java and the file download of some of our larger games (namely Axis & Allies) may take some time, but otherwise games should load within a minute or two. 

The only time you should have to download a game is when a new version of a game is installed on the site or when you are playing a game that you have not played before on that computer. Once you have the download, it will be cached in memory and should only require a moment to launch.

For best results on slower internet connections, you should do a pre-load of games before you join an awaiting game table. You can do this from the Gathering Place, clicking on the Play menu at the top, select Load, and then click the game files you want to preload.

Q. DO I HAVE TO ACCEPT COOKIES FROM GTO?

Yes. Cookies are used to track your username, password, and user/membership status. Without them, you will be unable to access the games or post on the forum boards. If you have higher security settings on your computer, you will need to allow for cookies from “www.gametableonline.com.”

Internet Explorer cookie controls are under the View menu-Internet Options-Advanced tab-Security section-Cookies subsection.

If you use Netscape, go to GameTable Online, and from the Tools menu, select Cookies Manager and then “Unblock cookies from this site.”

Firefox cookie settings can be found in Tools > Options. Click the “Privacy” tab, then “Exceptions.” Add http://www.gametableonline.com and choose “Allow.”

Q. WHY ARE GTO GAMES SIGNED JAVA APPLICATIONS?

Any time you run a program -- such as a browser or word processor, music player, or CD burner -- you are giving the writer and distributor of that program control of your machine. The issue is always one of trust, based on reputation. Your virus checker can make sure the program is clean; your firewall can alert you when the program calls out to the Internet; your security module can watch to make sure it doesn't write to the boot sector of your hard disk and change the structure of your operating system. But beyond that, any program you run can read or write files; you are depending on the reliability of the program supplier -- and that the program actually came from that supplier.

When you acquire code from the Web, there is a way to be sure that you know where it is coming from. Signed code guarantees that the code actually came from the signer, that the signer is who you think they are, and that the code has not been tampered with since it was signed. That is, no one "shortstopped" the code on its way to you in order to add malicious code, or redirected your link to a bogus web site to to give you a fake version of the program. So, signed code is much safer than unsigned code -- that is why unsigned applets are so highly restricted: you can't be at all sure where they came from. In an ideal world, all code would be signed, including regular programs. (Installing signed code from the Web is safer than installing unsigned code from a CD-ROM installer.)

Q. WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I HAVE CHRONIC GAME LAG OR DISCONNECT PROBLEMS?

Lags are generally caused by a computer on the Internet getting overloaded. This can be your computer, a machine owned by your ISP, a machine owned by our ISP, our servers, or a machine that happens to be routing packets between the two of us. Routing paths are different for different people, and thus lag will usually appear different for different folks.

To help rectify this, you should first look at your computer and the applications it is running. If you or someone else on your network is uploading large files or running multiple memory-hungry applications, these may be the culprits. In addition, defragging, disk cleaning, and ad/spyware cleansing on your computer may also help. A free ad/spyware hunter, Spybot, can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/. Another thing to check is whether your computer has higher than standard security software. Such software may view our data transmissions as unauthorized, and you may need to disable the security or identify GameTable Online as a trusted site.

If you find your computer is still experiencing a lag or you are being disconnected on a frequent basis, you should report it to us. If you are on a Windows machine and are currently encountering a lag, you can open a MS-DOS command window and type in “tracert www.gametableonline.com> tracert.txt.” This will track how your computer communicates with our server. Repeat the tracert command and send the output of this tracert test, either by sending us the tracert.txt file (found in by searching for “tracert.txt” in Windows Explorer) or by cutting and pasting to support@gametableonline.com. The tracert test must be done promptly after you notice the lag.

We may or may not be able to offer a solution, but this will help us locate the problem. If there is a problem on our side, we will try to fix it. If it is a problem with your ISP, we may be able to identify the problem so you can bring it to your ISP's attention. As the problem may reside in an arbitrary machine, we may only be able to identify the problem and hope the third party resolves it.

Lag is a problem everywhere on the Internet. It may be more noticeable at GameTable Online because games are more interactive than simple Web surfing. With this in mind, we would like to work harder to minimize the effects of lag at our site.

Q. I JUST LEFT A GAME TABLE AND NOW I CANNOT CREATE A NEW GAME?

If you leave a game room abruptly, the server sometimes believes that you are still in the game room. This will usually bring up a dialog window saying, “You are still logged in a game room.” Sometimes members refer to this as a “ghost” image. Just give the server a minute to catch up with you. Once it does, you should be able to re-enter.

Q. THE LOBBY AND GAME WINDOWS LAUNCH BUT I AM HAVING DISPLAY PROBLEMS. WHAT CAN I DO?

If the Game Lobby or Game displays are clipped off at the edges, you need to adjust your monitor display settings. The minimum screen resolution is 1024x768. On Windows/Vista systems, go to your Desktop screen, right click in a blank space, select Graphics Properties, select Display Settings and there should be a either Screen Resolution drop box of options or slider bar. Adjust to a setting that is 1024x768 or higher and looks good to you.

There are two known problems with Rage ATI video cards, that can present problems with our games. These issues are not really with GameTable Online but are caused by conflicts with the Java language. In time, Sun Microsystems will hopefully remedy these problems.

With Rage ATI cards, the game windows will have difficulty re-drawing images.  This can easily be remedied by lowering the graphic acceleration to medium or low. In Windows, right click on your desktop, select Properties , select the Settings tab, click on the Advanced button, select the Troubleshoot tab, and lower the slider bar for Hardware Acceleration.

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Q. HOW DO I LEARN TO PLAY THE GAMES?

Rules for the games can be found by clicking on the game titles on our Main Page. This will take you to an game information page that has a brief description of the game, full rules, a screen shot of the game, links to where you can buy the physical game and contact information to the game's publisher. Some of the games (Acquire, Axis & Allies, Guillotine, and Vegas Showdown) have online "walk-throughs" to show you how to play the online game.

Overall the GTO Community is a friendly one where they are open to teaching you a new game. As most of our games (all except 1960: The Making of the President, Battle of the Bands, Bosworth, and Lord of the Fries) have computer artificial intelligence opponents, "AI-players" for you to practice against so just fire up a game. The server will prompt you as to what to play in the chat display: game state comments are in blue and actions requests are in red.

In game, clicking the GTO icon next to the chat entry field will bring up a Game Options window that can provide you with rules, profile information about players, in-game bug reporting, exit/surrender procedures, and other game features.

Q. HOW DO FIND OPPONENTS?

When you are in the mood for a game, you can find the real-time games by going to the Main Page and clicking play live button. This will take you to our "Gathering Place " lobby where you can see and talk to players awaiting games. If you create a table, a bell will ring when new players enter so make sure your speakers are on so you don't miss them!

If you want to find Play-by-Email games click on the play by email button and you will be taken to a page to create new games and join others.

In the Gathering Place you can click on usernames to find out about their gaming records, add them to your Friends list, mute their chat, or send them a Kudos. If you want to see their full profile click on the Find Users link on the left sidebar of the main site.

If you want to play a game alone, enter the Gathering Place, create a game and just set the number of players that you want, start the game alone and the server will provide you with computer opponents to fill out the table.

Q. HOW AM I RANKED?

The system is fairly simple.  Points are given for winning games and lost for losing, and points translate to level titles. Experience point rewards/penalties are increased or decreased when there are more players and/or experience level differentials. In addition, there are a variety of bonuses for milestone numbers of games or particular game achievements.

Once you achieve an experience level, you cannot drop in level or lose experience points below the minimum for your current level. For full details about the ranking system, visit the Ranking System/Experience Points page for the full details. Also, computer players do not count towards experience points.

Q. IF A GAME IS IN "BETA," WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

When a game at GTO gets to a playable, but not perfect, state, games are presented to the public as "beta" games, as in beta testing. GameTable Online users have access to play beta games, but should know that beta games can encounter game halting “bugs.” Because of this, experience points and stats earned during beta-testing are often deleted when a beta game "goes live." Still, it's a chance to try the game out new games for free and help out by reporting bugs you find along the way.

Q. HOW DO I REPORT A BUG?

"Bug" is a general term for an error in programming that can range from a particular game situation halting, incorrect enforcement of rules, or something as simple as a spelling error in game prompts. We appreciate your critical eyes and welcome your input.

If you encounter a bug during game play, you can file a bug report via the Game Options Menu, which is reachable by clicking the GameTable Online or computer icon at the bottom of an active game window. Fill in the appropriate fields and it will be sent to us along with copy of the game chat, which can be helpful in describing the problems.

Enhancements or suggestions are encouraged on the forum board of the corresponding game. These boards are great places to read about existing bugs as well as play tips and tactics. If none of these avenues suit you, you are always welcome to describe your bug to us at support@gametableonline.com.

Q. WHAT IS A SURRENDER? WHAT IS AN ABORTED GAME?

One of the stats that you see on your Gathering Place Profile is Surrender. This is essentially the number of times that you left a game before it has ended. When you do this you are automatically forfeiting the game so you get both a surrender and a loss.

Axis & Allies does things a little differently. If you leave a game during turns 1-3 it works like we explained above. From turn 4 on you can leave the game and only get a loss (no surrender) because it is assumed that it is possible that at this point in the game the winner may be a forgone conclusion.

In games where the server has halted progress of the game, you can chose to Abort the game. This will poll the other players that the game has made and error that ends play. If all players agree to Abort the game, the game will be cancelled with no effect to anyone's stats. Both Abort and Surrender Game/Leave Game can be found on Game Options Menu, which is reachable by clicking the GameTable Online or computer icon at the bottom of an active game window.

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