I am a free online games addict. Card Games, especially Spades, are my favorites.

Yahoo Games website is the most incredible online gaming site I have come across. My earliest introduction to the internet was of course through Hotmail. It was amazing to be able to send a message across the seven seas in a few seconds and get a reply too, esp. when phone calls were so damn expensive.

Then I happened to stumble upon Yahoo. And as there was not really much to do at college other than studying (in a residential b-school being the only married person in class, keeps you kind of lonely) I came across online games. Yahoo Games then was not the hyper cool version it is now. And there were not really many people online. I started with Literatti (as that was the least hedonistic way of wasting time!) and made some of my closest friends online at Yahoo Games.

After I left college I was busy for a couple of years. Then I had to leave my job. That was the time I really became a Yahoo Games junkie! I again started with Literatti, but that required too much of effort and thought. I played Chinese Checkers (do try it, its lovely) and then Hearts, before I finally settled with Spades. By then the gaming industry had evolved beyond recognition. No one played the Prince of Persia, GP (I have still not been able to find it online) or Mario or even Doom. Gaming scared me, joysticks fuddled me and those buttons and the remotes completely puzzled me. So I stuck to Yahoo Games. It was simple. We were a community. I played in the afternoon with old foggies whose girlfriends had left them or new mothers just taking a break.

I played on and off during jobs and almost full time when I was out of it! It was an addiction and there was always somebody playing when I wanted to, a community of strangers I could share any problem with.

Then something happened. Last September, I was introduced to blogs. I have played maybe 10 games of Spades since and my ratings have taken a dunking. My old friends are not there when I go back to the Yahoo Games. I have become a blog addict and more over making money via blogs has re-inforced that addiction!

So I have switched one addiction with another...and making money in the process so very much legalises my net addiction!