Imagine that you were asked to play football for your country in an important international match that was being televised to a global audience and when the referee blew his whistle to start the game, you admitted to your captain, that you did not know the rules of football, in fact that you had never played the game before, but that you had played pool a couple of times.

How do you think that you, your captain, your team mates and the whole viewing audience would feel? Embarrassed, annoyed, upset, let down? This is how lots of novices (newbies) think about going into a colossal, online, interactive multi-player game like ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ for the first time. They are worried that they will spoil the game for everybody else.

Online gaming is highly popular. It is normally free and sometimes there are spot prizes, monthly prizes or best of league prizes. However, prizes do not make a bad game good. Most players of computer games have a couple of games that they paid for, have a few free online games that came bundled with the computer and know a few free online gaming sites.

The best of the online games are not free or have a free version that has restricted functionality. The best online games allow hundreds or even thousands of people from anywhere in the world to have fun at the same time.

Most of these games are RPG or ‘role playing games’ that take place in VR or ‘virtual reality’. They normally involve the player taking on a virtual identity.

They are a long distance removed from playing chess with your mum or dad, although like chess, if you lose your virtual life, you can reset the game and start again. Not that you have to play adventure games, as they are called. You can also play traditional games like chess, draughts, bridge and poker live on line as well.