Game Hearts Msn' title='Game Hearts Msn' />MSN Games Wikipedia. MSN Games also known as Zone. The Village, Internet Gaming Zone, MSN Gaming Zone, and MSN Games by Zone. PC download games. Games are available in free on line versions, trial versions, and full feature pay to play versions. MSN Games is a part of Microsoft Studios, a sister of the MSN portal, and is owned by Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington. HistoryeditThe first version of the site, which was then called The Village, was founded by Kevin Binkley, Ted Griggs, and Hoon Im. In 1. 99. 6, Steve Murch, a then employee of Microsoft, convinced Bill Gates to acquire the small online game site, then owned by Electric Gravity. The site was rebranded to Internet Gaming Zone and launched in 1. It started with a handful of card and board games like Hearts, Spades, Checkers, Backgammon, and Bridge. For the following 5 years, the Internet Gaming Zone would be renamed several times and would increase in popularity with the introduction of popular retail and MMORPG games, such as Ultra. Corps, Age of Empires, Asherons Call and Fighter Ace. CompetitorseditThe Zones first competitors were AOLs Games. Mplayer. com and Segas Heat. Formerly, the site competed with other similar free game sites, such as Yahoo Games and msngames. VolunteerseditMSNs competition with AOL Games resulted in the creation of a Volunteer Program for the Zone, which AOL also offered. Garmin Bluechart Cd there. The idea was to have volunteers moderating chat lobbies, hosting tourneys, offering tech support, and interacting with the gamers to collect general feedback. Shoot the Moon with other players or against the computer in this popular card game The college basketball world mourned the loss of a legendary figure Monday when former Michigan State Spartans coach Jud Heathcote passed away at age 90. Heathcote. Find latest news coverage of breaking news events, trending topics, and compelling articles, photos and videos of US and international news stories. Find news, interviews, reviews, photos, video and more from your favorite artists on MSN Music. These are Bollywoods 16 highest paid actors in 2015 As 2015 comes to an end, we take a look at the highest paid actors in Bollywood and what makes them worth the. Game Hearts Msn' title='Game Hearts Msn' />Kit Harington is set to tie the knot with his former Game of Thrones costar, it emerged last night. The actor, who plays Jon Snow in the hit HBO series, popped the. Volunteer Moderators for the Zone were initially designated as members of the Zone Team, or z. Team, with assorted tokens assigned to five different teams the Gaming Team, Helproom Team, Tournament Hosting Team, z. Star Team, and Tech Support Team. Because of legal complexities when AOL was sued by their volunteersand the volunteers won the caseMSN Games reformed their policy by contracting a third party company to manage the program. In 2. 00. 1, Participate Systems won the contract and would continue to lead the program until its official disbanding. During the volunteer programs conversion to its new management, all previous token designations were replaced with a single token and a new name, the Member Plus, or MPlus program. Participate Systems was acquired by Outstart. November 2. 00. 4. The Zone sanctioned a number of independent groups to operate tournaments on the Zone, subject to the groups retaining a tokened tournament director and obeying the Zone Code of Conduct. Groups operatedgames in a number of games, including backgammon, cribbage, chess, hearts, and others. Some of these groups for example RTW Onlines Thunder and Mr. Fixit. Onlines Smackdown series of tournaments in the Age of Empires series of games created an intense following, and the associated intercine rivalries. A few, such as Gammon. Zone and Warpgammon backgammon and Pegging Pals cribbage even survived the demise of the Zone and migrated to other servers. Citing MSNs statement regarding the closure of CD ROM games on the Zone on June 1. Member Plus program was also disbanded at that time, due to the removal of chat capabilities from game lobbies and the end of support for the Zone. Friends client. SetbackseditIn 2. Crackers, script kiddies for the most part, targeted the Zone software. In 2. 00. 4, the worst crack attack occurred through the use of social engineering, giving the intruders access to the administrator tools. The intruders used their new found tools to ban players and other site volunteers. After the dot com boom, web sites claimed difficulties managing their finances. MSN Games changed its market strategy and left the retail market to focus solely on free and premium games, a decision that finally culminated in their decision to retire support for CD ROM games and lobbies on June 1. As a free site, the Zone was the subject of extensive benign neglect by Microsoft. Users identified a myriad of serious problems with the site for example, one player demonstrated an ability to actually manipulate the dice in backgammon, but MSN would wait years or never address these vulnerabilities. Specialized programs, including the Fighter Ace and Allegiance teams disbanded during the Zones transition to the Member Plus program, due primarily to the planned retirement of their associated games. Personalities such as Bill Gates and his friend, Warren Buffett, have played bridge on the Zone. Garry Kasparov, chess champion, played in a chess game organized by Microsoft. World champion Alex Moiseyev and grandmaster Tim Laverty also played checkers on Zone. The Sheik of The United Arab Emirates invited a few backgammonplayers from the Zone to play in his 2nd annual Abu Dhabi Backgammon Championship. Many of the Giants of Backgammon top 3. Zone tournaments, including Neil Kazaross, Johannes Levermann, Steve Sax, Howard Ring, Paul Weaver, Kit Woolsey, and Bill Robertie. MSN Games is credited for assisting with the introduction of new games on Windows Live Messenger formerly called MSN Messenger and the development of Xbox Live Arcade. Writer Dorothy Rosencrans wrote a book about her experiences at MSN Games and her encounter with Bill Gates. MSN Games is credited with renaming Diamond. Mine to Bejeweled, which is one of the most popular casual games of all time. Members Plus originally utilized a Microsoft authored program called Zone. Commander to access lobbies directly, bypassing web pages. This was later replaced by Zone. Orchestrator, a program written by two Members Plus which improved upon Zone. Commander by adding chat monitoring facilities and an enhanced user interface. Some years later, Zone. Commander was retired in favor of Zone. Orchestrator, which became the official tool of choice and remained so until the lobbies closed on June 1. Controversyedit. MSN Gaming Zone circa 2. MSN Games announced in early 2. CD ROM games, chat lobbies, the Zone. Friends client and the Member Plus program, scheduled for June 1. June 1. 9, 2. 00. CD ROM matchmaking service, along with the original versions of several classic card and board games Classic Backgammon, Bridge, Classic Checkers, Chess, Cribbage, Euchre, Go, Classic Hearts, Reversi, and Spades. Well be sad to see them goThese games are like old friends they gave us our start, and helped us grow from an innovative little entertainment site to a truly stellar online gaming experience. But over the years, its become more and more difficult to maintain the aging hardware and software that supports them. We held out absolutely as long as we could, but it was finally time to make that decision. In a series of public chats held with various administrators and developers of the Zone, MSN outlined its plan to shift its gaming environment into Windows Live Messenger, a more frequently updated client than the outdated Zone. Friends messenger used on the Zone. However, due primarily to MSNs inability to provide a timeframe for the expected replacement of chat lobbies, tournaments, and its Member Plus volunteer moderator program, thousands of players appeared at each session to express their discontent, and began an online petition in an attempt to stop MSNs scheduled changes. As with previous changes, however, MSN has continued to stand firm in its commitment to the retirement of its services, citing outdated hardware and lack of economic viability for the old products.