MSN Backgammon

Your first impression when trying to play backgammon on MSN may be a deep sense of being annoyed. You could not play here unless you first established a hotmail account. In retrospect this makes a certain amount of sense, seeing as you can't play on Yahoo without your username and password, but still it can be a bit vexing. Most of us are geared towards instant gratification, and the time to set up a hotmail account we would prefer to spend on playing.

MSN Gaming Zone uses flash technology. What this means to the player is that it will take a few minutes to download and play. Some people would prefer if the site just used Java, which allows to start the game faster. While the download is going, you are treated to a number of advertisements.

Once the game is downloaded and play begins, you will see that the graphics are pretty pleasant. It is simple 2D instead of the more impressive 3D, but still is attractive. They did include a nice chat function for those who like to participate in witty banter with their opponent during a game. And of course playing on a site like MSN eliminates the problem to find the mates to play with.

Overall, like almost anything in life, playing backgammon on MSN has its advantages and disadvantages. If you find the hits to be dominant over the misses, MSN Gaming Zone could be a nice place to enjoy backgammon as well as other games.