The Game of Golf Shot Online

Is Just a Shot in the Dark

By Richard J. Galasso

(page 1 of 2)

An August 2005 article in The Economist reported that more than 50 percent of Americans partake in some form of video gaming—and that number does not consist of youth only. While it is true that the gaming stronghold lies mainly with the younger population, sociologists are now beginning to see a paradigm shift. Think about it: Kids who grew up on Atari or the original Nintendo are now in their mid- to late-30s, and they have not abandoned their passion. So there is an entire generation of 30-somethings who have evolved along with the industry.

Shot Online is a golf game designed to run on a PC, with the major feature being its online capabilities. In theory, one can connect to the Shot Online network and play a few rounds of virtual golf against an innumerable amount of online adversaries. That is if you’re able to connect. I run a fairly standard Windows operating system and work with a high speed DSL modem which almost never gives me problems. But as soon as I loaded the disk and opened the program, I was forced to wait nine minutes while the system updated. Nine minutes may not seem like a lot, but in the virtual world of video gaming, I assure you that it’s a lifetime.

Once past the update, I encountered another problem: I kept getting logged off the network. My ISP was not to blame as I could still freely surf the internet without incident. However, my continual attempts to log onto the Shot Online network were denied. After about 15 minutes I decided to get some coffee. A rather auspicious start considering that I was already a half an hour into my test session and I still hadn’t seen a golf course—let alone play one.

Finally, after my caffeine break, I was able to get onto the server! If only the game was this exciting. Once I made that first breakthrough, I encountered another setback: I was asked to complete several elaborate steps to create my account. What I don’t understand is why the account is even necessary. If a person owns the software, why then can’t they just go ahead and play with it?