Microsoft Windows 7 Online Spades Game

I find it relaxing to play cards online.  It sort of shuts out other worries from your head before bed.  Solitaire is about as boring as it gets.  The Microsoft Spades game matches you up with players around the world to play.  It is "family friendly" I guess as all ages can play.  This  is a huge problem!  I want the kids ferretted out  and sent to their own games. 

In Spades,  you each bid on how many tricks you think you personally will take.  Your partner does the same as well as your opponents.  There are 13 tricks total.  You can also bid "Nil" to take no tricks at all.  If you take one,  there is a 100 point penalty whereas if you successfully make it,  you gain 100 points.  Then there is "double nil" where you bid before seeing your hand.  If you have more than 5 spades, which are trump,  an A of spades,  you cannot make a nil bid.  So it is a bid you should make only in desperation because you are about to lose.  This is how it goes however.

You start out and bid 3,  and to the left,  no response.  No one else can bid til this person responds.  Can't they take care of their needs before the game starts?  As you're about to "nudge" them after a full 90 seconds,  they bid.  Finally we can continue!  But the opponent bids double nil for a first bid!  Foolish indeed.  Your partner then bids and then the other opponent.  So the person to your left then will start with an A!  Why when they just put 200 points at stake not to take a bid?  And the family friendly responses are limited to "your turn",  "Nice try",  Nice Nil",  "good hand"  etc.  No "what the hell are you doing? " No "how rude to now leave after you ruined the game for me?"

I call these people the saboteurs. They will have their partner bid 5 and then bid 13!!   Their partner bid first and of course it's impossible to take 18 tricks out of 13.  Of course when you play online,  you may have to let the dog out,  go potty yourself,  or open the door for someone.  You have a choice of saying "I'll be right back" and also to put it on automatic play.  But over and over,  you sit there 90 seconds until you can "nudge" or kick the player off.  Then often the next person does the same!  You want to say "How Rude of you! Why the hell don't you use the automatic play feature?"  But you cannot.  You can only say "It's your turn". 

Supposedly there are three levels of players" beginners,  intermediate and expert.  However every time you leave a game because of one long delay after the other,  it counts as a loss.  There is no information anywhere on what you need to do to move to the intermediate level.  There seems to be no penalty for those who start games only to immediately leave you hanging.  They don't even click off,  they leave the game open and other players waiting until they can boot the person off.

When a person is booted off or leaves,  they are replaced by a robot.  The game can continue even if you're playing 3 robots.  However the robots vary in ability.  Don't ask me why!  Some will bid way too much.  They don't overbid you like the kids do, but don't seem to get the knack to go after the nil bidders.  They keep laying down high cards, making it easy for the Nil bidder.

Why do I continue to go there?  When you get good players,  it is fun.  I went to the World Gaming group once and was confused by where I was supposed to go since I wasn't "ranked".  I'd go into these rooms waiting for a 4th player to be booted off without explanation.  There was nothing friendly about them.  They are not limited to a drop down menu of what to say.  I was told off once after I roundly trounced them,  because I took 1 or 2 minutes to decide how much to bid.