Launching a game brings you to that game's lobby. As boring as lobbies sound, they come in real handy for the following stuff:
窶｢ Game Initiations. From a game's lobby, you can see who's playing. Better yet, you can find out who's not playing and invite them to a match.
窶｢ Public Chatting. A lobby chat box is shared by everyone in the lobby.
窶｢ Player Rankings. You can select people from the lobby and find out their ranking for that game. For the big picture, check out the Halls of Fame.
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The game lobbies for Hearts and Spaceward Ho! are especially neat and deserve further explanation.
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The Layout. The Waiting Area on the top left shows the people who are in the lobby but not yet playing a game. The bottom left window lists the names of different games which have been created. To find out about a game on this list, just select it, and the large area on the right will change to describe that game. This game information includes a list of players. You can double-click a player name to find out his/her/its rating.
Creating Games. To design a new game, hit the "Create..." button. You'll then choose a name for your game and customize it to your liking. When you're done, your game will appear on the game list. At this point, other people may Join your game. When everyone is ready, someone can hit the Start button, and the game will begin.
Entering Games. It is also possible to enter a game in progress. Just find a game that has at least one computer player and hit Enter. You will then take over for one of the computers. If you are playing a game, and you don't want other people entering you game, you can Lock from the lobby's menu bar.
Reconnecting to Games. If you are playing a game in which all the the players are computers, and you leave the game, the game will end. However, if you leave a game in which at least one other human is playing, a computer player will make moves for you while you are gone. That way, if you decide to come back, your place will have been saved. (See, computers aren't all bad.)
