Will you make a Mint or lose your shirt? Rules 1. There is no element of skill in this game. Everything is chance, just like real e-commerce 2. Your business starts at the `break-even point': five steps away from debtor's prison, and a ninetyfive away from making a Mint 3. Click `Throw' to throw the die. 4. You will move left-to-right and up the board. If you land on a snake's head, you will slide down. If you land on the foot of a ladder you will climb up. These moves represent the vagaries of fortune in the e-commerce world. 5. If you get to the final square, you win. If you end up back at square one, you lose.

`E-commerce snakes & ladders' is a demonstration of how Java applets can be used to provide real interactivity in a Web page. Although this example is a silly one, it's based on a `real' program that I developed for a firm of solicitors. The intention of that program was to demonstrate the pitfalls and benefits of commercial property conveyancing law. The `board game' metaphor is an interesting way of doing this.

©1994-2003 Kevin Boone, all rights reserved