Wine Testing and Wine and Gaming
Wine testing is an effective way to keep up your knowledge and gain new insights into pairing. Testing wines together also gives an understanding of which wines work together well – an integral component of pairing. Incorporating gaming elements is becoming an increasingly popular trend; some wine companies even employ it to educate customers while other use gamification as an incentive to keep customers coming back.
Wine has long been misunderstood by its users; some believe it acts like an emulator while others think its magical properties make up its essence. In reality, Wine serves as a compatibility layer allowing Windows programs to run on Linux and OSX systems by translating Windows system calls to POSIX-compliant ones, recreating directory structures associated with Windows systems, providing alternative implementations of DirectX library modules etc. Additionally, there is even an online database listing which Windows programs work well with Wine.
Rob Wilder and Jose Andres’ WineGame is an educational game where players take turns analyzing soil, selecting varietal grape varieties to grow, harvesting them successfully and processing. The Tetris-esque tile landscape of its virtual vineyard makes this activity all the more realistic; gamers must move vines and crops strategically to make room for production; players can trade wine between characters without incurring fees; upgraded bottles can even be upgraded without paying an upgrade fee! Such gamification has helped wine enthusiasts become familiar with their wines while creating an online sense of community that otherwise might otherwise never happen otherwise.