This Week: Competitiveness - A Cautionary Tale.

We all like to beat our friends and enemies at games - after all, a bit of healthy rivalry is a good thing. But sometimes these things can become a just a little bit too serious...

Ralph left in a foul mood shortly after 12. Never again, he told himself as he stared out of the cab window into the darkness, would he put himself through such humiliation. Never again.

He'd been beaten at everything. Twonked at ISS Evolution... Lapped at Wip3out and Colin McRae Rally... Murdered dozens of times over in Half-Life, Tekken 3 and Unreal Tournament... And for good measure, and because his friend Steve always seemed to get hold of games months before their official release, he'd also been out-manoeuvred at Disney's Magical Tetris, buried in Sled Storm and stuffed 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 at All Star Tennis 99.

He sighed. It was always the same story. Steve would thrash him at everything, and not just at computer games either. Over the years their monthly gaming sessions had incorporated everything from table tennis to chess because Steve was one of those rich kids who would be 'into something' like crazy and then become bored, moving on to something else. And poor, stupid Ralph would go along with it all.

But not any more. It was high time, he told himself, that he admitted defeat and tried to find some excuse to avoid the dreadful monthly pummelling. He didn't even like Steve, really. He'd only prolonged the agony for so long because he felt sure that one day he'd beat him at something - and that day was obviously never going to come.

The next morning, though, Ralph was scanning his newspaper over breakfast when an advert caught his eye: "Fed up with having sand kicked in your face when you play Tekken? Bored with being given the run-around at Gran Turismo? Then order Game Kid's best-selling book, How To Win At Computer Games. Not available in the shops, this superbly written, fully illustrated, step-by-step guide will enable you to confound all your friends and beat them at all the latest releases. So don't delay: order a copy now!"