adobe shockwave player

today i tried to play an online game that i need adobe flash player and adobe shockwave player for. it wouldn't load or do anything so i figured i needed to update. so i went and installed adobe shockwave and it tells me that i need to relaunch snow leopard in 32-bit mode for it to work. when i go to adobe to see if it's installed the little movie doesn't play.

is this a good idea? can i just have it run the shockwave player in 32bit mode but nothing else?

i also have firefox and tried to play the same game. it loads almost all the way but never fully connects.

i have no idea what to do.