January 29, 2007
Jenn's Corner #6
Ok, Ok, so my column is one day late. BUT! I have a great excuse! I was busy playing mahjong!! Not good enough? I'm sorry...
The truth is, I took off to Okinawa for the weekend. I'm back now and went to our Monday night Mahjong group as usual, yesterday I really did play Mahjong. IN OKINAWA? you ask, why yes, I played from the comfort of my resort hotel room. Not only that, I played with Garthe in Tokyo, Gem in Taipei, and dbos in Toronto. We were also joined by Doug in Yamagata and Walter in Montreal!
Yes! It's true! In the age of the internet, anything is possible, even playing Mahjong online with friends all over the world! So let me introduce you to the wonderful world of Internet Mahjong!
While there is tons of software out there that lets you play with others, a quick internet search will initially offer you Mahjong Solitaire (also commonly known as Taipei or Shanghai). That's ok if you aren't used to the tiles yet, but why play by yourself when there are a world of opponents out there?? Dig a little deeper and you'll find games like Mahjong Time, Four Winds, and Mahjong Club. The problem with these, which you will find after playing for a few minutes, is the lack of functions, people and speed. That is not true of all English internet Mahjong games,
but the fact is that Mahjong is still finding it's place outside of Asia and things are moving slowly. The other option, is powering through an online game in an Asian language. That can be scary, but when there are good friends like us to play with, a little risk might be worth it.
To find the right Online Mahjong game for you, you need to decide what your priorities are. Do you want to bet money? First make sure it is legal where you live. Do you want to play with Reach Mahjong rules or with Chinese Official rules or with Hong Kong rules or with... the possibilities go on and on. Is it important that you can speak the common language of the software, or is it enough if you know what each button does? Do you want to play with people of your same skill level, or do you just want to meet other Mahjong players? Do you want events or just quick games?
So now let's talk about what we were doing on Sunday (morning for us, Saturday night for the Canadians). Garthe and I were coincidentally playing Ron2 (see our review) when we saw "dbos" watching Garthe play. It didn't take us long to set up our own table and soon Gem was online too! After that Garthe invited a friend and later Walter just happened to waltz in. Ron2 is definitely a happening place, and it's not even translated into English yet! Since Ron2 allows you to put password locks on tables that you make yourself, we were able to play to our hearts content without having to switch seats out with strangers (it's easy to play with strangers on Ron2 too). On full memberships game records are saved and had we desired, we would be able to set up a chat room to discuss the moves made in each game.
This is the system that Garthe and I play on regularly and will continue playing on it. The best part is that we are working on an English translation of the software! It is coming along quite nicely and should be ready for non-Japanese-speaking players sometime soon. Once it is up and running, it will definitely be the only Online Mahjong game we will be able to recommend to you. While there is no gambling option, there is absolutely no better place to improve your skills.
While our link for the registration process doesn't work yet, if you are able to somehow sign yourself up for a free membership, I definitely hope that you would. If enough reader's get on Ron2, we can have some practice and discussion sessions hosted by... You got it!! Garthe and Jenn. I'm sure Gem would show up from time to time too (or maybe everytime!). In the meantime, wait for the translation and maybe you could practice on Mahjong Club or somewhere... Or, get your tiles out yourself! We can't wait to see you there!
9 comments:
That was fun on Saturday! In any case, a few tips that were giving me a hard time when using google translate to make my account:
The first box on the signup is last name, the second box is first name. My Japanese friend said for people like me (I guess people without Japanese names?) the 3rd and 4th boxes are the same and should be filled in as such (last name and first name). His words were "don't ask..." when he was explaining.
no free e-mail addresses (gmail etc). Note that the translate services I used didn't translate the fields as "e-mail address" but the fact that its a one line field asking for an address should be a giveaway, as well as them asking twice.
they will send you an e-mail (in japanese). hopefully your non-free e-mail address can handle this. mine couldnt so i forwarded the e-mail to my gmail which was able to show the japanese characters. I also had to choose Japanese as the character set. I was lucky my university e-mail address could do that.
If you translate this e-mail (using google translate or babelfish, once you have it in Japanese) you will see the user id they assigned you somewhere. Your password is the same as you signed up with.
Sign in and you'll be on your way! The buttons aren't very challenging. The ranked games are on the first tab. The blue button above all the games on the list is the button to queue up for a game. I don't know why, but at first I couldn't do this. Perhaps it requires a couple of days before they allow it or something. The tab with the "F" is free games that are just for fun. This is where Jenn, Garthe, Walter, Gemma and I were playing the games just to familiarize with the interface.
The most important buttons to know other than that are on the table screen. From bottom left to right they are (as best I understand):
Toggleable:
1) Show dead-wall tiles
2) Auto-win (when in tenpai use it to make sure you don't
3) This one prevents it from waiting for you to decide if you want to pick up. I guess this could be useful if you were in a hopeless situation where there are no ways to complete your hand and you just want to stay in tenpai for the tie-points. Theres probably a better reason for this button I don't know.
Situational (4-7): I actually don't know what these ones do specifically, but they only light up when you can do them, so it should be pretty obvious when the time comes (they do stuff like "dead hand", "declare concealed kong", and perhaps some limit hands (not sure).
Leave game (9)
Hope that might help someone get on! glhf
A few things I forgot.
The last box where you choose one of two options I believe is the disclaimer option. Get someone who can read Japanese to read it to you and then click on option on the right.
The first radio box was male/female.
"The blue button above all the games on the list is the button to queue up for a game." I guess I should elaborate on this because for some it will be greyed out (and hence, not blue). The button to which I refer is directly to the right of the little graphic with people queue-ing up.
The hardest part is really getting the address part down I suppose. I had a Japanese friend help me with that and he let me use his address too. I'm sure you can figure out this little obstacle ;)
Last Saturday (I think it was my Sunday morning...) was great fun! I hope we can do it again soon! I would highly recommend Ron2 as well - It's a great place to practice and, as we discovered, meet up with your friends!
Can't wait for the English translation!
ps. of course I'll turn up to discussion sessions too! =p
It could be interesting, I guest... I guest I'll try it this week-end. Is it a web application or you have to download an application from the web site?
its a web application
I was able to sign up (for the free account) and I see the little guys queuing up but neither of the buttons lights up in blue. Is there something else I need to do to get in on the game?
As a free member, I believe that you may only play in Free Battle games so you would not be able to enter the que...
I'm hurrying with the translation!!
I am anxiously awaiting the english translation. It is sometimes difficult to find people wanting to play japanese modern on mahjong time so a dedicated site for reach mahjong is very exciting. I got to play my first game with my new set yesterday. It went over well with my wife and parents. I printed up cheat sheets of the characters off of the site and we didn't play for score since they had never played before and I still dont quite know how to calculate score. They all want to play again. My mom did not want to stop playing!
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