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BGonline.org Forums
Backgammon's popularity - a call to the ABT and USBGF
Posted By: Rod In Response To: I've changed my mind (Bill Calton)
Date: Thursday, 10 October 2013, at 7:47 p.m.
Backgammon declined in popularity as it became clear that there was more skill involved and as that skill difference became quantifiable.
This happened in 2 ways. The first was bot analysis - a quick method. The second was through money exchanging hands over a longer period of time.
I think that the popularity of backgammon is very ill-served by recording and making available more than a select few matches during any short period of time.
If all of every player's matches are made available it may drive out many of the open players, let alone make it difficult to attract new players. Ideas for bringing new players into backgammon will be more difficult to implement and reviving the magical 70's and 80's will be near impossible.
I play with a wide-range of players. All but the elite want to know that they have just as much chance to win as the next guy with a "good" understanding of the game and years of play.
Why, why, why are we so intent on appeasing 200 or so players for the long-term interest of the game? Backgammon is not chess! Sure, we know that backgammon is a game where skill ultimately (might be a long while) prevails. But for the vast majority of people, people we hope to bring into backgammon and develop into better players, backgammon is a game of lots of luck mixed with knowing some stuff.
I think this move to have streaming of many of the matches, rather than just the semis and finals is going to hurt backgammon's prospects. We all already know that Matt and Petko play around a _. We all know that Victor, Steve Sax and Neil play around _. We know that Alfred plays a touch higher than that. We now have an ELO system. Let it do its job.
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