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BGonline.org Forums
Stick was right
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Stick was right (lenny)
Date: Sunday, 10 March 2013, at 9:17 a.m.
Lenny, while the thread is about clocks, my comment was meant more generally. I thought that would be clear since I have used clocks for years and am quite comfortable with them. I have never timed out, but have won a number of matches when my opponents have done so. In one instance the man timed out twice, the first time receiving a penalty, the second time losing the match.
But I don't think backgammon is "better than ever," and would be curious to see how many do think it is? I think the ambiance has changed, casual players are driven away, and I think even serious players sense that something has gone out of the game. Those who don't, I believe, weren't around to know the earlier game.
Call it the Franks Test. For those who know Paul and Mary, you know they were serious, competitive players, who devoted a major portion of their lives over the past two decades to playing backgammon. They played with clocks, will surely play with clocks again. I am fairly sure they have used baffle boxes. They play on the internet, own a bot and can do rollouts, etc. In other words they are not living in 1975. The test is this: If they walked into a backgammon tournament today, having played at home, with friends, as the relative newbies they were 20 years ago, not having had twenty years of keeping "up to speed," would they still devote the next twenty years to the game, the way they did?
I suspect not. I think Paul would shrug and say "eh?" And focus on his racquetball. Mary would likewise spend more time reading, or watching movies, or any number of other things. The game today would keep them at arm's length. And I chose Paul and Mary for this test because they are, or were, on the high end of the casual curve. The cutoff. If the game wouldn't appeal to them, it surely wouldn't appeal to the Sarges and Bobbis and Joannes, and a host of other names we Chicagoans know well. Some of them (the ones alive) still play because they have played for years, but if they were new to the game, they would never get started. The game today is meant to appeal to MCG, not to Kenny Bond. That is good for MCG, but will be be playing backgammon when he is 107 years old, like Kenny is? If Matt gives backgammon the best seven years of his life, but Kenny gives it the best seventy, either backgammon needs ten times as Matts as Kennys to keep the population stable. And while Matt has his charms ... Well, here is another test, the Peter Kalba Memorial Test. Which tournament would you rather play in: you and sixty-three MCGs, or you and sixty-three Peter Kalbas?
Again, I am not recommending any change, clockwise or otherwise. I am just pointing something out. I guess you could say that backgammon has become like chess, and there are lots of backgammon players who have no interest in chess.
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