| |
BGonline.org Forums
The chouette of my dreams
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: The chouette of my dreams (Bob Koca)
Date: Sunday, 13 September 2009, at 1:57 p.m.
We have extras often where the two players either settle or the game ends with a cube, and at that point, one of the players with the extra (highest on the list) takes over the game.
As for the consulting vs. non-consulting, Malcolm and I have both made our case for the non-consulting in detail, and I understand why people who are used to the consulting and have played that way for years and enjoy the social aspects of the game don't like the idea of cutting down on discussion.
If you are playing backgammon for $5 a point with a bunch of friends, and all are reasonable, nice people who politely point out what they think is right, and then, if the Captain decides to make a play they don't like, they simply smile or offer a friendly bet on the play, I think a consulting chouette is a lovely thing to behold. I wouldn't want to change anything in that game.
But if you are playing for $25 or $50 a point and you have people in the game that go ballistic if you don't make their play, and they scream and argue and threaten, and if the Captain makes his play and it doesn't work, the animosity level goes to the sky, you might have a different take on this rule.
Some would argue that you simply don't let people like that in the chou, and that certainly is an option....at times it did get so bad that our daily chou stopped happening in public places so we could keep the jerks out of the game. One of the problems was also that most of the jerks were also major contributors to the cash in the game, and if that continued I might have to go back to working a real job.
But now that we have changed the rule to no consulting (until there is a 4 cube), our games move quickly forward, without argument, and those "jerks" are no longer jerks at all. Of course they are not happy when they see a move they don't like, but they don't get angry with the Captain because the Captain did not reject their play. We still take a lot of pictures and bet on positions and put them in GNU or Extremegammon to settle them, and still have plenty of fun. But we also play about twice as many games a day and have very few arguments.
Another thing has happened....instead of 4 to 6 people showing up for our chouettes, we often get 10 or 12 (as we did several times this past week) and split up into two games. We were losing people who simply got fed up with the arguing and yelling and time it took to play a game, and with the "no-insulting" rule, more people come and enjoy the game.
EVEN WITHOUT THE ARGUING, when I am Captain, I enjoy being able to make my plays without having to debate every move with someone else, EVEN IF MY PLAYS MIGHT BE WRONG. I like to play backgammon, and when 5 people have to vote on every play, I am not really playing backgammon...I am just a robot making the play that the majority votes for.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.