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BGonline.org Forums
Backgammon Books - Promoting Backgammon
Posted By: W Womack In Response To: Backgammon Books - Promoting Backgammon (Michael Petch)
Date: Friday, 28 January 2011, at 4:05 a.m.
I am jumping in late here, but somehow I missed this.
Is the relatively low sales of Backgammon books really related to backgammon players not being willing to spend money on the game or is it more related to the relatively low number of somewhat serious players relative to chess or poker? The US Chess Federation claims 80,000 members, and most of those would be at least somewhat serious players that are likely to spend money on books. And I imagine that there are many, many more chess players out there buying books that are not part of USCF.
On the other hand do we have 80,000 serious backgammon players in the US? So part of the issue may be the sheer number of people playing chess vs. backgammon.
Personally I think part of this is due to people's perceptions of the two games. Almost anyone starting to play chess knows that it is a complex game and that to play at any more that a basic level will take study. I am not sure that that is the case with backgammon. I think a lot of casual backgammon players never realize the complexity of the game or the need to study to improve. They think of it as a game driven by the dice, and while they may play it with a few friends it is little more than a social game like Parcheesi or Sorry to them. Would you buy Parcheesi books?
Right now there is certainly enough free material on the web to constitute several books and to cover up to at least a book targeted at intermediate players. That would be articles and such that are at least somewhat structured, not including all of the great information that is provided in this forum and in other places. So if having free material now is not helping the game I am not sure what adding more would do to promote it.
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