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The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective

Posted By: Trunky
Date: Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 11:26 a.m.

In Response To: The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective (Bill Riles)

I completely agree and have been preparing to post on this subject myself:

Looking at the number of downloads of backgammon apps on Android, the most popular has over 5 million downloads, the next 500K+, so this is evidence that backgammon is a very popular game throughout the world?

A very frequent posting theme here is how do we get people to take up backgammon but maybe the question should be how do we reach out to existing players.

Half of the comments on the most popular app is that it cheats. I've played this app by AI Factory and it most definitely does not. In fact, it's pretty useless. This may give us a clue as to who is actually playing backgammon.

A few months ago I tried out a local backgammon group where they enthusiastically played for fun, however they were very hazy on the rules (they thought that the opening roll was optional and if they didn't like the dice they could roll again) and they only had a basic idea of strategy. No money changed hands and the doubling dice wasn't used. One person out of the twenty there seemed keen to improve. I gave him lots of web addresses that I found useful myself, but most seemed happy to continue as they were.

So how do we grow backgammon? Maybe we need to do more to get the app and occasional players out into live events tailored to their level of play, where they can see that backgammon is a fun and social game. A few will be interested in getting better and we need to be able to point them in the right direction without treating them like fish.

Messages In This Thread

• The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
  Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 12:21 a.m.
  • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
    Trunky -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 11:26 a.m.
    • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
      Fatboy -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 7:37 p.m.
      • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
        Stick -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 10:58 p.m.
  • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
    rew -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 11:49 a.m.
    • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
      Bill Patterson -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 2:07 p.m.
      • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
        Phil simborg -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 8:13 p.m.
      • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
        Adam Torkelson -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 9:33 p.m.
  • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
    Casper Van der Tak -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 2:35 p.m.
  • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
    Perry Gartner -- Tuesday, 19 May 2015, at 11:11 p.m.
    • Finally someone is addressing the issue
      Chuck Bower -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 12:17 a.m.
      • Finally someone is addressing the issue
        Robert Wachtel -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 3:15 p.m.
      • Finally someone is addressing the issue
        Fatboy -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 7:22 p.m.
      • Finally someone is addressing the issue
        Casper Van der Tak -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 10:02 p.m.
    • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
      rew -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 5:31 a.m.
      • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
        Stick -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 5:59 a.m.
        • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
          Fatboy -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 7:23 p.m.
      • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
        Fatboy -- Wednesday, 20 May 2015, at 7:15 p.m.
  • The Resurgence of Backgammon -- Another Perspective
    Frank Berger -- Sunday, 24 May 2015, at 9:23 a.m.