10 Years of Mahjong Then and Now
November "officially" marks my tenth year of mahjong. What does this mean? Nothing really, other than I can compare riichi mahjong in 2009 vs 2019. Ten is a round number; and we humans tend to point to things like that. Here, I shall highlight some comparisons of then vs now.
Discord did not even exist, and the main chat communication was IRC. The old channel, #mahjong, is still there but very inactive. We gathered here centered around the Osamuko blog. Naturally, Discord became rather popular, and a migration occurred. As a side effect, numerous Discord servers exist for mahjong.
The number of clubs across the North American continent was countable with one hand. Now, a whole bunch of clubs have sprouted since then, each with their own collection of mahjong and non-mahjong related talent. That talent pooled right into the riichi community. In 2010, I was lucky enough to find Chicago Area Mahjong via seeing Anime Central's club listing. From there, it's history. Alongside this growth, multiple opportunities for tournament play is available, and people have been willing to travel for it.
Professional mahjong had its most interesting development in the MLeague. Prior to that, all the major organizations in Japan functioned independently and separately with their own leagues and rules. Now, a platform for players to be paid to play mahjong, as opposed to the opposite is available. Personally, I regard MLeague now as the top level mahjong due to that fact.
Let's not forget the World Riichi Championship, which actually grants access for Western players access to direct competition with the professional players. So far, player levels among the professional players are several levels above Western players. As the Western player base grows, the Western player levels will increase as well.
Western content was very limited when I first started. In general, I'm a self-taught player; and any material was found to be confusing. The Wiki was opened up in 2013. As a Wikipedia contributor, I went about to produce most of the organization and content with the help of others. Plus, many written and video works are created, providing new players of today with plenty of material to reference.
In Tenhou ranking, the general "top dog" was marked at 5dan among Western circles. Since then, players have improved enough to get into houou, and more of them climbed within the past 2 years. So the bar moved along with it. As far as Tenhou itself, it went through its changes as Tsuno responded to news of Flash becoming obsolete. Even now, I still use Tenhou Flash on my main account. Transitioning to the web version won't be a problem because the app is identical.
Speaking of Tenhou, other platforms existed. Pairon and Janryumon come to mind; and sadly, they failed on their own accords. Pairon tried to the whole mahjong and anime girl combination. After playing one game over there, I never looked back because the interface was ridiculously slow. Janryumon became rather popular; however, it killed itself upon implementing a pay-to-play model. As a consequence, the player base abandoned it. Now we have the likes of SegaMJ and Majsoul among others.
Finally, a number of people came and went through the mahjong. This is the natural flow regarding any kind of community. No one is expected to stick around forever. Yet a number of us choose to do so. As always, people have their lives to live.
Together, we've come a long way to be where we are now. What will the next 10 years show? We shall see by 2029.
Discord did not even exist, and the main chat communication was IRC. The old channel, #mahjong, is still there but very inactive. We gathered here centered around the Osamuko blog. Naturally, Discord became rather popular, and a migration occurred. As a side effect, numerous Discord servers exist for mahjong.
The number of clubs across the North American continent was countable with one hand. Now, a whole bunch of clubs have sprouted since then, each with their own collection of mahjong and non-mahjong related talent. That talent pooled right into the riichi community. In 2010, I was lucky enough to find Chicago Area Mahjong via seeing Anime Central's club listing. From there, it's history. Alongside this growth, multiple opportunities for tournament play is available, and people have been willing to travel for it.
Professional mahjong had its most interesting development in the MLeague. Prior to that, all the major organizations in Japan functioned independently and separately with their own leagues and rules. Now, a platform for players to be paid to play mahjong, as opposed to the opposite is available. Personally, I regard MLeague now as the top level mahjong due to that fact.
Let's not forget the World Riichi Championship, which actually grants access for Western players access to direct competition with the professional players. So far, player levels among the professional players are several levels above Western players. As the Western player base grows, the Western player levels will increase as well.
Western content was very limited when I first started. In general, I'm a self-taught player; and any material was found to be confusing. The Wiki was opened up in 2013. As a Wikipedia contributor, I went about to produce most of the organization and content with the help of others. Plus, many written and video works are created, providing new players of today with plenty of material to reference.
In Tenhou ranking, the general "top dog" was marked at 5dan among Western circles. Since then, players have improved enough to get into houou, and more of them climbed within the past 2 years. So the bar moved along with it. As far as Tenhou itself, it went through its changes as Tsuno responded to news of Flash becoming obsolete. Even now, I still use Tenhou Flash on my main account. Transitioning to the web version won't be a problem because the app is identical.
Speaking of Tenhou, other platforms existed. Pairon and Janryumon come to mind; and sadly, they failed on their own accords. Pairon tried to the whole mahjong and anime girl combination. After playing one game over there, I never looked back because the interface was ridiculously slow. Janryumon became rather popular; however, it killed itself upon implementing a pay-to-play model. As a consequence, the player base abandoned it. Now we have the likes of SegaMJ and Majsoul among others.
Finally, a number of people came and went through the mahjong. This is the natural flow regarding any kind of community. No one is expected to stick around forever. Yet a number of us choose to do so. As always, people have their lives to live.
Together, we've come a long way to be where we are now. What will the next 10 years show? We shall see by 2029.
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