advice for a novice european player

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Thisismich
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advice for a novice european player

Post by Thisismich » Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:56 pm

Hi everyone,
I\'m a new member of the forum, My name is Michele and I write from Italy. Although I knew about Mahjong (the real game, not the matching tiles game) a \"long\" time ago and I kinda knew the rules (they are very similar to a card game we call \"Scala 40\", which is similar to Ginrummy as well) I never really tried to play until recently, and I must say I definitely love the game (especially the Modern Japanese rules).
Unfortunately in my country one has not many options to play mahjong: you either live near the cities in which there is one of the few clubs where you can play or you have to teach friends or you have to play online. As you would have already guessed I only got the last option :(
I can\'t even put my hands on a Mahjong set since importing it would be rather expensive and the only italian company that produce(ed?) one, made it with \"slim\" tiles that had to be displayed on racks (like the Scrabble game for instance), which I higly dislike :angry:

So online is the only viable option (for now at least) for me to actually play but I\'m kinda new to the thing and I don\'t know where to play. I tried the free subscription to Mahjong Time but I can hardly ever get opponents join my room (or one of the pre-built ones) in the hours I can play (there are very few cash games running as well).

Do you have some advices for me? I read a bit about in this forum but I really couldn\'t decide.
What online site/game can you advice for a beginner, that has Riichi rules \"tables\" and is possibly free of charge? You know, being a beginner I would end up losing much and my salary isn\'t stellar either since It\'s my first job experience.

Ah, I also tried 4Winds but i think the bots are kinda easy to beat even at the expert difficulty...

Thanks in advance for any help and please forgive me for my english.
Bye.
--
Mich.

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Tom Sloper
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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Tom Sloper » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:41 am

Hi Mich.,
You can get sets from the Netherlands, at least I assume the shipping is cheaper that way. Those sets are suitable for Japanese mahjong if you don\'t mind painting your own red fives (assuming you want red fives).
If you want a Japanese set and don\'t want to paint your own red fives, check out the store here on this site.

As for online sites, Ron2.jp may not be exactly free, but it\'s not a gambling site. That\'s the site I like to play on the best. There are lots of others - just check http://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq05.htm (that\'s a list of online games on my website).
4649おねがいします。

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Thisismich » Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:33 am

Thank you for your answer Tom,
Well, I think that indeed shipping costs from Netherlands should be cheaper, I just have to browse your site a little more and try some of your billion links :lol:
I actually don\'t mind painting my own red fives IF I\'m given enough blank tiles in the set, but as for now I didn\'t find any viable and cheap set. I know that I may sound a bit demanding but for now it\'s just something I\'d like to own for myself since I don\'t have anyone to play with, so I\'m not so willing to pay a lot for it, if you know what I mean.
It\'s just that I like to own the correct equipment for the games I try and like afterwards, because I like to know \"the feeling\" of a real game.

I already tried to reach mahjongmart site (actually before knowing of this forum) but I didn\'t find a customer support page where to look for international shipping costs so I closed the link. I\'m sorry, I\'ll try again.

As for the online games, thanks for the link. I already knew it since I\'m a reader of your weekly column when you post something related to reach mahjong. It\'s not that I don\'t want to read about american mahjong, mind you, but I tend not to learn different styles of a game at the same time in order not to confuse myself about rules and scoring (since this is an important part in mahjong) and I don\'t have the american card anyway so I don\'t know the hands you\'re referring too.
Anyway I digress, I was saying I knew about the page you linked and it\'s useful but I was trying to gather first-hand experiences from players to know if those sites were viable for me.

I take that Ron2 is good but I admit I was a little frightened by the lack of the english GUI, I know there is a guide to register and play but do you think it\'s enough? I don\'t wanna be rude to the people there not answering their eventual questions or seem a cheater because I made a mistake and wasn\'t even able to write \"gomen\" in proper japanese (I don\'t even know if that\'s possible with an IT keyboard)...

Again, thanks for your answer.
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Mich.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Barticle » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:17 pm

Hi Michele, and welcome. :)

There´s a UK website which sells a Japanese set with red fives and scoring sticks; I know they´re happy to ship worldwide too.

http://www.witzigs.co.uk/cats.asp?catid=0005

As with any seller, you should of course make sure that the set meets your exact requirements (and matches the picture!) before you order.

I´m afraid that I don´t play online so can´t offer any advice there.

Bart

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Tom Sloper » Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:28 pm

You don\'t need extra blank tiles to paint your red fives. If you want some of your fives to be red, you use existing fives and add red paint.
If you get a non-Japanese set, of course.
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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Shirluban » Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:15 pm

Welcome Michele.
Thisismich wrote:I already tried to reach mahjongmart site (actually before knowing of this forum) but I didn\'t find a customer support page where to look for international shipping costs so I closed the link. I\'m sorry, I\'ll try again.
Just click on the "Add to card" button and you will have an estimation.
Didn\'t you find the red e-mail link on the main page?
(Ok, I had to search to see it.)
Thisismich wrote:I don\'t wanna be rude to the people there not answering their eventual questions or seem a cheater because I made a mistake and wasn\'t even able to write "gomen" in proper japanese (I don\'t even know if that\'s possible with an IT keyboard)...
It\'s possible. You just need to use an Input Method Editor, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_method_editor.
If you use Windows XP or Vista, you already have one!
Go in "Configuration" > "Regional setting" > "Language" > "More..." > "Add..."
Look for the Japanese language and "Microsoft IME" keyboard configuration.
Don\'t forget to activate the "Language bar".
Image

Anyway, if you\'re not fluent in Japanese you\'d probably avoid talking in Japanese. I mean, people will answer you in the language you use (if they can), so be sure it\'s a language you can understand.

And you don\'t have to write "gomen" in proper Japanese, writing "gomen" with roman letters will be as well efficient.


For your main question, unfortunately I don\'t play online, so I can\'t help you.
Cats don't do タンヤオ (tan-yao) but タニャーオ (ta-nya-o).
World Riichi Championship Rules 2022
Comparison of riichi rules around the world

Thisismich
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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Thisismich » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:33 pm

Sorry for the time passed since my last reply but I had a hell of a week at work so I wasn\'t really in the mood of anything except reading and sleeping.

Thanks everyone for the replies, I\'ll start looking for a closer shop where to buy a MJ set as soon as i get paid from work ;)

As for the keyboard tips, thanks Shirluban for the infos, I kinda forgot about that (and I even graduated in computer science... my oh my :S ).
I\'ll try to be more MJ active in the weeks to come and surely during the Christmas vacations, if I get any... And I\'m seriously thinking about Ron2.

I kinda hoped there were a bit more people playing online, but I guess it\'s not always sunday (as they use to say here :lol: )

Arigatou, minna.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by HotelFSR » Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:30 pm

Ron 2 is my least favorite site to play on.

I think Tenhou and JanRyuMon are better, as well as ToupaiOu.

Superior interfaces and graphics along with the same functionality for FREE. Ron 2 you have to pay for some reason.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by chalwa » Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:26 am

On ron2 you pay for that you can play with pros. And thanks to that (imho) level of players there is higher than on tenhou and toupai. From my experience, when i was beginner and started to play on ron2 i couldn\'t win many games, and menage much better on tenhou, so I would recommend it for start. Also from all the Japanese games in internet I have seen, tenhou have the most easy to use interface (and you dont have to learn too many Japanese to use it). Toupaiou gives more options, you can make tables with different rules set, and chose who you want to play with.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by HotelFSR » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:47 am

Well, the free sites tend to have high-level lobbies as well which you have to earn your way into. The challenge there is decent.

Overall though, Ron2 is probably tougher.

The best way to learn is watch replays. You can also go on Tenhou and observe live games with players rated over 2100. Look at their moves and see what they do. You\'ll improve.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by Thisismich » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:40 pm

Thank you guys for your suggestions, I\'ll surely try those on in the weeks to come.

Du you know of any english guides for those sites?

Thanks again.

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by chalwa » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:55 pm

Info about sites, and guides is in this topic: http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index. ... 8&id=48428

Guide for tenhou is here: http://arcturus.su/tenhou/

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Re:advice for a novice european player

Post by villadelfia » Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:51 pm

What is wrong with the eMahjong client? It supports riichi and is in english, only the amount of players is very lacking.

Also, I really cannot play with 5 seconds of thinking time.

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