Chess•com reported to be looking into go

Internet Go
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Article: Chess.com launched a poker site, and it’s planning even more classic games | The Verge

Highlights:

“Our primary business model of Chess•com is a subscription, but most people play Chess•com for free,” Cheng said. “They subscribe to get unlimited access to review their games and to get unlimited puzzles, lessons, et cetera.” A reliable rating system allows players to track their improvement, potentially motivating them to pay for those premium features.

Chess•com also developed its own Elo-style rating system for Gambit. Cheng explained in an interview with The Verge that the rating system serves as the main motivator for players to improve

Chess•com is now looking to expand into even more classic games, including go, backgammon, and mahjong.

As Chess•com plans its next move, Cheng says they’re focusing on games with “both that classic durability plus the community around it,” like chess.

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That would do a lot for popularising Go in the Western world

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It might do a lot or it just might hog in the existing playerbase with the gravity of the “larger site”.

Chess dot com is not doing much in popularising poker, for example, it is just diverting players from PokerStars or wherever else, undercutting their pool of “free-to-play players which we plan to lure in our paid part of the platform”. But is that increasing the number of poker players?

We have a site here called “car.gr” that started out as a platform to sell your used car, as its name implies, without the use of pesky mediators that take a cut.

Initially it only had cars and soon after all things on wheels (motorcycles and small trucks).
Then it got too big and it added everything that moves, from bicycles to tractors and bulldozers and heavy machinery on tracks.
Then boats.
Then real estate.
Then it got into “job advertisements”.
Then anything that can be bought and sold, from soft cushions to airsoft guns.

It is now, practically, a huge online “grey market”.

Now it is promoting nothing. It specialises in nothing. It generates nothing.
It just hogs everything.

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Yes. It’s implied I don’t predict the future, merely stating my expectations. :slight_smile:

Maybe? This is posed as a rhetorical question but the answer can very well be yes.

Regardless. A bit of name dropping can do a lot for Go. Poker can hardly become even more well known.

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( Whoa! Reactions! Maybe it was worth the forum outage :sweat_smile: :slight_smile: )

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very sad news for playgo XD

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Yeah, will be really awkward for playgo to claim to be the chess dot com of Go now. But it feels like the site wasn’t going anywhere anyways given they barely grew since launch, and they didn’t seem to make much effort to bring new players into the game.

chess dot com at least has potential to market Go to their existing chess player base and bring in new players

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I am quite fond of playbots.gg

Btw their past events were very fresh and interesting.

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Dwyrin / Battsgo mused about this a little during a livestream around 2 hours 19 minutes https://youtube.com/watch?v=sgUASBIpdJU TL;DW:

  • The comparison to playgogg was also made
    • Impressive platform, but…
    • Lack of human teaching for beginner players
    • Lack of strong players
  • He also talked about his anecdotal interactions talking with chess streamers and potentially harsh deals that chess•com would hold streamers to

It really all comes down to community. I wonder what chess•com would try to do to try to get people to learn the game and play on their platform.

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