I know it means “good game” and (should) mirroed an opinon of the person who said it.
But i cant help but notice, its becoming a meaninless phrase
“thank you for playing” -> good game
"It was not THE great challenge for me, but I see your effort" -> good game
"I think it was a bad game from you, but I dont want to be unpolite" -> good game
"I have noticed that it is common to say something afterwards" -> good game
‘gg’ is easy for the hand, of course.
Does it mean we getting lazier?
Or
are we simply afraid of an (honest) conversation this days and using ‘gg’ as an excuse not to communicate? (swallow this compliment and shut up)
And how can I express when think it was seriously a really a good game, ‘sargg’?
Not sure that one is really possible for me. Not since I was 5 or so.
I think abbreviations like “gg” or “glhf” are just like any formal greetings. On some occasions they do mean what they are supposed to mean, on other they are mere formalities. Still, in my opinion, if one really wants to give a honest compliment/opinion after the game, one can’t go wrong using full words and, maybe, even completed sentences…
It is becoming a meaningless phrase, but that’s not unusual. Words change meaning all the time. That’s not a bad thing, that’s just how language works.
I tend to use brief “hi; gl hf” for greeting, and the longer “Thanks for the game.” for the end.
Also, go tends to be a more polite game than many where “gl hf” and “gg” and “ff” are common abbreviations. Could you even imagine go ever having the same reputation for flaming that MOBAs do? It would be incredibly difficult to attain that level of disregard for politeness. Though a start would be throwing random people who don’t know eachother into ranked rengo games. Better yet, make rengo its own rating category so people can complain to their teammate about how they’re always being dragged down by noobs like them.
Idunno. I feel like no words are ‘meaningless’ if the feeling behind them is sincere. If someone says ‘gg’ only, it can sound empty, but I often begin and end games with phrases like ‘Thank you for the game’, and I am always sincere about how I feel about a game after playing.
Would my verbose initial greeting become meaningless to you if I told you that I use a text macro in every first game with a stranger?
It’s this one, you may have seen it before if we have played each other: Hello [nickname], this is Tom in Germany :-) Good game!
… and then I insert the nickname by hand. Even the smiley is meant sincerely even though it was “typed” by my macro program.
For me it’s no problem when people use shortcuts, it’s just that I personally like to speak it out but then again I also like to socialise with the humans behind the sterile pixels that appear on my screen
Well, I’m going to be learning stenography for fun and to input text faster as soon as the necessary hardware arrives, so I’m in no place to say that shortcuts are bad.
In the beginning of the the game it has as much meaning that “Hi” would have, after the game it has same amount of meaning behind as “thanks” would have.
If you regard those as meaningless phrases, then yea, “gg” is pretty meaningless phase, if you tend to think that “hi - hello – thanks - thx” in chat window is meaningful conversation, i don’t see why “gg” would be any different
I belive it’s better than silence. I always like to thank someone for playing, but based on the outcome like to complement their play. If there isn’t any interaction the game might as well be against the machine.
BTW while I think “gg” (short or verbose) and “have fun” are really nice things to say to …
the human being who is going to be my opponent for the time of the game, and …
who will either win the game and teach me things, whether they want it or not, or
who will lose the game and teach me other things that way, whether they want it or not.
… I’m having a hard time with “good luck” because that sounds (to me) like “… and you’ll need it”. Also, in this game which is about winning and losing, why should I wish my opponent good luck? Heck, I really need it all for myself
And what I really, really like is this one of the several meanings of the Japanese o negai shimasu : "Please do your best.”
Still kinda make sense on OGS (and on the Net in general). One needs a bit of luck to avoid things like stone-placement bug or occasional auto-accept of wrong scoring
Intresting thoughts here.
I think in the beginning it is more like an “I wish” ‘good game’
But as an comment after the game it is kind of an evaluation. And ‘good’ is only one expression of it. Therefore it would become meaningless when its used to often but not meant as it.
It’s really no worse than any other greeting - in Japan go players habitually say “onegaishimasu” before playing. It seems nearly ritualistic - and for some it is meaningless, to be sure… but that doesn’t mean that one should avoid gg. As trhode mentioned earlier, one could make text macros that take one keystroke and say a bunch of things too. Is that better or worse than “gg”? Neither, I say.
I view gg as the same as a polite greeting over a board. It doesn’t mean more than “let’s have a good game” or “I had a good game”.
As for it being meaningless, I think it means that we recognize there’s another person there and that they are a person, not a bot. I usually try to chat with people, especially on longer games, but that’s just me.
Other posters have already observed that ‘gg’ is really more of a polite gesture than an evaluation of a particular game’s merit. My only additional thought is that such polite gestures are in fact desirable in a community. Go takes a long time to play, and no matter how a game turns out I am grateful to the other person who took the time to play a game with me. Go without opponents is quite dull. A sign of respect for that person’s time is absolutely appropriate whether it takes the form of ‘gg’, ‘thanks’, or ‘that was a good game.’ While I am sympathetic to sTan’s implied point that we should spend more time engaged in profound communication with one another, the reality is that many of us have lives beyond the board and struggle to make enough time for the game as it is. Under these circumstances, a sincere show of thanks is a meaningful and worthwhile gesture.
Interesting question. I avoid the whole issue by simply wishing my opponent a fun/enjoyable game at the beginning and then thanking them for playing at the end. If I think they did in fact play a good game I might say so, but I guess I tend to give my opponents the courtesy of deciding for themselves or through review how good or bad they played, whatever those terms even mean in a game like go!
but then again I also like to socialise with the humans behind the sterile pixels that appear on my screen 
