Had never thought of it this way. It makes sense, although I do feel like I’m wasting my opponent’s time when I keep playing a lost game (and it looks like I’m hoping that he will make some kind of stupid mistake). Perhaps asking the opponent whether he is okay continuing the game or not? Chances are he will actually be glad you asked and enjoy playing it to end…
Hey look guys, it’s a butthurt Baby Boomer/GenXer trying to gaslight millennials again. Let’s ignore the fact that his generation is the one who actually are the helicopter parents causing most of these issues. Let’s ignore the fact that they handed us a ruined economy. Let’s ignore the fact that those participation trophies weren’t to make the kids feel better, but because his generation simply couldn’t handle the fact that their child was not, in fact, the next Michael Jordan or Eli Manning.
Yes, let’s ignore all that and focus on the facts that the millennial generation is causing severe consternation for older generations because they are working too hard and not taking enough time off. Or perhaps the fact that, because millennials are so interconnected, we share a much higher empathy and understanding for those different from us. As history has demonstrated time and time again, the more familiar you are with those different from you, the less irrational fear you have of them. Oh, and we should focus on the fact that, more so than any other recent generation, millennials score highest in innovation and productivity, and by-and-large share the common belief that quality of life can be directly improved by our actions.
I’m on the older side of millennials, so technically not in the “snowflake” generation you’re referring to, but that term is a steaming pile of crap anyway. I presume you’re referring to the whole “I’m offended” thing that’s getting so much press nowadays. I’ll be the first to admit that there are times it gets out of hand and taken too far, but in general, it’s less on the “I’m personally offended by what you said” side and more “based on the flippancy with which you dismissed a very real problem faced by tens of thousands of people, I find your viewpoint egregiously ignorant and immoral.”
Plus, let’s not forget that it’s way more common to see a baby boomer losing it over the fact that their coupon isn’t valid, or a GenXer over the fact that Starbucks decided to make their cups f***ing red in December. Who’s really the sensitive ones?
</rant>
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Resign or end? Not important. Throw my opinion on the pile, I guess:
- Stop focusing on losses and wins. Did you play well, learn something, and may be even have fun?
- Focus on the quality of play. Focus on intentions, purpose, and a goal.
- Review your games, contrasting what your expectations were with what became reality. Wins don’t mean “good” play. (talking to you, sandbaggers). A game that you won by 50 points may have seen very bad moves (by you). A game you lost by 50 points may have been your best game yet.
- Have someone review your games, whether you have lost or won. You may have lost your previous game, but guaranteed there were some great and shitty moves made by both you and your opponent. Learn from these.
- If you are winning a game, whether your opponent is cognizant of this or not, have humility and let them decide how to finish it. You’re already winning. Stop complaining.
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I resign only when I died somewhere or something, so there’s a strong end of the game. But if it was a calm game (even if I lose by a lot) I see small point in resigning out of nowhere. And it’s really not that sad if you lost just by points. On the other hand if your opponent killed you, you feel the pain of your dead group, so it’s hard to play to the end when the dead group stares you in the eyes the whole time reminding of your mistakes.
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Looks like you personally? LOL!
Nice rant.
Can you elaborate on this. I have seen this mentioned countless times but never with an explanation.
BTW, your 3) made it even more confusing 
I cannot speak in place of majamin, but I understand what he says…
To me, a “good” game is not a game I win by 50+ points, but a game where I have a long term plan, I stick to it and play the best moves I can find that suit that plan. And maybe moves that are even slightly “above my level”.
That is a game I really consider “good”, and I think it’s what majamin means when he says to focus on the “quality of play”.
Maybe my plan is not the best, but then here comes the important point number 3 he mentioned: review your games, and if you can get some help from stronger players, then it’s even better.
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@ema thanks I think that sums it up nicely.
@myAccount quality of play means that every move is intentional and has a rationale. Of course, this will look different for a 20 kyu, a 1 dan, etc.
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If you lost, your quality obviously sucked especially if it was even game.
if I win, it was a good game, if I lost it was obviously garbage. Very simple.
quality of play means that every move is intentional and has a rationale.
Right… maybe If you play in dan level.
Sorry but you are wrong here, You can win but have played horribly but you won simply because your opponent played worse, you can also lose while playing your best game ever.
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@ifnotmaybe it is never this simple. You will never improve with this type of black and white thinking.
Your moves will have quality, if you make them based on reasoned, thoughtful choices, regardless of rank or skill. Like a scientific theory, your moves must be based on reasoning that is adjustable and tentative. These choices may be based on very rudimentary reasoning if you are just beginning to learn the game; yet, it is the only way to progress. In the future, you will have opportunities to adjust, clarify, improve, or completely scrap your underlying justifications (you may or may not capitalize on these, depending on what you do inter- and post-game).
Playing an opponent who is much stronger than you does not nullify nor degrade the quality of your moves. Unfortunately, what you will see is a catastrophic challenge to most of your hypotheses and ideas on a board-wide scale. Indeed, if you play someone who is much stronger the only risk is that you walk away with no way to understand how to adapt and improve your reasoning skills.
The sweet spot, for me, is playing someone who is 2 or 3 stones stronger. That way, the reasoning behind my moves can be “gently” challenged; enough for me to notice “what went wrong”.
Do you want to get strong? Lose more than you win and commit to focusing on the quality and reasoning of every move. And wear this like a badge of honour. If you lost a game: good! Because, after a game you’ve won, you’re more likely to walk away thinking that “you’re hot stuff”, and you’ll never look back to use the moves you’ve made to adjust your reasoning and hypotheses behind your decision making.
This has nothing to do with the original OP (sorry @osoriojuanca), but here it is anyway.
M.
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I think it should only make a difference when your opponent is completely new. I had an opponent keep trying to live in my territory, and then fill his repeatedly and lower his score. For goodness sake, why couldn’t he just Pass and count the score already!
I gave up on that “improve” BS. Looks like I am stuck in this 17-15 range for the rest of my Go playing days. I am almost ready to quit wasting my time on this board game. No game is worth so much effort. It’s like any other type of entertainment - it becomes a bit annoying after a while.
When weather gets better in few months, I am out of here. I am not going to sit on my ass placing buttons on the board and think it’s somehow special. Right, maybe when I am 80 … or maybe next winter, if it’s as bad as this one.
Edit:
I’m just going to give my oppinion here, whether it’s the correct way to think or not.
If you don’t enjoy playing, there’s really no point in doing so. If you do enjoy it, I don’t see why not improving fast would matter. As an example, there are people who have been playing League of Legends almost every day for years now and never improved beyond Silver (in fact, one of them lives with me :p), and they still keep playing for their own reasons - probably because it’s fun. The same goes for any other game. Unless you intend to become a professional (or live off it in some other way), a game is supposed to be no more than a hobby, meant to help you relax and have fun (amongst other reasons people might have).
You should not be prioritizing your hobbies over the rest of your life. I’m guilty of doing that when I become too obsessed with a game, and that’s why I quit Go every time. I started playing about an year and three months ago, played for about three weeks, quit, returned three months later, played for one more week, quit, returned two months later, quit again after a coupe of days, returned this year on September, quit after a few days because it was getting in the way of my 3-month internship, and then after my internship was over I decided to return. I was OGS 16k when I quit last time. I’m around 12k now. As you can see, I didn’t go beyond 16k for over an year, but suddenly I jumped to 12k in a bit over a month.
What helped me improve was watching dwyrin’s videos, mainly his Back to Basics series (didn’t watch all, but some I watched multiple times: the 3rd one, for example, helped me improve from that 16-17k wall to 13-14k in two days…, so I rewatched it two or three times). Just because it worked for me does not mean it will work for you; I learn well from watching videos, other people don’t.
Now, one thing I should mention (that I only noticed about a week ago and completely changed my way of thinking about improvement) is that rank means nothing! You might be very good playing against passive styles, and then s**k when your opponent plays aggressively, for example. That’s my case - I was told Tygem was easier than OGS, but the truth is I can’t beat people there because they just invade everything and I don’t know how to defend. So my rank there is much lower than here. I think your approach should be on learning new stuff and becoming better, not on improving the rank.
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In the last 10 years that I’ve played Go, I’ve quit about three times. I just up and dropped off the face of the online Go world, and stopped playing for about a year each time. I let all my games timeout, I didn’t watch one Go video, do one tsumego problem. My approach to playing and learning has evolved. It has taken years. Lots of failure. Patient, soul-searching failure.
Next time you fail, get curious. When you succeed, work hard to find out why. If there is no joy in it for you, don’t wait for the weather to improve, quit now and do something that will spur true passion. All the best to you.
~M.
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It’s kinda sad when people piss away their life on something as pointless as League of Legends.
Surely this is quite simple? You resign when you no longer want to play on.
Sure, sometimes your opponent might be disappointed; maybe they were enjoying winning; maybe they like all of their games to be “complete” - but most of them will also not want to force you to play if you’re no-longer enjoying.
Do you want to play more stones? Then do so - if not, just resign.
It’s kinda sad when people think there hobbies are better than others.
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