Why I never can play IRL: Have you experienced this?

I think many here have made the same experience, which is trying very hard as well as very unsuccessfully :cry: to convince their friends how awesome go really is. for me it was like that too. sadly it is much harder to stay passionate about something if you have noone to share the passion with.

luckily though, a go meet just recently formed in my town and i am super psyched about it :grin:. i just hope our members are committed so it wont disband any time soon!

Edit:

yes! imho that is the largest group by far unfortunately (other than people not willing to try at all). it is easy to gain someones interest for a short time, or get them to try the game, after all go is not hard to advertise with its superlatives and history. on the other hand getting people to stick with it seems almost impossible in my experience.

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Wow, this really got to me. Almost teared up. :cry:
I know your feeling, I have the same feeling.

This happened with my family members, I was much better than them when I introduced the game and when I kept on winning, they didn’t find the game to be entertaining. Its my fault for not really explaining the whole game to them so when a formation like Ko would happened, They’d start question how I did that and such. So im really at fault. but Ive learned from that. I play GO at my highschool and I started to explain the rules more clearly, everyone there are interested because I go easy on them and try to explain the formations and moves.

I hope that you find a way to play more Go IRL, its a whole different experience and much more enjoyable.

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You must know my wife… I had almost the same experience. We played one game. But without the motivation to learn the game the skill difference became so huge that by the second game I just got a ‘what’s the point of even trying’ and the same with handicap: somehow people who don’t understand the concept of handicap think that a win somehow doesn’t count if it was with a handicap.

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@Aymon That’s really cool that you have a durable club in a relatively small city; that gives me some hope. The external events you mentioned sound like a great way to promote the club.

@david265 I would love to read a book or article on that as well! If I’m ever in Massachusetts maybe I’ll visit that club in Cambridge and we can play a game.

@kickaha I totally agree, & good luck with your local go meet! That sounds like fun.

@HexGO23 Thank you for the kind words and empathy! That’s great that you’re teaching go to other students at your school - perfect time to get people interested.

@Kabootle Sounds very familiar! I can still get my wife to play Scrabble with me on rare occasions; it seems like the luck and vocabulary elements of that game appeal to certain people who don’t normally play strategy board games.

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Today I played a 2nd game with my wife. This time, full 19x19 board with 25 stone handicap and brief instruction (definition of string, liberties, and two rules of play). I gave no lectures, but did answer all questions. Tried my best to win. It went great!

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@david265 That it is great news! Gives us hope :grinning:

plaid a game with my kid, 9 HCP + I had to save her few times from total destruction. No good deed goes unpunished, she kicked my ass.

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@ifnotmaybe Right on! How old is she? Some young kids are surprisingly good at go. My wife and I want to have kids in the next few years.

If people won’t take handicaps and don’t like to lose, just lose some games yourself.

Improving at go requires a love of losing - true- but sometimes people need motivation. I would suggest losing at least some of your teaching games. It doesnt matter who wins, so if some one else needs to win to enjoy the game (and you need them to play) just lose.

Also, you can safely stick to 9x9 until you’re over 20k. This provides for faster games, smaller handicaps, and faster improvement.

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I second Cr4zyP4nd4’s suggestion. 9x9 and 13x13 games are probably going to be more interesting for beginners, because they’re faster, and lost games won’t drag on for too long. You might think that people are uncomfortable with resignation, but it might be just that beginners aren’t sure about when a game is lost, and people who aren’t used to abstract games might not be familiar with the concept of resignation at all.

You might want to try meeting people at more general board game conventions. I myself come from that ~modern boardgaming~ background (believe it or not, if it weren’t for Monopoly Deal, I probably wouldn’t be playing Go now). People there might have some prejudice against traditional abstracts, but once they give it a try, they usually change their minds. But you too will have to open up for other kinds of games, tho.

Also, a friend of mine mentioned that he wanted to try Go because he saw it being played in Hunter vs Hunter. You can take your chances with the manga/anime crowd.

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Oh, I remember a story. Don’t know where I read it, though.

Player A was new in the club, and sat down to play his first game agains Player B. Player B offered Player A some handicap, but Player A did a whole speech on why he’d not accept handicaps. Player B was like “ok, but I insist on playing with white”. So playerB just passed nine times in a row =)

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I would like to suggest that you build a website. Godaddy is giving good deals now. Other people may be looking for others in your town and have no means to find you. If you open the website often it moves higher up in google. You will need a place to play and advertise it. Is there a university in your town?

Hi @goodgogame thank you for the suggestion! In my last town there was a big state university, but now I live in a rural area. I like the idea though!