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        Arimaa >> Say Hello >> Interesting game
        
(Message started by: proof27h on Aug 1^st, 2011, 2:15pm)

Title: Interesting game
Post by proof27h on Aug 1^st, 2011, 2:15pm

Hi, I'm Henri. Been playing chess for some years at a roller coaster level - mostly 3-min games on the ICC, ratings varying between 1200 and 1700. Arimaa looks like an interesting game - I'm surprised it's not getting more publicity. I'm looking forward to learning a bit - but mostly just spending time.

Title: Re: Interesting game
Post by mistre on Aug 1^st, 2011, 11:08pm

Welcome aboard! If you give it a chance, Arimaa can get you hooked. Have fun!

Title: Re: Interesting game
Post by Fritzlein on Aug 2^nd, 2011, 8:26am

Welcome, Henri!

The publicity question puzzled me too at first. After a while, though, I figured out that no game ever gets publicity proportional to how good the game is. It isn't just Arimaa that suffers this syndrome; it is universal. Buzz is only tenuously linked to quality. Take, for example, the game Kensington, which was a cute pattern for a board, almost nothing of a game, and which got huge positive buzz and sales anyway.

The problem is that quality is very, very hard to evaluate. Specifically I mean that it is hard even for specialists in a game to know whether that game will continue to be deep, robust, entertaining, etc., as it is played more and more. Given the difficulty that specialists face, the task for casual observers is essentially impossible. You just can't tell for yourself what a quality game is; you either have to rely on what other people are saying, or else make snap judgments on superficial evidence. (If Omar Sharif says it is a great game, it must be a great game. Besides, the board is a cute pattern! :) )

I have come to the conclusion that the big sales success stories are mostly about marketing, i.e. mostly about inducing people to make snap judgments on superficial evidence. Given that Arimaa has always been more about the game per se and more about the Arimaa Challenge than about any slick marketing, it is actually amazing that Arimaa has gotten as much positive publicity as it has.

Arimaa's buzz is almost entirely word-of-mouth, yet Arimaa is doing very well for its genre, and appears poised to continue to survive and grow. Since you can't judge a book by its cover, it is very, very hard for a game to "speak for itself", but Arimaa is doing just that. Year by year there are more games of Arimaa played, more new accounts created, more logins per day on arimaa.com, and so on. The link between quality and buzz is tenuous, but there is a link, and that is what is propelling Arimaa to its success.