Mahjong is the most depressing mini game you've added to XIV

[Bacent]

Honestly I'm having a lot of fun with it. Been turning on some music, sitting back in my chair and just going at it. I like tabletop games like this. I don't really frequent the Gold Saucer because nothing there ever appealed to me, but I spent a few hours in their just chilling and playing Mahjong this morning.

Did you play with other players, or NPCs? NPCs have a fixed difficulty. Other players, you can obviously tell who's been playing a lot.

[SDaemon]

Did you play with other players, or NPCs? NPCs have a fixed difficulty. Other players, you can obviously tell who's been playing a lot.

Both, though mostly just NPCs.

[Bacent]

Both, though mostly just NPCs.

Yeah, that's why you're having fun with it. It's a lot easier to play against NPCs with fixed difficulties. I've been queued up with random people who are actually at the point of them being ranked. I'm still at Novice. But this game is going to push a LOT of people away from playing with others, due to having to sit around for 40+ minutes when they could be doing more with their time, more so with achievements being out of their reach once only the 'good' players are left. That's what happens when you force achievements into a mini-game that takes an ungodly amount of time into a game that you can only get said achievements with other players.

You can enter TT tournaments with NPCs and still get achievements/rewards from it. Why the hell did this have to go against the grain?

Edit: You can ALSO play that terrible Lord of Verwhatever game against NPCs for rankings as well.

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, that's why you're having fun with it. It's a lot easier to play against NPCs with fixed difficulties. I've been queued up with random people who are actually at the point of them being ranked. I'm still at Novice. But this game is going to push a LOT of people away from playing with others, due to having to sit around for 40+ minutes when they could be doing more with their time, more so with achievements being out of their reach once only the 'good' players are left. That's what happens when you force achievements into a mini-game that takes an ungodly amount of time into a game that you can only get said achievements with other players.

You can enter TT tournaments with NPCs and still get achievements/rewards from it. Why the hell did this have to go against the grain?

A match lasts 40 minutes? I'm out.

Nope, thats a puzzle game made in the west that uses mahjong tiles, but actually has nothing to do with the game itself.

I guess because Mahjong is called Mahjong it confused me.

[Bacent]

A match lasts 40 minutes? I'm out.

It can last well over an hour if everyone plays slow.

[SturmChurro]

It can last well over an hour if everyone plays slow.

10-15 min matches I could see, but 45 min to an hour? No way! At least the card games are relatively quick!

Whatever, it's not for me and I'm not a collector/achievement hunter, just adding another one I won't get close to finishing. :P

[Bacent]

10-15 min matches I could see, but 45 min to an hour? No way! At least the card games are relatively quick!

Whatever, it's not for me and I'm not a collector/achievement hunter, just adding another one I won't get close to finishing. :P

To quote the rules directly: Each game has a time limit of 120 minutes, after which the game will end automatically.

As well as there being 'eight hands' per game. Each hand lasts about 5-8 minutes. So times that by 8 and you get how much of a HEAVY time sink this is.

Edit:

So why not play against NPCs and see if you enjoy the game better after you've gotten some experience with the gameplay?

It's more enjoyable in a sense with NPCs. You can quit out when you need to to do other stuff. With this you have to choose to spend +/- an hour on a single game, when you could be doing many other things (Including me working on saving for the brand new shiny 2,000,000 MGP mount). But can you argue that many people will keep playing, and it won't just be swamped with people who have been playing this game for ages, or simple remember the rules better? I have dual monitors, and I keep the rules open on my other monitor to try to keep on top of things, but I'm a horribly forgetful person.

[Tigerlilley]

I agree its disappointing to lock music behind ranked games. It would have been better to have it behind a wins / games played achievement.

However, I've spent today learning it and it's not bad. There's some excellent threads and guides on reddit. Just know its gonna take at least an hour of your time.

[Junma]

Mahjong is really fun, you just need to invest a bit of time learning the Yaku, how to play defensive, WHEN to play defensive, when to push for a hand, the pain of getting greedy and dealing into someone, the bliss of rejecting easy wins for more expensive hands and paying off.

It's a shame it's not popular in western culture, our queues are dead.

[SDaemon]

Yeah, that's why you're having fun with it. It's a lot easier to play against NPCs with fixed difficulties. I've been queued up with random people who are actually at the point of them being ranked. I'm still at Novice. But this game is going to push a LOT of people away from playing with others, due to having to sit around for 40+ minutes when they could be doing more with their time, more so with achievements being out of their reach once only the 'good' players are left. That's what happens when you force achievements into a mini-game that takes an ungodly amount of time into a game that you can only get said achievements with other players.

You can enter TT tournaments with NPCs and still get achievements/rewards from it. Why the hell did this have to go against the grain?

So why not play against NPCs and see if you enjoy the game better after you've gotten some experience with the gameplay? And I sat around for roughly that timespan, didn't consider it a waste because I was enjoying myself. If people enjoy the game and have something to work towards, they'll consider it time well spent, I feel.

I can sympathize that you want the scroll, and perhaps they'll open up different ways to get some stuff you'd like. The game itself however is enjoyable in my opinion.

I gave up on it. I thought mahjong was just matching squares, I don't know what this is.

That's Mahjong Solitaire.