It's been two weeks since the Tygem client has been available in English; how do you like it?

Here are a few of my impressions:

-1. The main chat windows are often blocked by people who enter gibberish. They particularly seem to like to fire away when someone tries to start a conversation or ask a question.

-2. Nobody responds to help requests, neither other users nor administrators.

-3. Nobody says "thanks"

-4. About half of my games have ended with a resignation by my opponent after less than 4 moves.

-5. Can't enter personal information and see that of other people.

+6. I entered at 10k and have had some fairly rollicking games. My opponents always opt for a cross-fuseki if possible.

-7. Most of the people who kibbitz in English seem to be KGS regulars.

-8. Some functions are limited for "free" users.

-9. I don't see the point of the separate servers.

+10. Sometimes there is music on in some of the rooms.

-11. Cutting and pasting chat from google translate doesn't work.

+12. TygemBaduk was quick to respond on FB about the scoring bug, and promised "We're gonna find out what the problem is and fix it."

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"When you are learning, it is not so important whether you are right or wrong." - Bill Spight

I like Tygem a lot, personally. In regard to nobody saying thanks, this isn't always true when I use the Korean client. People are usually pretty polite, then. It could be that some of your opponents are not confident in English, so they don't want to start a conversation.

I'm not sure about the early resignation issue, either. I have never experienced this. I can see users' info, too.

Other than these, I think a lot of the negative issues you are experiencing could be do to language differences, and the way that people react to it. This may be a reason for separate servers, for example. People that only know a particular language might feel more comfortable on a server where many speak the same language.

There is sometimes a lot of spam in the chat windows, however, and this probably doesn't have to do with a language barrier.

For me:

+/- 1. No real social general chatting. I kinda like this actually, but I may miss it if I didn't have KGS too. Maybe having a dedicated "lounge" area might be nice for servers, but the main game rooms are silent?

+/- 2. Mixed abilities at each rank. Some seem oddly strong for their professed rank. Can be a good thing though. I'd give my right arm to play a sandbagging 9d even.

+ 3. Betting system is silly, pointless, but kinda really fun too.

-- 4. Crazy scoring bug. This will disappear when the bug does.

+ 5. I've only played two games, but the guy I played wanted a rematch every time, and thanked me at the end.

- 6. Separation of players into different servers means I'm constantly wondering whether I'm missing some top games.

+++ 7. Blood!

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I'm embarrassed to admit, but I haven't actually played there yet. Watching games there, however, is a blast, between the more aggressive style in general and the betting in specific. Definitely makes for good popcorn game-fodder. And I'll get around to playing there eventually, though I'll have to stop being obsessed with my KGS rank for long enough to do that.

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I'd prefer this to KGS where the main chat windows are often blocked by gibberish, too. The difference is that on Tygem I could determine a string of 1's to be worthless at a glance whereas on KGS I need to read some of the text to determine it is just a troll.

The user interface is terrible, just like all the other clients that are somehow based on the same source code (wbaduk, cyberoro, Tom, sina, etc.)

Agreed, but it's at least better than the wbaduk/cyberoro GUI with its sucking avatars.

I've played one game with a 16k. He said "hi", but no "thanks", not a big problem though.
The game was a bloody fight with three big kills, endless adrenaline rushs - enough for the next weeks. I guess I'm getting old

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You mean because Tygem lets you upload a photo for your avatar?
(Does anyone know if wbaduk/oro has implemented this feature yet...)

I've actually had 80-90% of my opponents say Hi and thanks for the game. Also, I had a Chinese 9d enter the room and randomly start a conversation with me because he spoke English and saw my US flag. He told me about the top players on Tygem and gave me tips on how to improve. So for me it's been a pretty nice place to play. Although I did have the scoring bug occur the other day

What tips did he give you on how to improve?

He told me to go to China, lol. But beyond that he said I should try to get a teacher, and to get my games reviewed. He also said to watch the top Tygem players play.. naming "idontcal" and "attractive". He was really friendly and spoke English very well.

Personally, I am loving it. I like the lack of formalities in Tygem, I don't like how uptight IGS seems to be. The playing style is awesome: its agressive, and a lot more entertaining than I found on other servers. I've never heard music in rooms... yet. I love how quickly the scoring bug was fixed. All that Tygem needs, in my opinion, is a larger western playing base.

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"shinigami" IGS server, "Entautista" Tygem Server

* I quite like the speed at which you can get games on Tygem, especially in off-hours, and the very large number of different opponents with offensive styles.

* The complete absence of social interaction is both good and bad, depending on how I feel. As TopazG wrote, it's very pleasant at times to not have to chat with people, but I would miss the social aspect of playing online if I didn't have KGS. For non-Asian beginners, though, I think Tygem would be a terrible experience.

* In the SDKs, Tygem players are much stronger than equally ranked people on KGS, but that's to be expected. Games are a lot more fight-y and aggressive, which is good for me since that's one of my weaknesses. Significantly more high dan games going on than on KGS, though I rarely kibiz anymore and instead replay pro games.

* The client is a mixed bag. It doesn't work well on my netbook, but runs faster on my desktop than KGS's cgoban. Overall I find cgoban to be user-friendlier and it appeals much more to me than the "busy" Tygem interface.

* In summary, it's a nice alternative, especially in the off hours, and it's a great place to improve, but it lacks personality and social flair.

This seems mostly to be in the beginner's room. Maybe there are a lot of little kids on...

By this I mean something like on KGS where I can write something interesting about myself, like "I like Ramen." There is something called "mini homepage" which can be found at user's name> find location, but so far I just get a dialog that asks me to confirm "preparing" and nothing happens.

Such as entering a game with more than 300 observers. If however you get in before the room is filled, you will be bombarded at one point with requests to confirm that you are still in the room. -

On the other hand, there is a list of greetings sorted into categories, and these phrases are automatically translated. +

Seem to have already been fixed. ++

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"When you are learning, it is not so important whether you are right or wrong." - Bill Spight

Even though the scoring bug made me lose some games I had won (my name is rknine) I won several by resignation - I find tygem extremely bloody, maybe even more than wbaduk... People just love to die... and kill... ... ...and die.. It's a magical place were big groups DO die, even at 5d+ level.

I registered at 5d and, of course the 5d are not as strong as kgs 5d (who beat me more than half the time, causing me to remain around weak 5d/strong 4d on my current accounts), more like kgs 3d, but much stronger than wbaduk I guess. Tygem 5d is definitely stronger than WBaduk 6d. I can usually easily get to 7d on wbaduk (kind of sad), but I'm struggling to get to 6 on tygem (though I just started) and struggling to keep/maintain 5 on kgs.

I also find they don't say thanks, except when a close game goes to scoring. It's nothing to do with language, since they send messages in Korean which are translated into english for us (and same the other way around). It's fine though, now and then I also resign and leave quickly if I'm upset about the game.

KGS's interface and community are of course better, and although I can't say it's a bad thing (probably a good thing): games on KGS make me serious and nervous for some reason, whereas wbaduk and tygem games allow me to play freely and carelessly (though it is harder to be serious there...)

I will keep playing there for now, since getting games is infinitely faster than kgs. First I'll try hard to get to 6d ;p I actually have a Korean friend (about Canadian 3d) who (kind of humourously) gets his friends (myself, one or two others stronger than me) to play on his tygem account to rank it up. I was up all night with him and I got his account all the way to 6d back then, so I don't know why it's gotten a bit difficult now sob sob

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I wonder why that is? I have exactly the same feeling.

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"When you are learning, it is not so important whether you are right or wrong." - Bill Spight

For me, it's because the KGS ranking system is more weighted. If you play several games, it's easier to get attached to a rank and stay there for awhile.

It could also be that you are more used to the KGS system, so if your rank drops on KGS, you feel something is wrong with your play. But if your rank drops on Tygem, it's easy to blame the ranking system.

I love Tygem.

But, I am starting to realize, I like KGS more.

I really like tygem. The software is so ugly and at times feels unresponsive and bloated, but there is a ton of strong players and it's very easy to get a game.

I'm glad they opened up a server for foreigners.

I dont't get what is the problem with tygem software. For me, both wbaduk and tygem are much nicer then KGS. The only problem I currently find in tygem is closing of rooms for new loggins when they are too full. But still, when top rooms are too full, there are more people in the other rooms so it is still easy to find a game, only problem is missing the real top players games...

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