If I follow you right, you're telling that IGS crew is filtering access to the IGS servers for japanese only? In that the case, may I ask you why only japanese are concerned? That strange a policy : it's free or not. So if it's free it is, if it's not everbody should pay to play...That a software company proposed a non-free software for Japanese why not but filtering IP is a bit tricky...

It could explain one thing in fact: I play quite often on IGS and recently I notice that a lot of japanese players are asking questions about KGS ("you EU so KGS???"). I haven't been banned for that (yet!).

There is nothing intrinsically wrong about filtering IP addresses. It is common practice, for instance, in the case of internet broadcasts of sports events (ie. from the Netherlands, I cannot watch the footage from the BBC website). It is completely up to IGS/Pandanet to determine their business model. No law is being violated, and users are free to avoid their service if they want to. It also seems this business model has been making them plenty of money for a while, so why would they change it?

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My name is Gijs, from Utrecht, NL.

When in doubt, play the most aggressive move

I understand your point of view, I'm simply a little disappointed because I thought IGS was a free server, first, and second I do not find that fair for japanese ppl...If I take your example: you're dutch, I'm french; both of us cant watch BBC footage ( ).Whereas one of us could go free on a go server while a japanese couldn't...I just tought it's quite unfair and not thorough but this just my point

I'm fine with IGS charging money, it's just sad how people pay it to play there instead of playing for free on a better server. And the actions of IGS admins, known for banning people for mentioning other servers, are dishonest and morally wrong. It's hard to approve of any business model that relies on the clients' ignorance and actively cultivates it.

Surprisingly enough IGS had nothing to do with this, but Yahoo Games of Japan recently stopped providing Go or games all together from what the japanese KGS admins have said. We did get quite a number of new people which is awesome.

I think there are dozens of go servers in Japan you never heard of. Pandanet is one of the go servers available there.

I guess you (the speculative minds) didn't look at the numbers too closely: How many million of Japanese go players have we got in KGS?

Cheers,
Vesa

5 million?

Seriously though, going back to an earlier question was there any change in the counting method?

I cannot approve of banning people who mention other servers, but I'm agnostic on the decision to charge only Japanese players.

Their reasoning is that they presumably thought they must charge to stay in business. A debatable assumption of course, but not insane. In that case, what is really going on is that they are subsidizing Go outside of Asia (Japan?) by giving a special offer to people in Europe and so on. I am not 100% sure, but I seem to recall hearing that promoting Go was the rationale.

Note that when the Nihon Ki-in sends pros to non-Asian countries to lecture or compete, they are taking money out of the hands of their own players and giving us a benefit. Or again, colleges do much the same by providing financial aid for some at the expense of higher fees for others. Of course helping people of lesser means go to college seems more morally significant than letting people play Go for free.

P.S. I believe pandanet is IGS. senseis.xmp.net/?IGS

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Occupy Babel!

How much do you need to pay for playing on IGS in Japan?

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长考出臭棋.

They're using Chinese counting now.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Information is here.

https://sec.pandanet.co.jp/asp/panda/register.asp

Quick summary, by the game you can pay 262 yen. 2100 yen per month for unlimited. You can also pay by the year.

I don't think that business model will last...

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Occupy Babel!

thanks, what can you buy with 2100 yen in Japan? say how many lunch bento boxes? A dinner at a restaurant?

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长考出臭棋.

Between 6 and 10 big macs?

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19/02/2011: this grumpy person takes a voluntary holiday from L19.

quite expensive. Maybe cheaper than playing in a local club, i guess. I would not pay 8 bigmacs per month for playing on line

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长考出臭棋.

I think it's more than just playing - I think they also have pro games simulcast on the server.

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

Very few.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

I know they used to have more; at least I recall seeing, in past years, mentions of pro games that were broadcast with comments. They no longer do that?

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My blog about Macs and more: Kirkville

The Nihon Kiin used to have an arrangement with IGS to broadcast title matches in real time. That ended some years ago and now the Nihon Kiin uses a different server (Cyberoro?).

A majority of the top seven title matches are broadcast, but I recall no commentary. The website lists the Meijin, Honinbo, Kisei, Tengen and Judan. The Kansai Kiin are even more devoted--they seem to broadcast several preliminary rounds of the Kansai first place tournament.

As far as I'm aware, no international tournaments are ever relayed.

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Occupy Babel!