Kaya.gs wrote:I remind that talking about problems is better than talking about solutions.
It might be useful to compare the online situation to the real life one. Let's say I'm at a go club. I come because I want to play some go. In particular, I want to have a good game. What makes good game is my business, and it depends on my mood whether I want to play a stronger or weaker player, with or without handicap, fast or slow. I've been to the club before, and I can see that there are some people with whom I'd rather play than others. If one of those people looks like they want to play, either because they are sitting at an empty board, or seem just to be casually observing another game, I might approach them and ask if they would like to play. If they don't want to play, they make an excuse and basta. If they do want a game with me, they will respond affirmatively, we will sit down at a go board and negotiations will begin over handicap stones and time settings if any. When this is decided, we will wish each other a good game and begin. The same can take place in reverse, with someone approaching me.
To me, this is a good way of starting a game.
If we take a go server as being something similar to a go club, here is how I would compare my experience on kaya to the real world. My goal is to point out problems that I think should be addressed.
I open the website because I want to play go. I look around the room to see if anyone is looking for a game - i.e., if there are any open games with someone with whom I wish to play. If this is the case, the experience is still fairly similar. My next step would be to approach the person I want to play. This however proves to be awkward. I can either click play, which seems akin to wordlessly and obnoxiously sitting down at someone's table, or I can try first to start a conversation, either in the room or per pm. This also feels awkward, and to make matters worse, often goes unnoticed for minutes on end.
More often than not however, there are no game offers up. People are just hanging around, apparently not wanting to play go. This is surely a problem - though to what extent it has to do with how games are started, I don't know.
In any case, the option most like approaching someone for a game in a club is to send a pm. Whereas irl, this method usually yields a game quickly, on the net, it feels slow and cumbersome. On Kaya, it is particularly bothersome as pms tend often to go unnoticed. The other way would be to sit down at and empty table in front of a board myself. There are two ways of doing so on Kaya. One is to click "start a new game," the other is to shout in a room.
Looking first at shouting in a room, this option allows me to see who responds and to begin negotiations. This is quite like the club situation, with the caveat that rooms can be noisy and such requests can go unheard. Also, this way of starting negotiations is cumbersome.
The last option, clicking "start a new game," is also like sitting at an empty table in front of a board, however with the addition that I specify the game conditions. While this can work fine, several problems could - and do - arise. If nobody sits down right away at my club, I might get up and order a coffee, and upon returning to the table would not expect someone to have sat down and placed a stone (unless it was a tournament with a scheduled game - but that's another matter). Quite frankly, if someone did so, I would consider them rude. Games starting without both players present is a problem. Second, if someone sits down with whom I for whatever reason do not want to play, my only option on Kaya is to prematurely end a started game. This is also rude. Not being able to politely reject a challenge is a problem.
RZ……