Phoning it in

[Badmonster]

Was talking to a friend this morning who works tech support for a computer game company in Ottowa. I metioned that I was still playing bridge. He said the company he works for is making a multiplayer bridge game that can be played by phone. This makes me wonder many things. Will BBO ever be phone accessable? Could this be a source of income for BBO? Can quality bridge be played while running from place to place on one's moble phone? Will people try to play and drive and will there suddenly be a flux of bridge related traffic incidents?

 

Just struck me interesting so I thought I'd share.

[hrothgar]

Funny that you should mention this...

 

I friend of mine has a company that publishes cellphone games. He and I considered whether it would be possible to create a version of BBO for mobile phones. We eventually rejected the idea for a couple reasons:

 

1. The usage pattern for cell phone games typically involved players trying to kill 3-4 minutes while they're waiting for a train or sitting on a bus. It was quite unclear to use whether this necessarily mapped well onto a game like bridge where (ideally) you'd want to spend a decent amount of time with a given partner. Given the time constraints, once you finished agreeing on a system the game would be over.

 

2. The demographics didn't look too good. There are lots of mobile phone users. There are lots of bridge players. However, not enough bridge players use Mobile Phones.

 

We ended concluding that the best "match" between BBO and cell phone games was probably the Bridge Master product. Bridge Master dealers are small self contained puzzles which can be completed in 3-5 minutes. At the time, we had some concerns about screen real-estate. It was trickly trying to fit both a complete hand along with a textual explanation, so we eventually backed away from the idea.

[hotShot]

A MBT board takes about 2 minutes, so playing a board or two against 3 Gibs would work.

[Badmonster]

True, but if you play against three gib is it still multiplayer?

[pigpenz]

in the old days we used to call a PHONE IN

winning 5 swiss team matches

[barmar]

2. The demographics didn't look too good. There are lots of mobile phone users. There are lots of bridge players. However, not enough bridge players use Mobile Phones.

Then why, even after the directors announce at the beginning of the session, "Please turn off cellphones and pagers", are we almost invariably interrupted once or twice by them going off? I'll bet at least 75% of bridge players have cellphones. I got one specifically because of bridge -- when I go to NABC's, I need a way to contact other players on the fly to make game and dinner plans.

 

But you're probably correct if you're talking about the fancier phones with capabilities to install games like this. Bridge players tend to be elderly, and they probably have more basic phones -- the phones with cameras, games, etc. probably tend to be preferred by tech-savvy youngsters.

[Gerben42]

turn off cellphones and pagers",

 

Do you have AUTOMATIC penalties if they go off? That helps a lot.

 

BTW I have a mobile phone but only use it as a phone - no games, no gadgets, no anything. I'm probably a minority in my age group however (age 26)

[barmar]

turn off cellphones and pagers",

 

Do you have AUTOMATIC penalties if they go off? That helps a lot.

They say so in the announcements, but I can't recall ever hearing about them enforcing it.