Bridge Survey

[chriskenny]

I'm a graduate student working on a project to help raise awareness for the game of bridge. I've spoken to some club players and even learned the rules (or as much as I could handle in one afternoon).

 

But I'd like to know BBO forum members' thoughts on the game, how some of you got involved with it and other hobbies that you might have.

 

I wrote up a short survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RCVMLM5) that I'd really appreciate if you helped me with. If you have other thoughts, feel free to post here. I'd love to know more about why you play bridge.

 

I appreciate any help and, hopefully, can bring more people into the world of bridge through this research.

 

Thanks!

 

Chris

[Zelandakh]

You will find some of my history here. Quick summary: I started playing bridge because the books in the library were close to the chess and maths sections.

[billw55]

I've spoken to some club players and even learned the rules (or as much as I could handle in one afternoon).

This bit ties in with something people were saying in the other thread (linked by Zel). It can be hard to learn the rules alone in a few hours (!). I can't think of another game where learning the rules takes nearly so long.

[hrothgar]

This bit ties in with something people were saying in the other thread (linked by Zel). It can be hard to learn the rules alone in a few hours (!). I can't think of another game where learning the rules takes nearly so long.

 

Check out Star Fleet Battles, Warhammer, BattleTech or any one of a variety of other war games.

 

In most of these games you can't play competitively without a detailed knowledge of the rules and the errata.

 

Some of these games have rule books that require multiple large loose leaf binders....

[billw55]

I knew somebody would have examples :)

 

Although I would note, the relative size of the player base of those games corroborates the theory that high complexity of rules contributes to lower player population.

 

Now that I think of it, bridge may be an outlier in this respect, with more players than one might expect based on its complexity.

 

But realistically, I think that social popularity is the top determining factor. Why some pastimes become socially popular to begin with, while others do not, is not obvious to me.

[dwar0123]

Now that I think of it, bridge may be an outlier in this respect, with more players than one might expect based on its complexity.

Bridge isn't really that complex due to the rules. It is complex because it is a game of incomplete knowledge that has wide open bidding possibilities. With respect to the bidding, you can write your own rules with really very few restrictions. These other games are complex because the rules makes them so, rules that are handed from up high.

[billw55]

With respect to the bidding, you can write your own rules with really very few restrictions.

In theory at least :rolleyes:

[32519]

Where did I read someone describing bridge as playing chess against three opponents? :P

[chriskenny]

Thank you all so much for sharing your thoughts and for answering my survey. If you haven't completed it yet, please do so. The information that I've gathered so far has been incredibly helpful.

 

I'll be watching this thread as I continue working on this project. Once we present it, I'll let you all know how it went.

 

Again, I sincerely thank you all for your help with this.

 

Chris

[mycroft]

Absolutely. First when people tell me that "The Laws are so big, I'd never be able to read it", I point them at the book they're learning their system from. If they keep going on it, I bring in my Advanced Squad Leader rulebook, and point out that the Laws would fit quite nicely in the space the *Index* of the ASLRB takes up. Oh, and winning by better knowledge of the rules is *applauded* in ASL - and in fact is a fair bit of the skill of the game.

 

Granted, yes, the worldwide group of ASL players probably is smaller than the players at Gatlinburg, and yes, the complexity has something to do with that...

 

But as people are saying, the complexity of Bridge has nothing to do with the complexity of the Laws. They're smaller than the Golf rules, and Golf players expect not only that you know the rules, but that you self-enforce (correctly!) The complexity of Bridge comes from both the language that you have to learn (and be able to analyze when the opponents are using a different dialect) and the hidden-information nature of the game. Oh, and that, as a pair game, there is a certain bit of PR involved in keeping partner on your side...

[chriskenny]

We presented the first round, or the strategy, to our professor on Wednesday morning. It was being filmed by a documentary crew who's been with us since the assignment began.

 

It's hard enough to stand in front of our professor, who doesn't often give a lot of feedback while you're presenting, but imagine doing it in front of four cameras!

 

After ten minutes and I had finished, our professor told me that he really liked the direction I was taking this. One of the film crew even stopped me later that day to tell me how good it was.

 

When it's all done, I'll share what we presented. Since it's a bit of a competition between my classmates, I don't want to share too much now.

 

I couldn't have done as great of a job without the forum replies and survey responses. So, thank you all a hundred times over.

 

If you haven't completed the survey yet, please do. I'm still rounding out who our "target" is and every response matters.

 

Chris