Backgammon Online

27-May-2010
04:39 PDT

I was doodling around with Word Zoo, and after submitting about three words in "Rainfall", I had the highest score ever, implying that the game is very rarely played. This got me thinking about the site in general.

Being a serious Chess and Go player, I play on a number of sites that host these games, and over the years, I have noticed the following...

- Serious/frequent players of a specific game play almost exclusively on sites which host only that specific game.

- Serious/frequent players are mainly the only players who subscribe to sites in general.

- Sites like Yahoo games and ItsYourTurn are rarely supported by serious players of any particular game type, and are, in general, badly supported as far as subscriptions go compared to specific game sites such as GameKnot and Online Go Server.

So, I came to the conclusion (my opinion, based on no evidence other than my experience) that if Zoo Escape did away with Sudoku and Word Zoo, and marketed themselves as purely a "free with option to subscribe" backgammon site with a similar setup to GameKnot and OGS (Online Go Server), the site would see a huge increase in both the number of players, and, of course subscriptions.

Just my two cents...

27-May-2010
07:41 PDT

For what its worth, I'd toss my $0.02 into the same hat as Saurus.

05-Oct-2010
10:29 PDT

I don't care about other games..
Back is a fast game, so no more than 2 days..
or else better play chess ..

05-Oct-2010
13:58 PDT

I totally agree with the OP. The only major weakness of this site (and pretty much the only reason I haven't become a paying subscriber) is that there simply aren't enough regular players. Doing away with the rarely used faff around the fringes of the site and really pushing it as a backgammon site of the same calibre as gameknot etc would reinvigorate the site and allow it to grow dramatically, i think.

08-Oct-2010
05:44 PDT

I totally agree with saurus ideas. It would be great when ZE would seriously think about this and other ideas to attrack more new BG fans.

29-Oct-2010
14:30 PDT

I'm not sure that having 'more' games is stopping serious players coming to ZE. I actually started 'seriously' with the word games and then moved over to BG.

There might be a completely different reason as to why ZE is not inundated with new BG fans. For instance, they are still working on the site, how much do they advertise, forum posts etc. In fact, reading through the forum posts almost put me off joining all together.

Re-Chess, its always had a higher profile than that of BG...

I just can't see new potentials players looking at ZE and going...gee, they have other games aside from BG, let's go elsewhere.

I think adapting a positive approach and seeing the good in the site is what will attract more members! Spread the word, put up good thought provoking posts, build a solid community of why we all come together (like the chess forums)...

That's my thoughts anyhow.

11-Jan-2012
16:30 PDT

Let me start off by saying I like this site. I play a lot, have made some friends (and maybe some enemies, I don't know), and really enjoy playing (it's something I do at least once a day, often more).

I think there are two major things missing from this site that cause new players to shy away (while those of us who have played thousands of games hang on)

Perhaps the biggest thing missing for this site is a mobile app. I know they don't want to do it, they say it often, but that is where things are now. Between tablets, ipads, and smart phones, it's just the way to go. I play at chess.com because I can play it on my phone. Even Gameknot has a mobile version now (at least a mobile web site, it's not an app but it does play nicely).

The second thing I feel is the lack of live games. There are times that my games are basically live, since both of us are logged on at the same time, going back and forth, but I think live games would bring something to the table that isn't available now.

There aren't a lot of backgammon sites out there (where one can play with other people, not a friends app or something to play a computer). This site is filling a good niche, and they do a good job.

My 0.02. Thanks

Dave