The World Champion SingsUTRECHT, the Netherlands, August 29th - Chinese player Linghua Jiao (left), sings a duet with one of the other Chinese players after she is laureated as the new world champion in mahjong. The WMC2010 was closed this afternoon.
Foto Copyright © 2010 Martin Rep/Mahjong News Read more…
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Related Articles
| MahjongTime does a lot more than just making money |
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| Written by Martin Rep |
| Friday, 06 November 2009 11:20 |
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Update: EMA has cancelled cooperation with MahjongTime in MORSE Ranking (see Comment, added by Noluck) Every mahjong player should cross his fingers that MahjongTime will stay alive and kicking. The internet mahjong server is more than a company which just tries to make money by seducing players to spend money on its server. MahjongNews counts the blessings for the international mahjong society. If MJT is in trouble, the mahjong world is in trouble
MahjongTime’s core business is having people played for money on its server, for a small subscription fee. People can play in fun games or in cash games. But MahjongTime does a lot more than just making money. It is one of the very few companies which are willing to sponsor miscellaneous activities such as the first European Riichi Championship, the Open European Mahjong Championships 2007 and 2009 and the Golden Dragon Jubilee Tournament 2008. MJT not only is an advertiser on MahjongNews, but also took care of a new design for this mahjong newspaper some years ago, without charging anything. Furthermore, on many occasions, participants to tournaments who are also members of MahjongTime could win special prizes. On various of these occasions, Mr. Slava Novozhenya of MahjongTime was present to hand over the trophies and to talk with the representatives of mahjong organizations. The forthcoming World Mahjong Championship 2010 was to be sponsored by MahjongTime. The San Diego company promised to take care of the mahjong sets and promotion stuff, such as T-shirts, mugs etcetera. Besides, MJT would offer a number of exclusive arrangements as prizes for future online tournaments. But, according to EMA-president Robert Rijnders, this sponsorship has been cancelled by now. Online tournamentThe German Online Open would have been the twelfth online tournament, organized by MahjongTime. These tournaments are formally acknowledged by EMA. The most recent one in this series was the European Open 2009, which was held in September. EMA and MJT together maintain the European online ranking system (MORSE). Not all MahjongTime activities are as successful, though. The North American Mahjong Federation, launched by MahjongTime in 2007, looks like a dead horse since nothing is heard from it since its foundation. Also, a promised ‘great update’ of the MahjongTime website, which was to take place last September, still has to be carried out; it is now promised for ‘soon’. Recently, fierce competition for MahjongTime emerged when online gaming software developer Mahjong Logic announced the launch of their network. Mr. Jonas Alm, CEO of Mahjong Logic, in an interview with Mahjong News, claimed that this new server also intends to sponsor mahjong events, just like MahjongTime. Maybe this would mean good news for EMA. President Robert Rijnders says that EMA already is trying to contact new sponsors, out of sheer necessity.
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 25 November 2009 09:05 |
COPENHAGEN - If MahjongTime really is in trouble, this would mean a great loss for the mahjong world. Not only since the online tournaments which it organizes are a relative success, but in the first place because the ‘premier online mahjong community in the world’ is one of the very few sponsors of international mahjong events in the West.Mahjong Time
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grandiose adventure.
I know Slava personally and I wish him and his team the very best and hope Mah Jong Time will excist for a long time.
MJ Logic is an exciting project, but unfortunately for me, they have chosen to require a software download which my older Macintosh doesn't support.
Here's hoping that MJT will overcome this hurdle, whatever it is.
i keep wondering why some people still keep playing on these sub-part platforms.
???
And playing on these sites should be just for fun, relax, chat a little if you want and play a game or 2, exercise your brain a little but and forget about it !!
The new President of EMA's reaction to the sponsorship of WMC-2010 was less than predictable. The WMC-2010 sponsorship deal and the cancellation of GMO Online 2009 cannot be used as a grounds for ending the partnership. What does EMA gain by ending our partnership agreement before it's expiration date? Is this decision fair for EMA players, who lost MORSE tournaments?
Regardless of such events, Mahjong Time continues to be the best Mahjong platform on the web. Stay tuned for the new software release coming this month!"
Slava Novozhenya
President and Chief Operating Officer MahjongTime
Why? Because, quite simply, the interface is absolutely awful. While there are certain constraints from the platform used, the amount to which MahjongTime's client sucks is inexcusable. It's clunky, it's ugly, and God damn the sorry excuse for a meld system.
Right now, MahjongTime has an effective monopoly on much of the Anglophone market, because for one it has a huge playerbase who don't know of anything better, for two because there aren't any significantly better clients (Mahjong Logic is somewhat better - still somewhat slow, and a tad clunky, but it's a big step forward), and for three because by having such a large base it's self-sustaining. It should die, but it won't.
Anything that leads to MahjongTime's swift demise is A-OK. I'm unlikely to play MahjongLogic in its current form (it has potential but it's not reached it yet), but improvement is improvement. It's not hard to make an online client that actually plays decently, as Tenhou shows us; it just isn't going to happen if people are still basically forced to accept worse. Or they'll just bugger off to Tenhou; I've seen many people who can get past the pathetically slim language barrier do so.
I am say with certainty that God will not hear your prayer. However I pray that you will find some peace and resolve any internal turmoil you experience that lead you to such hatred towards a GAME site....astonishing really.
If you really could not find anyone that speack your language or your way, just gather some of your own folks to play in your house!!!.
I can guarantee that you are those free-loaders (not even play cash or a paid member) and play on this site and yet commented bad on mjt. I hope that you don't carryon playing and bring unhealthy comments to the others.
They fool us, they despise us, so THEY DESERVE TO DIE !!!!
Dear me, I see one or two people have taken offence, although I'm not quite sure how you come to the conclusion that I'm some troubled angry man just because I stated a critical opinion about MahjongTime. If you think that's an expression of rage and pain, then my God! I hope you never have to live in the real world!
I don't like MahjongTime, and I would rather like to see it die, because it's not quite as simple as 'if you don't like it don't play it'. Any client in a position as MahjongTime is with the Anglophone (and particularly the play-for-money) mahjong market - that being, a popular and almost monopolistic client in a relatively niche market - doesn't exist as a bubble in and as of itself.
MahjongTime's client is of a very, very low quality (compare playing on MahjongTime to Tenhou or even Mahjong Logic some time - the different is startling). The problem is simply this - while MahjongTime retains its position, there is no real opportunity for a client to target and take the same market. Thus, progress of the quality of the client is literally defined by MahjongTime - and they show no signs of bothering to improve. Why would they when they couldn't be challenged?
I don't like MahjongTime, and I would rather like to see it die, because it's not quite as simple as 'if you don't like it don't play it'. Any client in a position as MahjongTime is with the Anglophone (and particularly the play-for-money) mahjong market - that being, a popular and almost monopolistic client in a relatively niche market - doesn't exist as a bubble in and as of itself.
The continued dominance of MahjongTime is bad for internet mahjong (and in the longer run for mahjong in general. After all, internet mahjong is often the route that sparks interest for real mahjong, and the better the quality of the client, the more likely they are to get into it and thus get on to playing real mahjong), and that's why I'd like to see it bugger off.
For example: its monopoly status thanks to its share of the market (particularly its ability to advertise and affliate), uneven information thus (how can you make an informed decision on what client to use when MahjongTime is portrayed as the only choice?), the nature of the market (particularly in that because of the multiplayer aspect any client must quickly build a strong base to be viable, and thus a limited number of firms can be viable) the small target demographic in the shorter term, etc
The market condition isn't viable when MahjongTime has such a corrupting influence. It effectively has reached monopoly status and is in a position to prevent or hinder other companies entering the market through its economic power, media and commercial influence, and large market share. If a company was operating under these conditions in a large market with these conditions, it would have probably have been butchered by regulators already!
Therefore, very simple, if you like tenhou, just continue there, if you like mahjonglogic, carry on.
Those who like mahjongtime, just wait for their change this week. I also hope those who criticise mahjongtime so much, don't come back and play anymore. If you still do, it is really ashamed of yourself, cos in the actual fact, you actually like the site. Am I right?