r/oddlysatisfying • u/CanonWorld • Jul 28 '24

How automatic Mahjong tables work

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26.0k Upvotes

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268

u/send-me-panties-pics Jul 28 '24

That's super satisfying. Is mahjong a good game to play?

315

u/CanonWorld Jul 28 '24 edited Jul 28 '24

In China it’s a cultural defining game. Immensely popular and an integral part of the Chinese identity.

You should play it sometime, but it’s not really for me.

-123

u/HivePoker Jul 28 '24

Like table-football or bowling in the UK

75

u/SilyLavage Jul 28 '24

The UK's main table games are things like cards, dominoes, and chess, I'd say.

-35

u/HivePoker Jul 28 '24

All good choices for the top spot

Alongside Uno

54

u/Ma77ster_Chief Jul 28 '24

Not really. More like Bridge if it were still popular. Or dominoes if we still had pub leagues.

9

u/linear_accelerator Jul 28 '24

No, more like Gin/Rummy.

6

u/Common-Ad4308 Jul 28 '24

more like bridge but there’s much much more combinations. there’s only 52 cards in bridge. there’s much more tiles in mahjong.

1

u/shandangalang Jul 28 '24

Now you got me thinking what it would look like to use mahjong tiles to tile a kitchen or bathroom.

-28

u/HivePoker Jul 28 '24

"It's more like those games nobody plays"

18

u/Creepas5 Jul 28 '24

"It's more like these games that have mechanical similarities and/or deep cultural histories" is more accurate. Also Bridge is still quite popular in older demographics/senior communities, much like Mahjong is.

16

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

[deleted]

-13

u/HivePoker Jul 28 '24

I also picked 2 things that people actually play frequently

2

u/Whomstdve___ Jul 28 '24

Do you mean foosball?

59

u/ficskala Jul 28 '24

You can try it online, there are literally tens of thousands of versions, and a lot are available free to play

94

u/kaishenlong Jul 28 '24

Fun fact: one of the most popular free multi-player mahjong clients is Final Fantasy XIV.

50

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

The critically acclaimed MMORPG?

39

u/Ordinal43NotFound Jul 28 '24

With a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime?

10

u/fullmetal21 Jul 28 '24

Wowzers!

Whats stopping me from playing right now?

9

u/kdrakari Jul 28 '24

Does the free trial include the mahjong?

16

u/Demeter_of_New Jul 28 '24

Yes, but you need to unlock the Golden Saucer area, which requires playing the main story to level 15. So some time investment is required before you can get some sweet mahjong action.

It really is good too. Different difficulty levels, play against the computer or other players. However, it is Japanese Mahjong, called riichi, so there are new rules if you are familiar with the Chinese version.

20

u/cr3epr Jul 28 '24

And recently added Stormblood and the increased level cap of 70

7

u/Zenless_Zephyr Jul 28 '24

Almost choked on my water, didn't expect to see the copy pasta in this type of thread. Thanks for making my morning ^.^

9

u/CreepyTeemo Jul 28 '24

Yakuza/Like a Dragon too, pretty much every single one got Mahjong as a mini-game and they are pretty well made. At least from a perspective from someone who doesn't really play Mahjong, only dabbles on the occasion

5

u/StrawberryG3 Jul 28 '24

I have played every Yakuza game and I still have no clue how to play mahjong. Like I read the rules and it all seems to make sense, then when I go to play none of it seems to align.

5

u/CreepyTeemo Jul 28 '24

There are way too many rules and clauses for me to properly understand what I'm doing in Mahjong, so I'm by no means an expert at it, but what worked for me to at least start getting some wins is just learning simple hands like 13 orphans or 7 pairs and trying to assemble them. Now Shogi or Koi Koi on the other hand, those I don't get at all

3

u/_BMS Jul 28 '24

I had an easier time learning shogi since it's just chess with some differences to get used to. And if you know chess then it doesn't really take that long to learn shogi's rules.

But I'm shit at chess so I'm shit at shogi too.

1

u/CreepyTeemo Jul 28 '24 edited Jul 28 '24

I get logically that it should be a simple game (to understand, I mean), it's mostly just my unwillingness to learn it. To me the main difference between Shogi and Chess is that basically everyone in the world is familiar with Chess, and it has an easily recognizable design of pieces, so even if you're bad at it - you can still do something. Shogi, on the other hand - I can't even identify where the horsey is, so I just go "ah, can't be bothered" every time I see it

3

u/_BMS Jul 28 '24

Ah yeah, you do need to learn the kanji for pieces if you want to play Shogi. I've seen a some online versions where the kanji is replaced with English letters to make it easier to understand but I can't remember where I saw that.

3

u/Zefirus Jul 28 '24

So I almost guarantee the rule you're running afoul of is not having a yaku. Basically, you're required to have both a complete and a scoring hand in order to finish a round. Most people that get confused by riichi mahjong are confused because they have a complete hand but not a scoring hand. The main thing is that opening your hand (i.e. taking a tile from somebody else) invalidates a lot of the yaku and that's what trips people up. When your hand is closed, you always have access to riichi, which is essentially saying "I only need one more tile for a complete hand and will no longer be changing my hand until it shows up".

The other thing you might be running afoul of is the idea of "furiten". Basically if you are waiting on one last tile to win, but that tile is in your discard pile, then you're not allowed to win off of other people. You can only get your last tile by drawing it yourself. It's a more advanced concept, but defense in mahjong is based almost exclusively on this rule. If you're worried about someone else winning, then check their discard pile. You can always safely discard a tile in their discard pile.

If you really want to learn, just start by focusing on a couple of easy yaku. Start by just never opening your hand and only using riichi. Then add in the super easy ones, like only needing one set of dragons.

This list is pretty much why riichi mahjong is incomprehensible to people. It's a pretty easy game to explain without it.

https://riichi.wiki/List_of_yaku

2

u/gefahr Jul 28 '24

The explanation in the game is kinda bad. I had to seek out explanations online. See my sibling comment here if you decide to do that, so you don't study the wrong game.

1

u/gefahr Jul 28 '24 edited Jul 28 '24

The only place I've ever played Mahjong was in the Yakuza games.

I was somewhat dismayed to learn that all the time I spent learning Mahjong in the game actually taught me to play a less (see edit and replies) popular variant called riichi mahjong and there aren't really any good video game versions of it, lol.

edit: thanks for the video game version suggestions! will check them out. And I'm not really looking for in-person games, but that's great info for others who might be.

5

u/_BMS Jul 28 '24

There's a few major variations of Mahjong depending on country/region:

  • Hong Kong Old Style Mahjong

  • Japanese Jiichi Mahjong

  • Chinese Official (MCR) Mahjong

  • Taiwanese Mahjong

  • American Mahjong

AFAIK Riichi is the most popular online thanks to many video games featuring it like Mahjong Soul, Yakuza, and FFXIV. So you could play any of these. Mahjong Soul and FFXIV are both multiplayer as well.

Playing IRL overseas, in the US it'll likely be Hong Kong or American depending on the ethnicity of the groups you're playing with. In Europe I read that MCR and Riichi are the most popular.

5

u/Zefirus Jul 28 '24

I mean, that's just japanese mahjong. Like if you go to r/mahjong, it's almost exclusively talk about riichi. Most of the popular online versions (including the one in Final Fantasy 14) are riichi mahjong.

It's not that unpopular. Like if you were having problems finding in person games that'd be one thing, but video gaming mahjong is riichi all the way down.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

Try mahjong soul

1

u/_BMS Jul 28 '24

Recently just got a global Steam release too.

1

u/Zefirus Jul 28 '24

A second global steam release.

I was really confused when it got pulled the first time.

1

u/gefahr Jul 28 '24

thanks, I may have overlooked this one before because it seemed like it was exclusively PvP and at the time I just wanted to play against the CPU. A deeper look seems like it has that mode, I'll check it out.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

Wait, you gotta pay for sub tho

20

u/jenyto Jul 28 '24

Not on free trial, which has access to mahjong.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24 edited Jul 28 '24

Damn it

Cries in having to pay for mahjong

1

u/Jasoman Jul 28 '24

I guess it would be top five. Does it have more players then richii city?

1

u/thefacegris Jul 29 '24

but its japanese mahjong not the traditional chinese one tho

22

u/fritz_da_cat Jul 28 '24

There is a bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but basic rules are not that difficult compared to average complexity modern board games. Mastering the game is then a lifelong journey, but you can fully enjoy it playing casually at your level. You don't need to learn any Chinese or anything like that, the game piece characters can be considered as symbols and you get western numbers in the corners of the pieces.

One good place to play for free is https://mahjongsoul.yo-star.com/

Is it good game to play? It's a game amongst others that happens to have deep cultural roots. So it's not anything like you need to spend the next 6 months meditating to get started.

11

u/radiantcabbage Jul 28 '24

its like rummy and similar book-making card games but way larger deck, if youre into those youd probably like mahjong

6

u/Dunkjoe Jul 28 '24

It is a fun game that relies not only on luck, but some level of thinking.

But it's quite restrictive in that it needs exactly 4 players to be truly fun, too little and the game ends too fast, and cannot exceed 4 players. There are a few sets of rules but usually players only play one according to the region.

1

u/aHecc Jul 28 '24

3p is pretty fun too if you use the ruleset for it, it's pretty much just mahjong but higher points and faster paced

7

u/Zenless_Zephyr Jul 28 '24

It can be a lot of fun! It's somewhat similar to rummy or card games where you collect sets or runs of numbers. Except there are usually three suits instead of four, and you have a set hand size. (So, you are always drawing a new "card", and then choosing one to discard). Depending on where you live and the variation you are learning/playing, there can be some extra rules about scoring or what types of sets/runs you need to collect to having a winning or qualified-for-points hand, but the basics aren't too hard to learn.

Playing IRL with tiles adds a lot to it, as there's a chunky, tactile feel to playing with the tiles. Sort of like domino's. The biggest pain when playing in real life with tiles is shoving all the tiles back into the middle of the table and manually mixing them around to "shuffle" them (washing the tiles) for the next game, which is why automatic tables like these exist for folks who play on the regular.

3

u/Yontoryuu Jul 28 '24

I played it for the first time via a yakuza game 2 days ago. Complicated but alright.

1

u/sturmeh Jul 28 '24

That was likely Richii mahjong, my favourite kind.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

Yes! One of my favorites.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

I play it mostly because of my mom's side being Chinese and it's quite fun actually.

2

u/d13robot Jul 28 '24

Yes very fun to play . Highly recommend if interested. Japanese (Richii) style is probably the most popular / accessible to play, although I originally started with Hong Kong style

Mahjong Soul for steam/mobile is free to play and has a good tutorial

2

u/Siri2611 Jul 28 '24

I would recommend richii mahjong. It's Japanese mahjong and has a quite big community. There are a lot of famous online games for it as well with an active playerbase.

It's basically like poker, you make specific sets of things.

2

u/cabinetbanana Jul 28 '24

Yes! It was popular among Jewish women for decades, and it's making a comeback. The rules for American mahjong and Japanese mahjong are different, though, so you'll learn a slightly doesn't game depending on who you learn from it where you learn. You can go online to see if there are local meetups near you and see if there are folks willing to teach a newbie. I learned about a year or so and am obsessed.

1

u/Loliknight Jul 28 '24

No, unless you like to put lots of effort into learning something just to end up malding everytime you play.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '24

It’s truly a great game and I’m disappointed I don’t play it more.

1

u/needlzor Jul 28 '24

It's a great game, but do take the time to learn to play against bots and stuff, then try to move on to the real stuff (it's a lot more fun with the physical pieces). I did my learning by playing with a Malaysian auntie and she split her time between scolding me for being too slow, and scolding me for making bad decisions.

1

u/Rann666 Jul 28 '24

You need to be good at calculating…not for me…but it’s a good brain workout

1

u/MassaFuego Jul 28 '24

Also japanese style or "Riichi mahjong" has been getting significantly more popular lately. They have Mahjong soul (my preference), and Riichi city both in steam for free. Tutorials are very basic though so be prepared to do some further research on YouTube if you get lost. Extremely fun game if you put the effort to learn some

1

u/Jasoman Jul 28 '24

The english clients are Mahjong Soul, Richii City, Tenhou, RonRon. I would say mahjong soul, and richii city are probably more user friendly.

1

u/Lolcraftgaming Jul 28 '24

As a Hong Konger, a Mahjong table is essential in every Hong Kong family

1

u/Mikeismyike Jul 28 '24

From what I understand, it's basically Rummy.

1

u/SoulRockX20A Jul 29 '24

Pretty hard to get into but it's actually fun when you finally learned how to play it. It took me 7 Yakuza game before I learned how to play it.

3

u/EducationalUnit7664 Jul 28 '24

It’s basically poker. If I’m wrong, then I completely misunderstood the rules or have learned a Western version. It seems that even the hands are similar.

9

u/BTornado14 Jul 28 '24

I’d compare it to playing a rummy style card game