Joyjan EXISTS BUT PRETTY MUCH NOBODY USES IT AT ALL

So as I've said before, the hardest part of teaching riichi mahjong to new players is that there's no really good English-language online client (Mahjongtime plays terribly, nobody deserves it).

There's good news, then. An English client called Joyjan has recently appeared, and it's not too bad either. Before this, your choice was between a good client and one that was in English, and with Joyjan one no longer has to make that decision. Tenhou and Janryumon are still better, mind, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at this at all.

The key points are English-language everything (particularly, yaku names) and Arabic numerals over the tiles. There has been some chatter over whether English or Japanese yaku names should be used: Double Run vs. Ii Pei Kou, for example. It's a "sounds cool" conflict, just like, say, arguments over translating martial arts techniques in anime. While I personally know and use the Japanese yaku names after two years playing mostly on Japanese online clients, I believe it's a lot more important for a game to make sense than to sound cool. "San ankou" doesn't mean anything to the English speaker, and "three concealed triples" does. (Also, they mean the exact same thing.)

As for the numbers, this should be a welcome bit of assistance for anybody who's ever been intimidated by the Chinese numbers on the "man" suit. I still recommend getting to know these characters, unless you want to only ever play riichi on Joyjan or Mahjongtime or on sets with Arabic numerals. But what a waste that would be! The "Tile Help" button can be flipped on and off for those of us who know the numbers.

The main drawback, however, is the sheer lack of users: the service is in very early beta right now and the English-speaking Riichi community is already extremely small. Speaking for myself, I'm using it as a break from the increasingly stressful grind of ranked Tenhou matches: third dan is a heavy burden indeed. The service is in beta, though, and I believe that the plan is for users of the English client to be dropped in seamlessly with users of the Japanese one. As for now, well... I leave it on the background and check up every so often. My username on there is "triplebreak": you might run into me.

Comments

[Groove-A]

Cool little app much more intuitive than Tenhou . Now I just got to brush up on what hands are good and all that. Thanks.