[thepossum]

Hi all

Apologies for this very personal comment, especially as someone with mainly social, and limited duplicate/club experience who is starting to find online/robot Bridge tedious in the extreme

I started learning the game as a child/young adult with family, playing rubber round a table. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed learning more advanced stuff from books and articles. The occasional social game at college, the occasional social game on a train with 3 strangers from lands far away. But sadly club duplicate never came close, and I have lived the last 30+years in a country where other games/sports seem to dominate. Even in cards everyone played something else. I never worked in a workplace where people sat around playing it every day either

I had a few bad experiences in clubs which put me off them. All too serious and not much fun. I even tried setting up tables or dropping in on various bridge sites. Similar lack of fun and overseriousness and often distress at letting people down etc

I miss playing fun social rubber Bridge. I enjoyed it the few times I was able to do it

The nearest I came to it several years back was sitting in a pub and a few people at the next table started setting up a game, bud sadly they had 4

Fun social rubber Bridge

Nearly forgot. Several years back a colleague/friend had started playing and I thought here is an opportunity. But no. For some reason to them social meant a club an classes and lessons for the person who would have been my partner. No fun. No social at all

That is all

Not quite all. I reckon teams looks like fun but it needs another 3 or 7 people at least to put up with you

I know this is not BBO specific but could I have a team with me and 3 bots (to start with). Would anyone play us

P

PS (EDIT) What also scares me off is overcomplexity and overtechnicality of it all now (maybe always). Sit down with 3 or 7strangers and play simple natural Bridge that everyone understands without anyone trying to trick anybody (sorry in case anyone misunderstands all kinds of psyches are allowed in social)

PPS I even thought of getting out my pack of cards, dealing 4 hands and playing myself. Talk about desperate for a real hand and pack of cards and real people

[AL78]

I miss playing bridge as well, specifically F2F bridge. Playing a computer game is not a substitute for direct social interaction. Unfortunately the clubs nearest me are dragging their feet about reopening F2F bridge, so I'm looking at clubs further afield, and I have found one where I can get at least one game a month F2F.

[hrothgar]

In my experience, social bridge is (pretty much) dead and gone.

I have a bunch of friends that I used to play F2F social games with, but over the years, we moved on to other games. If what you are really looking for is some kind of social gaming experience, you might have better luck doing the same.

Look around and see whether there are any stores in your area that focus on "gaming". If so, there is a decent chance that the sponsor different types of gaming activities and (hopefully) one or more of the actual games will be a good match for you.

I have no idea if this will turn out to be Settlers of Catan or Magic the Gathering or Warhammer or what have you, but if you're in an urban area there should be something.

If nothing else, you might consider online Gloomhaven.

[akwoo]

Even Catan I don't enjoy playing with people who are bad.

[pescetom]

A lot of people were missing F2F: we managed 9 tables f2f yesterday, which is a record for the tuesday competitive tournament despite having lost 25% of members during pandemic (lost as in did not renew).

As for social f2f bridge, you can still find it here if invited by acquaintances but the level is depressing (although the food and wine might make up for that). It's fun in the kitchen with family, but anyone who grew up in this century will find that hard to believe. Playing bridge with strangers in a pub or train or whatever sounds crazy to me, there are many more practical and equally amusing alternative games with the same cards.

[AL78]

hrothgar, on 2022-February-09, 06:49, said:

In my experience, social bridge is (pretty much) dead and gone.

I have a bunch of friends that I used to play F2F social games with, but over the years, we moved on to other games. If what you are really looking for is some kind of social gaming experience, you might have better luck doing the same.

Look around and see whether there are any stores in your area that focus on "gaming". If so, there is a decent chance that the sponsor different types of gaming activities and (hopefully) one or more of the actual games will be a good match for you.

I have no idea if this will turn out to be Settlers of Catan or Magic the Gathering or Warhammer or what have you, but if you're in an urban area there should be something.

If nothing else, you might consider online Gloomhaven.

I should clarify that when I talk about bridge and social interaction, I do not mean informally meeting up with three friends, but club duplicate where I can interact with people directly, which is uplifting for me given I live alone and my family live 240 miles away. Club duplicate is a social event for me, it is not turn up, head down, get on with it in silence, go home.

[barmar]

I hadn't been playing friendly social bridge for many years -- all my bridge was organized duplicate, some online, plus a weekly club game and tournaments.

But during the pandemic a group of friend started a weekly night where we all chat on zoom while we play informally on BBO. Even now that things have opened up we're still at it, and I don't think we're likely to stop any time soon.