axd: Why this page... (2006-05-30 19:05) [#1646]

I think that turn-based play is grossly underestimated, and the existence of this mode of playing deserves more promotion; here is the place to collect advantages and inconveniences linked to TBP.

Several negative reactions often come back when mentioning TBP:

1. Have no time to play (but you sure have time to surf the Internet, or at least check your mailbox)
2. It is too slow (but personally I completed about 1000+ games - of different board sizes, admitted - over three years, to give an indication)
3. For some reason TBP seems to be considered inferior as well as less popular than playing "in real time".

I also have the impression that TBP really becomes interesting when one can play lot's of games simultaneously: if you have only a few games running, chances are that in most of them you are waiting for the opponent to move, and thus TBP will be boring; but if you have several ongoing games - especially with opponents from distant timezones - at almost any moment of the day you have the occasion to move.

I'm not sure to what extent the inherent lapses of concentration (because one will wander off into other games, come back later and have forgotten the context of a particular game) are bad for one's play in general. What I notice is that after seevral years of play, I can recognise an ongoing game amid 50 or 60 for example, and also remember where trouble spots lie. This was impossible when I started playing (on DGS, btw).