Davis Freeberg’s Site Of The Week

February 9th, 2007 Davis Posted in Site Of The Week |

This week’s winner of the site of the week contest was The Maobot. Technically, the site is actually a sub-page that is being hosted at Kevan.org (which also has a ton of other fun stuff), but the game of Mao is the crown jewel on the site. It was a tough race this week, but I’m really pleased that the Maobot won out because the game of Mao has special memories for me. I first became aware of the game of Mao about ten years ago when a Mao grand master introduced me to the game during a late night drinking session and I’ve been in love with the game ever since.

One of the cardinal rules about the game of Mao is that you are not allowed to reveal the rules, so I’m limited in what I can tell you about the game, but I can say that it’s a lot of fun and if you ever get invited to play, I’d encourage you to try it out. After playing the game for almost a year, I was finally promoted to a Mao Grand Master myself and I went through a bizarre and surreal ceremony where all of the rules were finally explained.

As a new player you are thrown right into the thick of things without knowing any of the rules behind the game. Part of the fun is figuring it all out. When I first played the game, it took about five minutes and I had already been heavily penalized for a variety of violations. After a few rounds I quickly began to figure it out, but by then there was little chance of beginners luck helping me win the game. Because you are not allowed to talk in the game of Mao (unless it’s during a point of order), it makes it more difficult to figure out what the heck is going on.

The Maobot is a site that contains a program that does it’s best to simulate the game of Mao. You can also play two other derivatives of the game, but by far my favorite is Mao. You can only play one on one against the computer, so it’s not as much fun as playing with a group of friends and because the computer is in control, it gets to dictate the rules, but nontheless playing around with the site this week has been a lot of fun. Over the last week, it’s been really neat rekindling my love affair with the game and I’ve already wasted far too much time trying to beat the computer after a three rounds.

Congratulations to the Maobot on winning this week’s site of the week contest and for helping me to remember how much fun the game really is. The nominations for next week’s site of the week are listed below, you can vote for your favorite in the sidebar. If you’d like to nominate a site for the site of the week, you can email it to me at Davis DavisFreeberg Dot Com.

Wone

Bad Fads Museum

Hello Kitty Psychology Test