201209-lishogi-diary-2.md

lishogi diary 2

(Original post by karakoro-san: https://note.com/karakorororo/n/n9d88b79a05b7)

Today too I'll put out whatever I'm thinking about today.

Depopulation

So it happened after all.

As I was playing Shogi no Tomo (a recently released app) I noticed that the important thing was not depopulation, but the inability to get a game. Well, of course.

Automatic matchmaking is important.

[picture of lichess quick pairing lobby page]

The above image is from lichess.

If just one or two cadences are made available to prevent the playerbase from scattering, more matches will be made.

But well, in the first place I don't know if the developers are trying to gather more players, or if they're trying to fix fatal bugs now.

English study

I've started studying to be able to write in English.

I had originally gotten to a decent level in reading and listening to be able to study chess, so I don't think this'll take too much time.

I'm just using DeepL to translate and memorise.

Content creators

Currently, those who stream lishogi are pretty much only lichess users or shogi Vtubers.

For shogi Vtubers even getting 50 concurrent viewers is a lot, so while it's not a very big target demographic, viewerships are currently on the rise so there's a chance their presence could increase.

The trend is less towards serious matches and more towards streams for entertainment, so this matches well with the developers' passion for variants.

[YouTube video of Ayase Aya playing ROOK VS BISHOP shogi on lishogi]

I didn't know this was possible.

Shogi Quest, the rival?

If lishogi continues to grow steadily, in comparison Shogi Club 24 has brand value, Shogi Wars has entertainment value, and 81Dojo has the appeal of being a communication tool where friends gather, all of which are distinct from lishogi's direction -- but this puts lishogi on a collision course with Shogi Quest.

The appeal of Shogi Quest is in crisp performance, unlimited free games, and the short 2+0 sudden death time control. If lishogi gets an app version, it will be interesting to see which will survive.

What can I do

Recently I've been feeling like there's someone on my shoulder doing nothing but to complain.

Today I'll read the "lesson" text and at least contribute something.

When the minimum necessary features of byoyomi, automatic matchmaking, kifu read/write, and click-to-drop-pieces have been implemented, I'll write an article, not one with a neutral and detached title, but one to generate hype.

This kind of post also has a surprising amount of influence.

[picture of note.com dashboard -- "There are a surprising amount of overseas shogi sites", 681 views, 8 likes; "The black ship arrives!? New shogi playing site 'lishogi'", 482 views, 9 likes]

Combining a fun title with the bigsby emoji as a thumbnail should get some decent outreach.

[picture of Bigsby the giant osho cooking]

Last time I wrote that it could have been influenced by lichess culture, but actually it's a mascot created by Will Maynard of the South Bay Shogi Club, California.

In other words, it was created by the overseas shogi community, and has nothing to do with chess. Sorry about that.

Writing a post like "Eyes on a shogi piece!? Mysterious foreign culture Bigsby" would get some outreach... but would that be worth reaching out for.

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~translated by Illion

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