I thought about posting this in the Go board section, but there is more to this post than that. I was just reading an article about Go's image and why it's not as popular as other games commonly played in the west. And then someone told me that Nintendo made Go boards. Then a brilliant idea hit me:

What if you could personalize your Go board? Typically you only see a standard brownish color when it comes to Go boards. But what if they made special skins for Go boards that act as a sort of jacket for them?

Imagine introducing children to a Go board with Super Mario on it. Or Star Wars. Or whatever it is kids these days like (gosh I feel old). Of course there would probably be licensing discussions. But it was just something that came to mind.

Some other fun ideas I had was having the stones shaped like things. For example, a Mario themed Go board would have a picture of Mushroom Castle behind the intersecting lines, and you'd choose between Goomba pieces and Mushroom Head pieces. It's obviously nothing for serious competitions or the like, but it could be interesting.

I'm sure there are already ideas out there, but I haven't seen anything like it available. But I think things like this would put more emphasis on the fun to be had from playing Go rather than just antiquity and challenge. I think if you make the fun factor more prevalent, more people would be interested in the game.

One key example of this is my Star Wars chess set that I bought nearly five years ago. I had no interest in the game itself per se, well, that's a lie. I like Chess, but I don't typically play it. Anyway, the point is, I saw that it had a Star Wars theme and it sparked my interest. Enough interest for me to put down $50 for a board I'd never use.

When people buy cell phones, video game consoles/handhelds, MP3 Players, televisions, and pretty much everything known to man, they like to personalize it. But as far as I know, Go really doesn't have things like this readily available. Or again, nothing that I have seen. And sure you could say simply put stickers on it, but I'd hate to have to pull the stickers off one day and potentially hurt the board.

I heard there were up to 500 players that attended the last US Go Congress. Imagine 5000. 50,000. Yeah, okay, maybe I'm dreaming here. But I really think personalization is a strong force in anything. That's just my opinion, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

And wow, I'm probably posting way too much these days!

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Slava Ukraini!

I think Go trading cards would be more effective for popularizing the game. Especially the rookie cards when an 11 year old turns pro. Kids can really get into the who is who kind of thing, kind of like those kids that memorize all the baseball player stats, even if they don't play baseball.

years back, before I ever played golf, I bought a bunch of trading cards of golf players, just 'cause it was something to collect.. not a bad idea at all..

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"Hell if you understand everything I said, you’d be me." ~ Miles Davis ~

A go app with great sounds/ visual effects design especially for kids

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si no puedes triunfar, muere gloriosamente

This is the part that causes me pause in considering your idea. That's not exactly the outcome we'd like. It would work out great for the equipment suppliers, but not for generating stronger interest in players.

But, on the other hand, personalization is a very real Western value, and to generate more interest in the West this is a pretty good idea. "Skinning" go gear to suit a personal interest might help draw people in to use their imaginations and envision this new kind of conflict with familiar characters or concepts that they are already interested in.

Traditionally, people personalize their go boards by asking famous go players to sign the back of the board and perhaps add some Chinese calligraphy describing their thoughts on go as well. There are two examples of what I would call personalized go boards from the past shown in my blog.
http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2011/05/3 ... en-go-set/
http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2010/04/2 ... ned-goban/

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Well, the real reason I never used it was because of the collector value. But I asked my cousin, who finds Go boring, if themed Go boards might make him more interested in playing, and he said he would definitely be more interested.

Personally speaking, I like Go boards the way they are, but I think themed Go boards would especially appeal to the younger generation. So I definitely think it has its benefits.

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Slava Ukraini!

I do have a Hikaru no Go board in my house.

one with a huge bloodstain?

i think its a good idea but i dont how you would personalize the stones since there are only white and black stones as opposed to chess which has a multitude of pieces. do you have an example which would be possible?

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admin of the ASR league and KGS admin

Well, as long as all the pieces that represent black are the same, and all the pieces that represent white are the same, no problem, ya? Maybe have pieces like this:



VS



And then have them battle on a board that has this background image:



I'm not saying it has to be Mario or those things exactly, but that's what the idea is. And as for how you'd get the themed Go board, basically you have a sort of shell that you place overtop of the Go board. Sort of like a jacket. That way, you could have interchangeable themes with one board. Make the intersecting lines a color that is easy to see, and bam. Fun.

It's a silly idea, but it might appeal to someone.

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Slava Ukraini!

Or how about this game.

http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/igobooks/yonro.html

I don't think the supermario theme is appropriate for one there are copyright issues two I think kids would be like "why can't we have a nintendo?"

However maybe collectable stones might be a good idea especially if they conform to the standard stone specs and were obviously black or white, so you could mix a few in the normal set. I could totally see kids trying to capture the special stones. Maybe with samurai motif's.

You could probably even get those paints they use for some of the miniatures games and start painting them, though they might tend to get worn down pretty quickly.

There was also this:

[/quote]

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Patience, grasshopper.

Well, I said I didn't intend for it to be Mario. That was just a representative of what the idea was. I used Mario because I'm a huge fan of the games.

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Slava Ukraini!

I heard that the Hikaru No Go go stones were a little confusing to play with, because the black stones were illustrated with white, and the white stones illustrated with black, so it wasn't always clear at a casual glance which they were. But it was a cool idea, and no reason it couldn't work with a different color scheme, or character-shaped stones. Just for example, a Halloween theme might have black cat head stones vs orange pumpkin stones.

Okay, here's a funky idea: an electronic board that plays customized sound effects when you place a stone. You could load the sounds from your computer, like you do with ringtones. So, say you have your Star Wars-skinned board, and when you played a stone, it sounded like a laser blast. (And when a captured stone was picked up, C3PO said, "Oh, no, not again!" Of course, it would all get really annoying once the novelty wore off.)

I think it could easily be done with the same sort of technology they use for graphic drawing tablets. It could also record your SGF files.

wowh. nice idea there.
I some months a go search the colour stones so I can play multi color go with my friends. but,I can't find any. hmm.. go stone with characteristic from anime is nice too. just like Dark & Krad in DnAngel.. it must be fun and interest kids these days.

Yellow Mountain Imports has 4 color go stones here:

http://www.ymimports.com/p-1625-4-color ... ze-33.aspx

I am not sure if they will ship anywhere, but if you live in Korea, they might be able to tell you where they buy them from.

haha. I'm in Indonesia. maybe I'll ask for my sensei.