Mahjong is a tile-matching game that has me playing for hours with friends. It has relatively simple mechanics: each turn you take a tile from the deck and discard a tile from your hand until you get a winning hand. Like most card games, it’s a mix of strategy and luck. However, the mechanics between players is what adds spice to the game. First off, all tiles are discarded face-up, allowing for easier card counting. Second, you can choose to take the most recently discard card, given some other constraints, from the previous player instead of the deck.
The social interaction from discarded tiles is what creates the core dynamic of the game. Players can also choose to discard tiles that would be favorable to others. Players can assume what tiles others need and intentionally withhold what would be another player’s winning tile. If all players hold their tiles, i.e immediately discard the tile drawn from the deck instead, this could result in a deadlock, forcing someone to change their play in order for the game to move on. Likewise, People could also bluff to manipulate others into discarding their winning tile. In short, the fellowship (and anti-fellowship) is what makes mahjong exciting.
