American Go E-Journal

Shawn Ray’s new Go club simulator allows clubs to make their own rules

Wednesday April 8, 2020

The coronavirus lockdown has inspired creativity in developers, and Shawn Ray has released a Go club simulator that is designed to give online players more of an in-person Go club feel. After being inspired by Haskell Small’s pioneering use of Zoom for Go club meetings as published in our story on Sunday, Ray was inspired to create an online space for players to interact without building in the usual rules by which Go servers are bound.

A note to Go clubs trying to use this as a way to have a club meeting: please watch Ray’s YouTube video describing this venture and explaining the technical details that you may need in order to make this work. The games in play are not governed by any rule-sets and allow players to interact with each other as the might do in person. Ray recommends that his service be used in conjunction with a voice or video chat service such as Skype or Zoom so that players can speak with each other and work out any issues while using the platform.