(Original post by karakoro-san: https://note.com/karakorororo/n/n8d4bb7d25ca5)
Screenshot of lishogi blog post (in Japanese) announcing the release of Puzzles
lishogi has finally implemented Puzzles.
Image of lishogi Puzzles interface
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I've been steadily reporting bugs and doing assorted tasks to make this a reality, but considering that I've known about it long before the announcement, and thinking about the amount of careful bughunting work needed from here on out, if I'm being honest, strangely enough I'm not very excited for it.
In Discord the bug reports have been pinging in for the past three days, and I have no idea what has been already reported or not reported. I guess that's the case with a new product.
(Translator's note: the word "bug" here refers mainly to issues with the problems themselves, e.g. cooked problems, longer mates, unaccepted but correct duals, or problems ending with objectively lost positions.)
Leaving out the buggy ones, the quality of the puzzles is pretty good. The quality can rise even further if more games were played and puzzles were then taken from games between strong players. I would like to see the likes/dislikes to be loosened a little, since opening puzzles are all much of the same. It's a little early for me to ask this, though.
Many of the graciously donated puzzles have been included. I can't thank the composers enough.
There are still a number of hills to climb, but the Puzzles feature is probably the highest mountain, so once it calms down the end will be in sight.
Honestly I don't understand how this project is still running. I don't really get it, but there seems to be just barely enough people working on it. Take away any one of them and the project might stall. That's probably not the case though.
Recently the number of streamers have gone up. Sometimes I'll take a look, and there'll be two or more streams going at the same time. Streamers bring their viewers to lishogi, and the lishogi users check out their streams. This kind of virtuous cycle will soon kick in. The quickest way to do this would be to get popular Japanese streamers to discover lishogi. However, popularity is mostly concentrated around Shogi Wars, and since people are already migrating there this will probably be difficult. If we could somehow steadily get people to join to the point where automatching is possible, it may be an option. More realistically, since for some reason there are a lot of Vtubers among the lishogi streamers, it would be effective to get Kaku Kiriko or Hamaburi (who have the most momentum) interested in lishogi, and get them to organise tournaments here. We need to make the site as attractive as possible.
I'm starting to see a few trolls. Sadly, this will happen as more people join. We're near the point where we will need more moderators when a few more players join.
The community is still in a fledgling state, and there are many of capable and passionate people gathered. I also frequent the lichess Discord to improve my English, and... it's pretty terrible there. I wonder how much mod time is taken up by that kind of [insert adverb] bug reporting and suggestions. The earlier Bougyoku tournament saw the online user count stretch to 190, and lishogi might soon be entering this stage.
lichess is often compared to chess.com. The Puzzles revamp and inclusion of several new modes has seen lichess rise to the top, challenging chess.com. chess.com seems to have started a prize contest to get proposals for a new UI, but I laughed when I saw quite a few people sent in the lichess site with the chess.com logo swapped in. It's clearly a joke, but some people might be serious about it.
If we were to compare lishogi, it would be to Shogi Quest, as I've written before. Shogi Wars is evolving more towards the entertainment angle and probably it will be tough to acquire new users from there. Shogi Quest is also free (with ads), so it will be a straight-up fight of UI and features. Would lishogi stand a chance to win? Honestly, I have no idea.
As more of a personal goal, I would like to try organising a Titled Arena. It would be fun to have an arena with professionals, former shoureikai players, national Amateur Meijin, prefecture representatives, and former or current international representatives from various countries. Although there are no titles reflecting playing strength unlike in chess, we can make do with what we have. There are a number of questions that spring to mind, such as professionals not being able to compete in amateur tournaments, but I'd like to try something here. There are surely some among the developers who hope for such a thing too.
~translated by Illion
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