Probably like 5 million active members
No People Playing Variants?
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Sep 4, 2021
0
#3
Batman2508 wrote:
Probably like 5 million active members
understood, but still... 181/5,000,000 is not a lot lol
Sep 4, 2021
0
#4
royalknight101 wrote:
some people just dont like variants or they do use variants but by making making challenges in the "play" or "live" server as thats where everyone mostly goes
The thing is, the variants that you can play in live chess or "play" are only a few of them, ones that existed from way back when. Things like atomic and blindfold can't be played in live.
So... no one wants to play the other ones?
Sep 4, 2021
0
#5
I was playing puzzle battle this morning and I got matched really quickly, but then it took more 30 minutes to find an opponent
Sep 4, 2021
0
#6
Andrew67275 wrote:
I was playing puzzle battle this morning and I got matched really quickly, but then it took more 30 minutes to find an opponent
yeah, I personally just do puzzle rush instead of puzzle battle (there's barely any difference)
puzzle battle is better against people you know anyways (some might even call those people FRIENDS)
Sep 4, 2021
0
#7
I love variants but quit playing because it was a waste of time I would sit for hours without an opponent I always accept variant challenges
I love chess and I like some variants. I've never played variants with an intention to learn or deepen, or with a strong desire to win; only just to pass my time [except 960]. But when I want to just pass my time, I instinctively click on bullet and so I play. That's it
EnergeticHay wrote:
Chess.com's Variants feature is a great idea, and I really like the addition of it, but why is there literally no one playing every time I try to play? There were only 181 players across all variants when I logged on today. How is that even possible with a site with more than 70 million members? I'm confused.
Even the more "popular" variants like Atomic only had approximately 10 people playing.
Perhaps Variants is still in beta, but even so, something feels wrong. Let me know, guys!
Did you count the people playing 4 player chess? There are sometimes over 400 people playing 4pc at the same time (with 800 people spectating the games)!
I think that the variants bring as much pleasure in the creation process than in the playing process. I love variants but as a lot of creators, I love creating variants, experimenting new things. Sometimes I compare that to an art, a painter loves to paint, not necessarily to watch paintings. I also confess that when I play, I have more tendency to play my variants than the variants invented by others. Not because I think mine are better (those who think that are insane), just because it is a pleasure for me to see how my games develop when animated by others.
royalknight101 wrote:
some people just dont like variants or they do use variants but by making making challenges in the "play" or "live" server as thats where everyone mostly goes
What that says
Sep 5, 2021
0
#13
gg7654 wrote:
EnergeticHay wrote:
Chess.com's Variants feature is a great idea, and I really like the addition of it, but why is there literally no one playing every time I try to play? There were only 181 players across all variants when I logged on today. How is that even possible with a site with more than 70 million members? I'm confused.
Even the more "popular" variants like Atomic only had approximately 10 people playing.
Perhaps Variants is still in beta, but even so, something feels wrong. Let me know, guys!
Did you count the people playing 4 player chess? There are sometimes over 400 people playing 4pc at the same time (with 800 people spectating the games)!
yeah, but that's still only a few hundred. I guess I'm just surprised at how little interest there is in these variants
EnergeticHay a écrit :
gg7654 wrote:
EnergeticHay wrote:
Chess.com's Variants feature is a great idea, and I really like the addition of it, but why is there literally no one playing every time I try to play? There were only 181 players across all variants when I logged on today. How is that even possible with a site with more than 70 million members? I'm confused.
Even the more "popular" variants like Atomic only had approximately 10 people playing.
Perhaps Variants is still in beta, but even so, something feels wrong. Let me know, guys!
Did you count the people playing 4 player chess? There are sometimes over 400 people playing 4pc at the same time (with 800 people spectating the games)!
yeah, but that's still only a few hundred. I guess I'm just surprised at how little interest there is in these variants
I'm not surprised so much. This is mostly a place for chess players. Chess players do not like variants, some can even be very agressive against this. For many of them it is a lost of time, or simply an heresy. Personally, I love to be an heretic :=)
Sep 5, 2021
0
#15
I like to play variants but I don’t play them often. You can’t really improve very much by playing them. I am trying to get better, so I just do puzzles, blitz and rapid. But it is interesting that there’s almost nobody playing variants. My guess is that newer players or accounts might not even notice there are variants on chess.com. I think most players just stick to regular chess.
Sep 5, 2021
0
#17
NuclearLightning wrote:
I think people get discouraged with their early results. They are good blitz players here and get crushed playing 5+5 Gothic Chess. I advise them to play a few 10 + 15 games first to get used to the new pieces but they still want to unleash the Chancellor and Archbishop too early. Gothic Chess has a higher “decision complexity” than 8x8 chess, but once you get used to it, stunning combinations await your creative drive.
Cool man, but this isn't really a place to advertise your own variant, it's getting a bit repetitive now
Sep 5, 2021
0
#18
generally the variants server has less people and can handle less. Maybe if the two were integrated I would do more variants.
Sep 5, 2021
0
#20
@NuclearLightning
I understand, and I think that Gothic Chess is definitely an interesting variant that deserves more attention. That brings me back to my question, which is why is there so little attention on variants? Why don't more people play them? I appreciate the sharing of your opinion, which if I understand correctly, is that many players are used to playing bullet/blitz and do not like switching to new variants under the same fast time controls. I guess I just didn't quite understand the point of commenting things like "I play the variant I invented, Gothic Chess. Here's a cool game" and "The most common question I get asked is: [...] " since it's not directly related to the discussion, even though we ARE after all talking about variants 
Chess.com's Variants feature is a great idea, and I really like the addition of it, but why is there literally no one playing every time I try to play? There were only 181 players across all variants when I logged on today. How is that even possible with a site with more than 70 million members? I'm confused.
Even the more "popular" variants like Atomic only had approximately 10 people playing.
Perhaps Variants is still in beta, but even so, something feels wrong. Let me know, guys!