Backgammon HD for iOS: Limited-Time Free Download

I like that this app is straightforward, without lots of gimmicks or unnecessary and distracting graphics—and without constantly pushing engagement in social MEdia interaction—like many apps based on traditional board games (e.g., a popular one, of which I’m not a fan, loosely based on Scrabble). I don’t have to navigate a barrage of annoying prompts and invites to get to “play.” I can just enjoy a game relatively free of hype, playing against an AI opponent that doesn’t have (or need) a cartoon avatar with a clever name implying backstory and attitude. It effectively mimics a real game with real odds and isn’t trying to do more (OR assuming it must) to compete for attention, as if all users were kids with trouble focusing. I’m old school; I prefer real social interaction (like in person or via voice-only phone calls) to online vid-/app-based interaction. For so many of us, life and creative spirit aren’t meta. So it’s refreshing when an app doesn’t try too hard to impress—or isn’t relentlessly driven by an agenda to tether us to the meta-verse. Thanks!

I like that this app is straightforward, without lots of gimmicks or unnecessary and distracting graphics—and without constantly pushing engagement in social MEdia interaction—like many apps based on traditional board games (e.g., a popular one, of which I’m not a fan, loosely based on Scrabble). I don’t have to navigate a barrage of annoying prompts and invites to get to “play.” I can just enjoy a game relatively free of hype, playing against an AI opponent that doesn’t have (or need) a cartoon avatar with a clever name implying backstory and attitude. It effectively mimics a real game with real odds and isn’t trying to do more (OR assuming it must) to compete for attention, as if all users were kids with trouble focusing. I’m old school; I prefer real social interaction (like in person or via voice-only phone calls) to online vid-/app-based interaction. For so many of us, life and creative spirit aren’t meta. So it’s refreshing when an app doesn’t try too hard to impress—or isn’t relentlessly driven by an agenda to tether us to the meta-verse. Thanks!

I like that this app is straightforward, without lots of gimmicks or unnecessary and distracting graphics—and without constantly pushing engagement in social MEdia interaction—like many apps based on traditional board games (e.g., a popular one, of which I’m not a fan, loosely based on Scrabble). I don’t have to navigate a barrage of annoying prompts and invites to get to “play.” I can just enjoy a game relatively free of hype, playing against an AI opponent that doesn’t have (or need) a cartoon avatar with a clever name implying backstory and attitude. It effectively mimics a real game with real odds and isn’t trying to do more (OR assuming it must) to compete for attention, as if all users were kids with trouble focusing. I’m old school; I prefer real social interaction (like in person or via voice-only phone calls) to online vid-/app-based interaction. For so many of us, life and creative spirit aren’t meta. So it’s refreshing when an app doesn’t try too hard to impress—or isn’t relentlessly driven by an agenda to tether us to the meta-verse. Thanks!

When playing the game at the Hard level, don’t expect to be pitted against an expert backgammon player. The difficulty of that level is strictly due to the game cheating on its throws of the dice. You will consistently be faced with an opponent that throws doubles on the first or second turn of a game, that consistently gets precisely the combination of dice needed to capture one of your tiles, then throws exactly what it needs to block more of its home spaces while your attempts to get your captured tile back in the game are futile. With rare exceptions, you are consistently denied any opportunity of capturing any if the computer opponent’s tiles. And, in the unlikely event that you start winning by any significant margin, expect to throw ace-deuce until the computer opponent catches up or surpasses you, at which point it will offer to double the stakes, then throw double-6s or capture another of your tiles. Or both. This kind of brute-force auto-leveling of what should be a completely randomized event thwarts any serious player from ever experiencing the genuinely competitive gameplay that a dice game should provide, and speaks to a cynical programming approach that elevates sloth to a sportsmanlike virtue.Also, the ads are truly awful. Do I look like someone who wants to play a slot game, or save a morbidly obese king or comically voluptuous girl from catastrophe? Please.

When playing the game at the Hard level, don’t expect to be pitted against an expert backgammon player. The difficulty of that level is strictly due to the game cheating on its throws of the dice. You will consistently be faced with an opponent that throws doubles on the first or second turn of a game, that consistently gets precisely the combination of dice needed to capture one of your tiles, then throws exactly what it needs to block more of its home spaces while your attempts to get your captured tile back in the game are futile. With rare exceptions, you are consistently denied any opportunity of capturing any if the computer opponent’s tiles. And, in the unlikely event that you start winning by any significant margin, expect to throw ace-deuce until the computer opponent catches up or surpasses you, at which point it will offer to double the stakes, then throw double-6s or capture another of your tiles. Or both. This kind of brute-force auto-leveling of what should be a completely randomized event thwarts any serious player from ever experiencing the genuinely competitive gameplay that a dice game should provide, and speaks to a cynical programming approach that elevates sloth to a sportsmanlike virtue.Also, the ads are truly awful. Do I look like someone who wants to play a slot game, or save a morbidly obese king or comically voluptuous girl from catastrophe? Please.