Why Mahjong Solitaire Games Thrive in an Age of Short Attention Spans?

Quick Origins

As far as capturing the attention of people who have the shortest of attention spans, it is ironic that it took a lot of effort and attention of the game's creator “Brodie Lockard” to come up with the game in 1981. Brodie Lockard is a quadriplegic who had a paralyzing accident in 1979, and who took a long look at the traditional Mahjong Tiles and the Chinese children's game "The Turtle", and painstakingly used a mouth stick on a keyboard to program the game. So it's worth thinking about that a guy with immense attention and perseverance created a unique and awesome game that is able to capture the attention of even people with such little patience. Indeed, it is a wonder!

Initially created on the PLATO educational System (University of Illinois), Lockard eventually moved it to the Apple Mac which was then published by game company Activision as "Shanghai" in 1986 and ported over to other popular micro-computers of the time. It sold around 10 million units. Microsoft included the game with its Windows Operating System and called it "Taipei" in the 1990s, introducing the game to millions of Windows OS users. Today, mahjong solitaire is as common as the modern cellphone, and few are the gamers or device user who still has no idea of what Shanghai, Taipei, or Mahjong Solitaire is.

Unique and Interesting

Mahjong Solitaire is a very unique and interesting game. For starters, it blends the process of matching traditional tile artwork with solving a multi-layered 3-dimensional puzzle using spatial awareness more than pure logic. To this, here are some major factors that make Solitaire Mahjong a different kind of game.

The game stacks the tiles vertically in a variety of ways (depending on the game) which results in a unique 3D stacking arrangement. Just as cards are hidden underneath as in traditional card solitaires, one has to eliminate the tiles on top or beside a hidden tile to get to it. This opens up a strategic component to the game.

The game uses the traditional Mahjong suits and artwork. If you like oriental art, you will enjoy immersing yourself in traditional Chinese calligraphy, symbols, and culture. Mahjong has 144 tiles which is split into unique, highly detailed categories.

The game is solvable yet still very unpredictable. Since Solitaire Mahjong is, and should be digitally randomly generated, though it can be played with physical Mahjong tiles set-up by someone else, the random generation of the tile positions is what gives the unpredictable nature of the game. Some tiles are just impossible to get to and positioned under layers of tiles that simply also cannot be matched. This shows that even if one is good at matching the tiles, Lady Luck may still play a huge part in the game.

Quick-Play and Go

As mentioned, even people with the shortest of attention spans end up sitting for long periods of time in front of Mahjong Solitaire. The game is visually stimulating, has clear goals, is relaxing, and provides instant rewards. Let’s look a little bit deeper.

One of the strongest pull the game has is the instant gratification a player gets by being able to match like tiles and get them off the board. This provides an instant trigger of “Dopamine” making the brain feel good and wanting for more. What’s more, the simplicity of such a clear goal of matching two like tiles to get to the other obstructed tiles provides such an easy gameplay until, well, one can’t find anymore tiles to match.

Also, the game has a bite-sized gameplay option. A round usually only takes a few minutes (win or lose) and you can pause, save the game, and jump back at a later time to continue where you left off. Playing the game provides a continues flow as you will be busy looking for tile pairs and your mind will hardly have any time to wander.

The game can be played at your own pace and provide a relaxing and immersive experience to calm the mind and deal with stress. Whether you play to relax or challenge the clock, even if you lose, going another round is practically no hassle at all.

There are other reasons why a game such as Mahjong Solitaire or mahjong online thrives in today’s world of YouTube Shorts, with a lot of younger folks having an attention span as short as the clips themselves. Regardless, there will always be games that will continue to thrive and flourish despite all this. After all, playing solo with tiles is such a fun thing to do.