The mah jong game is a game of Chinese origin that was brought to the West in the 1920s. The game is now popular all over the world and with the increasing accessibility of the Internet and online gaming, mahjong is now enjoyed worldwide by people of all genders and nationalities.
There are different variants of the mah jong game and their popularity is often dependent on where you find yourself in the world.
With the increasing popularity of the online mah jong game, it is now possible to come across a variety of these mah jong game variants and it is worthwhile to be familiar with the options that are available.
Classic Chinese Mah Jong Game
Classic Chinese mah jong is the variant of the game that originally came from China to the West. It is still available in its original form, but is no longer the most popular variant of the game.
Hong Kong Mah Jong Game
Hong Kong mah jong is the most popular variant of the mah jong game that is played today. Also known as Cantonese mah jong, this variant is similar to the classic mah jong game, but differs primarily in terms of scoring.
American Mah Jong Game
American mah jong has been standardized by the American Mah-Jongg Association and the National Mah Jongg League. This variant is known for its concept of a standard hand, the ability to form melds of five tiles or more, the Charleston, the use of a joker tile and its differences in terms of scoring.
Japanese Mah Jong Game
Japanese mah jong is a popular variant of the game that has been standardized in Japan. It differs from classic mah jong in terms of scoring and the rules of ready hands and bonus tiles.
Western Classical Mah Jong Game
Western classical mah jong is similar to the original classic Chinese mah jong game, although it is most popular in America.
Mah Jong Solitaire
Mah jong solitaire is a game that is played individually. The game is played with stacks of mah jong tiles in various layouts with the aim of the game to match two tiles together in order to eliminate them from the board.
In the classic mah jong solitaire game, the player wins if he eliminates all the tiles. A popular mah jong solitaire game is known as Mahjong Titans. It was developed by Oberon Games and is freely availably through Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Vista.
There are a number of different variations of the game of mah jong. The popularity of the games vary depending on where in the world you find yourself, although with the increasing growth of online mah jong games, more and more of these games are becoming accessible.
It is important to learn the nuances of the mah jong variant that you choose to play as slight differences in the rules of the game will affect the strategy that you use to play the specific game.