I’ve spent the past week lurking bridge message boards and reading a great deal of blog posts all dealing with current issues facing the game – and some possible solutions.
In the meantime, I have some questions of my own that might be relevant to the modern bridge world right now (and if you’ve wondered about the same things yourself, share your thoughts in the comments or get in touch).
Sometimes at 4AM, here are some of the bridge-related things I’ve wondered about.
Where’s all the bridge fiction at?
I love fiction, and I love bridge.
This means that I’d love to see the two of them combined a lot more often than they are. So, if you have an interesting story to tell, now might be the time to tell it.
Whether you’re a fan of horror, romance or science-fiction, could you see bridge weaving its way into your storyline? It could lead to a future of great fiction.
What are we going to do about cheaters?
I’m not asking what we’re going to do with cheaters, but what we’re going to do about them. If there’s one thing that threatens the longevity of serious bridge (and serious online bridge), it’s cheaters – and the effect backfires on honest people from honest clubs who just want to play bridge.
There’s some work left to do when it comes to ways to counter cheating, especially online, but other e-sports face the exact same challenge in many other games.
It’s a challenge I’m happy to consider more – until we have more viable solutions to the problem.
Why are we separating men and women in mind-sports?
Separating men and women in mind-sports seems, well, unnecessary – and when thought about enough times, it might even come across as offensive to both sides.
Men can be great at bridge, women can be great at bridge – or they can be terrible at it either way.
There’s no point in a gender-separation line existing within mind-sports, especially not online.
When are we seeing Bridge: The TV Show?
I’d love to see a TV show centering around a bridge club – with horror, murder, intrigue or romance mixed in. Something that would appeal to both bridge players and not, kind of in the same way as shows like CSI and Bones inspired an entire genre of others.
Will this ever happen? Damnit, Netflix, take the bait and come up with something.