Why did you start playing Hex

Answer these questions adding your name below.

• How did you become interested in Hex?

• Why did you decide to start pursuing it more seriously?

• Before you started playing Hex, having only heard about it, what did you think about it?

• Did it turn out to be anything like you expected it to?

• What could we do to make Hex more popular?

RBerenguel

• How did you become interested in Hex?

I use to play a lot of 9x9 go games in LittleGolem and one day I decided to try some different games. Hex was one of them. Also, having read A Beautiful Mind I thought the game may be interesting.

• Why did you decide to start pursuing it more seriously?

I used to be a bad loser (not anymore :) and wanted to improve my rating, then I found the simplicity and concept of the game very appealing

• Before you started playing Hex, having only heard about it, what did you think about it?

Another board game without any deepness or players.

• Did it turn out to be anything like you expected it to?

No way, it's a really deep game (not as deep as Go, but as nice) but with really simple rules. As Edward Lasker said, I think that if there exists other intelligent life forms, they may be playing Go or some connecting game like Hex.

• What could we do to make Hex more popular?

Playing with friends, letting people know something about it. Also, University clubs may be a great source of players in some situations.

Vintermann

• How did you become interested in Hex?

From Kris Burm's official GIPF site I found a link to boardspace.net, where Hex can also be played. I thought I ought to try it, since it had such an interesting history. I was hooked by

1. The well-developed strategies, but not yet developed enough that anyone would claim the best players lived 600 years ago - still much to be discovered!

2. The way Hex players talk openly about strategy, rather than keeping them as a "secret edge". Probably due to it's noble mathemathical origins.

3. The way Hex players are not at all condescending.

4. The way the game is so intense, and doesn't go on for hours (I prefer 11x11, and no more than 15x15)

• Why did you decide to start pursuing it more seriously?

Do I? All abstract games must be taken a little seriously to be fun. The curiosity and exploring nature of the Hex community makes it especially easy to take it seriously.

• Before you started playing Hex, having only heard about it, what did you think about it?

Hmmm, Piet Hein was a clever and fundamentally sympathetic man. As was John Nash, in many ways. I must try it.

• Did it turn out to be anything like you expected it to?

Yes, I think it did, actually. It's deep, and "beautiful" in the mathematical sense.

• What could we do to make Hex more popular?

Play it in public, start Hex clubs, write Hex columns for student newspapers ;-) Oh, and publish commented games played at a high level. Or even at a low one.