Is It Go Time? - Page 2

Okay, he just kicked my ass.

Official site: http://www.batoo.com/
Article on the recent game: http://www.youchanghyuk.com/news/vie...9662&gubun=all


If you go to the official site and go into the "Videos" section you can see videos of top pros playing each other in a game of Batoo in a very Starcraft-like setting, flashy graphics and even 2 commentators (both very well-known as commentators for Baduk TV; guy on the right is Kim Sung-Lyong 9p) on the game included.

So Batoo is basically the new Badook variant that's been becoming popular in Korea (particularly after Tygem began to get top Korean pros involved). It is VERY different from Badook and what's very interesting about Batoo before I even bring up how gameplay mechanics work is just the site. One thing you may notice is that it has a very MMORPG feel to it and I think that it can perhaps attract more of the gamer and the youth crowd, easier to do in Korea since MMORPGs are very popular there.

So here are the basic jist of the Batoo rules:

*Batoo is played on an 11x11 board.

*There is a scoreboard at the top that keeps score throughout the game (byoyomi is also shown at the top as well). Aside from the obvious where territory gets counted at the end of the game, here are other ways you get points:

1) Make a move, +1.
2) If you lose a byoyomi period, -2.
3) If you occupy a 3-3 point, -5 (4 of them). These are minus zones.
4) If you occupy the 1-6 or 6-1 points, +5 (4 of them). These are plus zones.

* At the beginning of the game you play 3 moves to start the game up. So there's 6 stones already placed to kick things off. You can't see where your opponent's 3 stones are until after both sides have set up their bases fully. This is called "building a base"...*cough* Starcraft /cough.

*There is also "Turn Betting" which occurs before the game starts. I'll try to clarify this later (it's a bit confusing for me), but what the basic jist of it is that both players bet a certain number of points. Whoever bets the higher amount gives that many points to the other player but as compensation gets to go first. There is no "komi" system and Black does not necessarily always go first due to this rule. I anticipate that this is a rule that brings into account the possible starting bases that are built where one side may be in a drastically worse situation than another.

1) If you and your opponent occupy the same point during the base building stage, neither players take that point and instead it becomes a minus zone.

*What's most interesting about Batoo are the "Hidden" and "Scan" features.

1) The Hidden feature speaks for itself, you play a move that your opponent cannot see. It remains invisible throughout the game (until it gets captured, you end up playing on it, or you play a move that captures something else that couldn't be done without the hidden stone. You can only use the hidden feature once, and it takes up a turn. If you bump into your opponent's hidden stone, you don't lose your turn.

2) The Scan feature also kind of speaks for itself, you play on an intersection to scan for a hidden stone. This does not take up a turn (so you can play a stone on the same turn you use scan).