On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 11:33:55 -0700 (PDT), Joellen Messerli wrote:
Why are there four pins on a mahjong rack? We only use the top right one for the pusher.
Sorry that this comes such a long time after your original post. I'll
answer your query on the second paragraph below this one.
If I read your question correctly, those spikes, on the left hand side of
the racks used for playing American mahjong, are but a part of one of the
most disastrously designed contraptions humankind ever conceived. Those
vile hybrids of cheap plastic and metal, those abominable eyesores, should
not even exist! Why are these misshapen racks used, anyway, if not for
poorly designed tiles that should be able to stand on their own, but don't?
But I lost track of your question... those horrid brassy spikes stand
there, on the left of the already-mentioned, gruesome racks, to receive and contain chips which stand for money in the American versions of this game. These are coin-like, round chips that have a square perforation in the
middle. Those holes have been specifically placed there to accommodate
(more like impale) the chips on said spikes. The chips, or as many of them
as you have at a given moment of the game, are thus fixed on said spikes to prevent them from flying around, since they are 1) small, and 2) normally, today, made of the flimsiest of plastics, and are in constant danger of
flying all over the place.
But that is not the end of the hybrid nature of the racks. As you
mentioned, pushers are also a part of these unwieldy artifacts. Pushers are used to manipulate tiles that have been stacked in wall-like arrangement.
In all seriousness now: These rack things are bulky enough to take most of
the space within a typical American mahjong (or Mah-Jongg) case. They are
used by players of the NJML and Wright Patterson games in order to limit
and define their game area, hold and display tiles, hold the point chips or tokens, and also push a specific side of the wall towards the middle, as needed. However, whatevery their use or need, they are in BAD need of a redesign. Allow me an aside: I never understood why the American versions
of the game did not recover the proportions of Asian tiles, after the slenderization that the long intercontinental trip had imposed on said
tiles, during the early years of the American fad. This would make the need
for the rack-cum-chip-spikes-cum-pusher hybrid absolutely unnecessary.
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