Vintage gaming community.
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My boyfriend and I play riichi mahjong via phone app (just called Richii Mahjong on the Play Store on Android) and it's solid. I know that's not exactly what you're looking for, but hope it works in a pinch!
I think there's "sexy" versions in the same way you can find porn poker or shape matching games, if that makes sense.
Honestly, that one’s pretty good. Three in the back seat and one in the passenger seat and they all get to play locally-networked riichi on long road trips.
Sorry, driver, no room for a fifth.
(Source: once landed daisangen while riding bitch)
I usually spend my time in MahjongDS, played through Delta on my phone. However, despite it being a really good mahjong game, it’s in Japanese only.
It never occurred to me that a con would have this, so I appreciate you mentioning it. I'm gonna keep an eye out for it at my local cons. I've played a ton of riichi mahjong digitally but very, very little with real tiles.
What I've seen when looking back is a lot of the retro games aren't in English. It's not a big deal once you're familiar with the game, but I definitely don't recommend that approach for beginners. Not retro (yet), Yakuza 0 was the game that got me started with riichi mahjong. It has the added benefit of being a way to make a little money for other stuff in the game.
The current game I play is Mahjong Soul. Super friendly to beginners. It has a cosmetics-only gacha, and sexy anime girls is very much the trend in gacha these days.