Cofa wrote:
>in 1999 in response to my concept of a world unified
>mahjong, someone had said: "IMO, /no/ amount of 'promotion,' in and of
>itself, will ever get the players of the 15 or 16 different major varieties
>of MJ to destroy the 'Tower Of MJ Babel' and join together in one unified
>way of playing." Everyone now knows this opinion has been beaten by the
>event of the World Championship In Mahjong 2002 held in Tokyo, and by the
>one who had said this opinion and participated in the event.


The players use those tournament rules to play in those tournaments. Then
when they go home they go back to playing according to the local custom. We
still aren't seeing local rules dying off in favor of a unified mah-jongg.