Playing together

Several of the terminal's games are played by two people, each on their own device: Tac-o-Tac, Backgammon, Bizz-Billes, Problèmes and the Quizmaster. A phone against a computer, an iPad against a television: the two devices need be neither the same, nor in the same room.

Two ways to find each other

The code. Whoever opens the game is given six letters. They say them to their friend, who types them in at home, and the game begins. Six letters can be said over the phone, written in a message, and do not outlive the game. There is no invitation, no friends list, and no notification to accept.

Matchmaking. To play right away against someone you do not know: you ask for a game, and you sit down as soon as another person asks for the same one. The waiting screen tells you how many players are ahead of you.

It works without an account

Playing head to head asks for no account, no address and no password. That is the terminal's promise from the first day, and it holds online too: your device introduces itself with a number drawn at random, which serves only to give you your seat back if the network cuts out mid-game.

With an account, you carry your own name. The name you chose then appears on your opponent's screen, in place of the period nicknames the terminal hands out otherwise. It is never declared by the device: the service goes and looks up who the session belongs to, so that nobody can pass themselves off as someone else.

Offline, the nicknames stay. Two people sitting on the same couch have no reason to introduce themselves.

Your recent games

The Social tile in the menu keeps your recent online games: the game, and your opponent's name. Nothing else — not the score, not the moves, not the length. It is a memory for saying “we played backgammon that time”, not a log.

It follows you from one device to another, since it belongs to the account and not to the machine.

What the service does not know

The service that relays the games does not know what a die is. It passes moves from one device to the other without reading them: it is the two terminals that play, from one shared starting draw. There is therefore no game on our servers, and nothing to keep there once the last person has left.

See also: the grand masters' club, and the privacy policy.